pennsylvania turnpike

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission says it only owes the state DOT (PennDOT) $450m this year but PennDOT says it must turn over $922m. The dispute pits Turnpike CEO Joe Brimmeier against Allen Biehler, state secretary of transportation. It is unclear where Governor Ed Rendell stands on the issue.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) appears to be working to rid itself of its bad actors according to a couple of PTC watchers. Two people speaking off the record today independently said they think CEO Joe Brimmeier and the Turnpike Inspector General Anthony Maniscola are working to remove thieving employees, and generally to "clean up" the country's oldest public turnpike.  

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission recently fired Mike Haney, director of maintenance for alleged theft of services. He is said by one of our informants to have had Turnpike contractors do blacktop and roofing work on his personal house, but we don't have any corroboration of that.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has approved toll rates for 2011 that align them with many others in providing a discount for transponder tolls as compared to cash payments. Tolls paid via an E-ZPass transponder account will rise 3% while cash tolls go up 10% January 2, 2011. Collecting a cash toll costs substantially more than a transponder toll (typically 30c or so v 10c).

Say it clearly three times, getting quicker each time: Ac-cel-er-ated Re-hab-il-it-a-tive Dis-pos-ition, Accelerated Rehab-il-itative Dis-position, Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition.

Ok, if you said it without stumbling or getting tongue-tied on the third, the fast shot, you're off free.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike is promoting safety breaks at its busiest service plazas - Allentown on the NE Extension and Sideling Hill on the mainline 10am to 1pm Friday June 11.

The Turnpike has safety officers propagandizing against 'distracted driving' and overlong journeys at the wheel. They'll be handing out materials and giving little talks to motorists about not using mobile phones while driving, and other safer driving practices.

George M Hatalowich, the Pennsylvania Turnpike's number two and chief operating officer (COO) is due in magistrate's court in Hummesltown PA May 26 on three drunk driving charges. A court officer there confirmed to us that a police complaint against him had been received, saying Hatalowich had been charged with two counts of Driving Under the Influence (DUI) and one count of careless driving April 5.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission recently dismissed Joe Soriano, a senior maintenance director who worked out of the District 4 Turnpike maintenance shed facility in Plymouth PA. No official reason has been given but he is said by people familiar with the case to have had a personal 'racing car' in the shop and is accused of having used Turnpike time and employees to work on it.

He is also accused of having threatened staff with dismissal if they used the 'tip line' to the Turnpike's Inspector-General's Office.

Apparently someone disregarded that order.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike has contracted for an upgrade to monitoring and signage at several of its mountain tunnels. The job involves 15 in-tunnel CCTV cameras, fiber and wireless communications, 22 variable message signs and arrow boards and an internet protocol (IP) management system at the Harrisburg PA headquarters.

The contract price is $8.6m.

The state auditor-general in Pennsylvania, Jack Wagner has criticized the Turnpike for "gambling" with $2.23 billion variable interest rate debt tied to 26 different interest rate swaps. He said his office calculated the cost to terminate the swaps could be $146m - the equivalent of around three months toll revenues.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission says its new Office of Inspector General (OIG) had 32 employees fired, and saved it more than $1 million following 138 investigations of wrongdoing during the office's first year.

Fired Pennsylvania Turnpike chairman Mitchell Rubin has agreed to repay the state senate $150k he received in no-work contracts and to serve six months house arrest and 4.5 years probation. He pled guilty to an obstruction of justice charge.

In US court documents filed today prosecutors say during months of talks he made differing and contradictory claims about his role for five years getting $30k/year on the payroll by his patron then-senator Vincent Fumo.

The US Attorney's office in Philadelphia this morning formally charged Mitchell Rubin with a single obstruction of justice count in line with reports that he has been cooperating with the Feds to help them dig deeper into corruption at the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

A Philadelphia Inquirer report this morning quotes recently resigned Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission vice-chairman Timothy Carson as saying that after his second drunken driving (DUI) conviction in 2006 he spent five days in an alcohol treatment program in place of jail time.

A Pennsylvania Turnpike official tells us that recently resigned vice-chairman Timothy Carson got a Turnpike Commission employee as a chauffeur after his second alcohol driving (DUI) conviction in 2006. The official who asked not to be named told us it was common knowledge that Miriam 'Mimi' Lindelow, officially a Turnpike marketing/community relations officer, spent much of her time driving Carson places in his Turnpike vehicle.

Tim Carson, former Pennsylvania Turnpike vice-chairman has told the Philadelphia Business Journal that his leaving law firm Saul Ewing LLP (SE) was nothing to do with his standing down from the Turnpike which he said was on account of 'driving under the influence'  (DUI) of alcohol incidents in 2003 and 2006.

Lunchtime today was the deadline for engineering firms wanting work at the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission on the I-80 Toll Conversion Project. The RFP (Reference # 6-006)is for four open end contracts for engineering design services to enable the tolling of I-80. A 4-page document it is signed by Allen Biehler, chairman.

Timothy Carson who resigned his position of vice-chairman of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission yesterday citing failure to report driving under the influence (DUI) incidents in 2003 and 2006 quietly had his relationship ended with his main employer Saul Ewing LLP January 1, the Philadelphia law firm says.

Spokesman for Saul Ewing, Leslie Gross told us she cannot speak to the reasons for the termination, or which side initiated it - was he fired or did he flee?

Timothy Carson, vice-chairman of the Pennsylvania Turnpike has released a long resignation letter he's written to Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell in which he cites drunk driving incidents in 2003 and 2006 and his failure to report them as reasons for his leaving. No one was injured in either accident and Carson says he paid for the damage to his Turnpike-issued vehicle out of his own pocket.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is getting a bum rap on one of the counts against it in the sensational lawsuit (see http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/4553) by Ralph Bailets, the Turnpike's former financial manager - the progressive volume discounts for truckers for E-ZPass.  Bailets' view of the trucker discounts looks to be a narrow accountant's perspective on what is a more complex, mutually