Posted on 05/20/2008 3:18:32 AM PDT by Man50D
Stretching through the rural countryside with limited access and no speed limit in 1940, the Pennsylvania Turnpike was built to resemble Germany's autobahn. Now thanks to a $12.8 billion dollar offer, it may soon become Spain's.
According to a report in the Philadelphia Daily News, Gov. Ed Rendell has announced that Abertis Infraestructuras of Barcelona has offered the top dollar bid to the state of Pennsylvania for the rights to manage the toll road under a 75-year lease.
The highway could become just the latest in a string of U.S. infrastructure landmarks to be operated by foreign companies.
In 2004, management of the Chicago Skyway, a stretch of elevated road connecting I-90 and I-94, was granted to Cintra, another Spanish operation that outbid Abertis at $1.83 billion. Abertis lost out to Cintra again when the Indiana Toll Road was taken over in 2006 for $3.8 billion.
This time, Abertis beat out Cintra and other firms, hoping to add the Pennsylvania Turnpike to its list of operations including toll roads in Spain, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Chile, Colombia and Argentina. Abertis also operates airports, including the airports in Orlando, Fla.; Burbank, Calif.; and one concourse of the Atlanta airport.
Even though the controversial Dubai ports deal was squashed by public outcry in 2006, foreign firms have nonetheless purchased long-term leases on other American transportation networks.
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
It’s not the same America it was when I was growing up, that is for sure.
Why not? It’s not like there is a war going on. /s
Spain finds gold in the Americas again.
Yeah...sucks when the Spanish know how to do kickbacks better than the crooks in Pa., not like they don’t have enough practice!
Did you expect it to be?
It’s not Spain running the highway, it’s a private company owned by Spaniards. We had the same phenomenon of foreign investment in our railroad infrastructure. It’s not as if the Spanish company could pull up the road and move it to Bangladesh.
Well, they couldn’t do a worse job of running it, could they?
If they manage to complete one, just one construction project, then that would be an improvement, wouldn’t it?
I don’t think the current management has done that much in the last 30 years or so.
Remember a while back when people were trapped on the turnpike for hours because of snow?
That’s logic and reason! There’s no place in this thread for that sort of thing! I hereby order you to undergo knee-jerk reactionary training right now! ;)
This is not to say that this is in anything like our best interests, or that the Administration is serving the country well by smiling on this kind of stuff and going around to state governments to encourage them to do this kind of thing.
But the push is on from private capital to take over and strip-mine government cash flows of all kinds, all over the world, and the investment banks in New York are at the heart of it.
You Christian conservatives, the keywords "Esau" and "mess of pottage" will trigger the right associations for you.
I don’t like tolls.
Actually, if I recall correctly, that was I-78, a non-toll road. But that's a excellent point, there was a massive screw-up, and a bad weather situation was made much, much worse by incompetent state employees.
Selling our future to pay for the welfare state. Wonder how much Arnold will get for the CA lottery?
At least we let them run one of the worst roads in the country. Can we blame the Spaniards for the awful condition?
I don’t like tolls
Yes, all roads should be free. After all, how much can it cost to maintain a road. Somebody else should pay the bill, certainly not the people who use them.
I see that WorldNetDaily cannot distinguish between a private company and a nation state.
Can many FReepers? Let’s see.
If it was up to me I’d get the $12.8 billion dollars and then give the Spaniards 3 days to move the turnpike back to Spain. Then I’d build a road where the turnpike used to be.
How is that? It's a lease. I'm neither here nor there on this story, but I guess "privatization" is a good thing only when it's spelled in English.
About I-80: I remember this being a monotonous stretch of concrete that had spine-jarring bumps about every 75 feet because the concrete pads settled. Truckers hated it.
While it is, in a few key places, very scenic, in most, it's oppressively boring.
And as far as it being "built to resemble Germany's Autobahn," I suspect the reporter is smoking crack on that one, or talking to people who are. It's a freaking interstate highway. It was designed and built by people with pocket-protectors, not artists from Chelsea.
Only other consideration: interstate highways are a strategic defense asset.
What is your point?
Ooo snap.
Well, they did manage to cave into the toll collector's union so they now make more than $25/hour plus a full benefit package for sitting in a booth and making change.
the Pennsylvania Turnpike is our “heritage and identity”??
Agree wholeheartedly.
In fact, I can't understand all the angst from people who complain when foreigners invest big bucks in America, on real estate and business.
I would MUCH rather we use their money than if the US were to send billions in capital overseas.
Same with the Chinese $$. They will be much more docile knowing that we have THEIR money and could tell them to pound sand if they push too hard.
In the reverse, if the US sent our capital to China (or where ever), they would be more likely to screw with us knowing they could just default and keep our money anytime they felt like it.
i don’t care if another country owns a freeway,
afterall, where would we be if we did not own businesses
abroad?
but, cintra is a bad company. they had a piece of the
91 freeway in socal and were charging $2.90 a mile during peak hours, until the
state of california forced a buy out.
Some years ago, I visited a vendor in Easton and got caught in a traffic jam on the return drive, nothing to do with weather as it was a clear summer day.
The design of the I-78 extension is very bad-- limited number of exits to discourage people from getting off once they are on and taking any of the numerous local roads to avoid the tolls.
The day we were caught was due to a jackknifed truck about two miles ahead-- those fortunate enough to have not been trapped in the previous exist about 8 miles behind were wooshing by us on a parallel local road until the truck got cleared.
I don't know what made the trucker jacknife on a clear summer day, but I do have to observe we have an awfully lot of multicultural types driving big rigs on the PA Turnpikes, some of whom should not be driving Honda Civics in parking lots.
Fast Eddie’s legacy to the fine people of Pennsylvania.
Cintras (of Spain) has been buying up rights for years. Guiliani’s firm has been representing them for years.
Exactly.
With people now yammering for cutting or even eliminating gasoline taxes, look for most interstates to be converted to toll roads managed by private investors. Where else will the repair and widening money come from?
I remember all the wailing and gnashing of teeth when the Japanese were buying up real estate, especially when they bought Rockefeller Center. Fast forward ten years and they sold it for a loss, looking like rubes who got taken by the big city folks.
“I don’t like tolls.”
Then you must like gasoline taxes. How else will these things be paid for?
Yup.
This sort of crap is happening all over America.
And one of the lessons of history is:
If you control the roads, you control the people.
No. The Northeast Extension is I-476. I-78 is not a toll road, but it is a terrible excuse for a highway. It does take a toll on your tires, your suspension, and your sanity, however. It is one of the reasons Pennsylvania is a perpetual frontrunner for the dishonor of having the worst roads in the country, according to truckers.
The PA Turnpike has been little more than a political graft and patronage mill for decades. They should just get rid of the tolls. But all Rendell is doing is removing the facade that the tolls are about maintaining the highway.
“I-78 (NJ line to Harrisburg) is a toll road. It is also called the northeast extension of the PA Turnpike.”
Wrong.
The Northeast Extension of the Pa Turnpike runs north-south from Philadelphia to Scranton. It’s I476. I78 is a different road running east-west and it’s not a toll road.
I prefer gas taxes. The amount of graft associated with the PA Turnpike Commission is staggering. You have to be politically-connected just to get a job as a toll collector, for example. Much of the tolls collected go towards building useless spurs of the turnpike that are not needed.
The last thing our politicans in Harrisburg need is a large pile of money, upfront, for them to piss away and furter burden us with debt.
I am opposed to the turnpike lease on this principal. The gov’t can not be trusted with large sums of money.
They should remove the Turnpike tolls and tollbooths, figure out the gas tax needed to support the highway infrastructure, and then be done with it. But gas taxes carry some level of accountability. Tolls are a great way to get a big slushy fund for political whoopie. Leasing the Turnpike just takes that to another level.
Might as well. All the signs in this country are being made in Spanish anyway.
Is this how it is going to work: Fast Eddie gets 12 billion now to spend like a typical drunken Democrat, and we (and future administrations) will be paying for his orgy for the next 75 years?
Tolls and gasoline taxes both are user taxes. Those who use the roads, either directly or indirectly, pay the taxes. For example, we all know that part of the price of milk at the grocery store is the cost of transporting the milk, which includes tolls and gas taxes.
The trouble with gasoline taxes is that it is difficult to assign the revenue to the specific roads that generate them. The best that could be done is by proportioning them by known traffic volumes- but that still doesn’t account for heavier vehicles and other unknowns.
The other problem is that the Pennsylvania Turnpike was not built with gasoline tax revenue or with general state funds. Like many other states at the time, Pennsylvania established an Authority that raised funds for the road by selling bonds. Rather than increasing the gasoline tax statewide to pay off the bonds (a notion that would not have gone over favorably in Scranton or Erie), they installed toll booths. This took the guess work out of determining which portion of the gasoline taxes should pay off the bonds.
When it comes to expansion (widening, extensions, spurs, etc), turnpike authorities use the toll revenue of the existing road to finance the work. They are supposed to do that only if the proposed expansion will increase use (and thus toll revenue) enough to pay for the work.
It sounds like you have an issue with toll road management- a valid point indeed. Poor planning and cronyism are common in union/government agencies. I have issues with law makers raiding gas tax revenues to pay for non-transportation pork. The solution seems to be to get the money and the jobs as far from the politicians as possible. To me that means a tolled facility operated by a private entity interested in turning a profit for its investors.
Actually, the Interstates were built with that in mind. Wikipedia's page on the system has a very short history. Though the PA TPK was built before the act was passed, it was built with the intention of being part of the system. Many of the long, straioght, level sections were built that way with the thought of useing them as runways for military aircraft.
That may be true but, as I think about it, this may not be a part of that.
1. PA probably needs the dough to take care of all of Bush’s illegals’ medical and welfare bills.
2. With gas prices going through the roof, will there be more or less traffic on the pike? Probably less.
3. It’s not like the Spaniards can take the turnpike home with them if the deal goes sour. The Rockefellers pulled that on with the Japanese back in the 70s, selling them Rockefeller Center then buying it back for cents on the “dollar” later.
We have REAL problems to worry about (can you say “Obama” and “Osama”?) but I don’t think this is one of them.
When heading east, I've actually calculated that US 30 is 10 miles shorter than the turnpike as far as Breezewood and only 20 minutes longer.
Couple that with the fact that you don't have to compete with tractor-trailers (usually), ruts and patchwork and the $5.25 savings looks even better.
You are making far too much sense for most of the people on this site. :)
“Even though the controversial Dubai ports deal was squashed by public outcry in 2006, foreign firms have nonetheless purchased long-term leases on other American transportation networks.”
Liquidation is the term used when an individual or entity begins selling off assets to meet current expenses.
More direct American tax monies being sent overseas. There ought to be a law. This is taxation without representation.
I was one of them — waaayy back in 1962. Left Fort Belvoir, VA one Friday around 2 pm in November for Cleveland, OH to get married. Arrived at 3 pm SATURDAY. The normally 7 to 8 hour trip took 25 hours, a total of 6 of which were spent sitting on the turnpike with the engine idling or off due to accidents or white-out conditions. Average speed for the 380 mile trip? 15 MPH. The rest stops were disaster zones with jackknifed trucks blocking the entrances, the lots FULL and the windows of the restaurants completely fogged from all the humanity huddled inside trying to get food and drink. In a few instances, I resorted to eating falling snowflakes — which in some spots were as big as pillows — for water. I lucked out even finding a service plaza for gas when I needed it.
This was long before cell phones and when I arrived in Cleveland, my family rushed me as they thought I’d been killed.
Struggling to the house, I fell into a huge snowdrift and had to be helped out.
Been married to the same wonderful lady since then.
(PA's Rendell pulls a RINORickGoodhairPerry...)
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