Penn Pike miss second deadline from Governor for response to Feds on I-80 tolling

Turnpike officials said they couldn't make the deadline of Friday (5/24) set by Gov Ed Rendell for completing their part of the state's submission to FHWA on the application to toll I-80. They blame the state DOT for spending six weeks reviewing a Turnpike draft.

The Governor has now set two deadlines that the Turnpike has missed.

A legislative official said: "They (the Turnpike Commission) are just thumbing their nose at the Governor. There isn't any other turnpike (authority) in the country that treats their governor with such total contempt as this Commission. They don't answer to anyone. I'm not sure they are ever going to complete this re-application."

Hyperbole perhaps, but clearly the Commission has a strong incentive to string out the I-80 decision process. So long as legislators think there is a chance that the Feds may allow tolling of I-80 they will be reluctant to deal with the Governor's request to pass enabling legislation need to implement the Abertis/Citi concession of the Turnpike.

The Feds raised about a dozen questions in a letter to PennDOT and the Turnpike Commission December 13 last year - over five months ago.

Gov Rendell has said he has asked US sec transport Mary Peters for an expedited decision as soon as she receives the state response, or 're-application' as some term it. Federal consideration of the decision is thought likely to take several weeks.

The Abertis/Citi offer of $12.8b is formally binding only until June 20, but the Governor and the concessionaire have both said they can extend it so long as the legislature is seriously considering enabling legislation.

TOLLROADSnews 2008-05-24