tolling I-80

Marcus J Lemon chief counsel at FHWA through 2008 says he and other federal officials repeatedly told their counterparts at the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission they needed more substantial and impartial consulting studies to justify a federal permit to toll I-80.

Two years after their first shot at getting the Feds to approve tolling I-80 at points across the state the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and PennDOT are trying again. They say they should have the formal application including supporting studies ready for the Feds by late this fall.

Some hope the Obama administration will be more sympathetic than the Bush administration.

Wyoming is moving to toll I-80, the only interstate which spans the state from east to west. Parsons Brinckerhoff were recently asked by Wyoming DOT (WYDOT) to continue their engineering and toll studies.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) has filed an Addendum to their July 17 application for federal permission to toll I-80. The new papers report on meetings with local planning officials and the public along the route of the interstate. They also contain some interesting presentations and study work. But from what we're hearing here in the Washington DC area it's too late. The answer will be No - see the end of this report.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission now says that more than 70% of cars traveling on I-80 won't pay a toll. The first version of the plan yesterday said that more than a third of passenger car trips would be free. That was apparently a writing mistake at the Commission.

There will be about one toll point on the mainline of I-80 approximately every 56km (35 miles) - 501/9, 311/9.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is looking to levy a toll in nine zones along I-80 and to provide a first free toll pass to car drivers equipped with a transponder. Within each of the nine zones (see yellow stretches on 2-part map at bottom) the Commission is now comparing two to four alternative points in order to select one point in each zone for a total of nine toll points along the 501km (311 miles) of the highway between the Ohio and New Jersey borders.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) in their long-awaited second shot at getting US permission to toll I-80 have come up with an ingenious new argument about how it qualifies for a federal Yes.

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 leading New Jersey legislator Senator Ray Lesniak says he's pushing a plan to boost toll revenues in the state to support what he calls "absolutely necessary" transport improvements. The plan involves two 50% hikes in tolls, one immediately and the other in five years time.

Timothy Carson vice chairman of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission says that they are producing a "very robust plan" including detailed commitments to plow toll revenues on I-80 back into the road in order to persuade the Feds to give the green light to tolling the presently free interstate.