News

September 12, 2007

Proposed I-80 tolls addressed at meeting

Some question what impact costs will have on trucking industry, local manufacturing.

JEREMY GRAD Times Leader Correspondent

Traversing Interstate 80 through Pennsylvania may soon become much more expensive. And the cost may trickle down to neighboring communities, officials said.

A plan to install 10 toll-collecting stations along I-80 could go into effect as early as October.

Joseph Brimmeier, chief executive officer of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, said the increasing costs are necessary to address a “transportation funding crisis that exists in Pennsylvania.”

“All the money collected is going to the maintenance of road and bridges,” Brimmeier said at a public meeting organized by Mountain Top on the Move, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization. The meeting was held in the auditorium of Crestwood High School on Tuesday night.

Gene Haverlak is a founding member of MTOM and voiced his opinion that the tolls should not go into effect before the meeting convened.

“We’re looking at trucking cost increasing $400 round-trip,” Haverlak said. “What will that do to every manufacturing job in the area? Nobody knows.”

Brimmeier noted the alternative to installing tolling stations on I-80 is to increase the gasoline tax by 22 cents per gallon minimum.

The tolling of I-80 has already been approved by the Pennsylvania Legislature, and Gov. Ed Rendell has signed the bill – commonly known as Act 44.

Act 44 allows for the lease of I-80 and other interstates in the state to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

On Aug. 7, an initial payment of $62.5 million was delivered by the PTC to the commonwealth. The lease calls for the PTC to pay the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation $83.5 billion over a 50-year span – an average of $1.7 billion per fiscal year.

The agreement, however, is not a done deal. The Federal Highway Administration must approve the lease by Oct. 15.

Jordan Clark, chief of staff for U.S. Rep. John E. Peterson, was present at the meeting and called the lease and toll plan an “economic disaster.”

“Is this good for the economic future and present of Pennsylvania?” Clark asked.

Speaking directly about the FHWA’s upcoming decision to approve or deny the lease and tolling agreement, Clark said Peterson’s office is doing everything it can to prevent federal approval of the lease.

If the new tolls go into effect, crossing the commonwealth on I-80 one-way in a car will cost approximately $22 according to PTC documents, and one-way truck travel across I-80 in Pennsylvania will range from $150 to $175 depending on the classification of the vehicle.

“State Sen. Lisa Baker attended the meeting and noted that she voted against the measure in the Legislature.

Although Baker noted that the plan does have some benefits, she said she did not think the plan did enough to benefit her constituents in rural communities. Baker went on to ask what would happen to the PTC toll and lease plan of I-80 if the FHWA did not give approval in the specified timeframe.

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