Hartford - A bill that would authorize the state Department of Transportation to set up toll booths on a future extension of Route 11 to help pay a portion of the proposed $900 million project passed the state House of Representatives early Thursday morning.

Legislators voted 76-60 in favor of the bill, which was introduced and defended for more than two hours on the House floor by Rep. Ed Jutila, D-East Lyme. It now goes to the Senate.

Decades-long efforts to complete the final 8 ½ miles of Route 11 were revived last month by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, who announced $4.4 million in federal funds and $600,000 in matching state dollars for additional environmental and cost studies. The studies, however, could take 2 ½ years to complete.

One study will examine the possibility of tolls as a funding mechanism and suggest how much Route 11 drivers should pay. Jutila said the purpose of the bill that passed the House is to give state officials authority to pursue the toll booth option if it is deemed practical.

The tolls would apply to only the new part of Route 11 that would connect with Interstate 95 in Waterford. They would be temporary and discontinued once the construction bonds are paid off.

"It's simply a mechanism to put another tool in the DOT's toolbox as it's developing a financing plan," Jutila said.

Republicans as a whole were opposed to the bill, which would establish the first toll road in Connecticut since 1988.

"Another word for tolls is tax," said Rep. Lawrence Miller, R-Stratford.

House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero, R-Norwalk, said he couldn't support the bill without knowing the type of toll booths, their exact location on Route 11 and, most crucially, whether the extension project would ever get built.

"We don't even know what kind of tolls they're going to have," Cafero said. "Are they going to have the EZ Pass tolls or the throw-it-in-the-bucket tolls?"

The GOP leader also questioned whether the four-lane highway extension is worth its latest $900 million price tag, which includes refurbishing the interchange at the intersection of Interstates 95 and 395. "That's a lot of dough for 8 ½ miles," he said.

Jutila said the federal government is expected to pick up 80 percent of project costs. He called the extension necessary for safety, for reining in suburban sprawl, and for supporting economic development in southeastern Connecticut.

Route 11 now ends in Salem and detours traffic to Route 85 via Route 82, both narrower roads. Jutila said he's counted 16 fatalities on Route 85 since the Route 11 project first stalled in the 1970s.

Rep. Chris Coutu, R-Norwich, spoke in favor of an unsuccessful Republican amendment that would have scrapped the tolls plan and launched an additional round of Route 11 cost studies, including a study about tolls.

"We need to think these things through a little more with feasibility studies before we decide on something like a toll," Coutu said.

But Jutila disagreed. He said that the GOP's proposed studies would be redundant to studies that will soon be underway thanks to the governor and congressman Courtney.

"We've had a lot of studies," Jutila said. "The people of southeastern Connecticut also want to see some action."