Posted on 08/23/2007 1:55:20 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The plan to convert the 311-mile-long Interstate-80 into a toll road is part of Act 44 in Pennsylvania.
Overall, the legislation generates a huge amount of money to accomplish a wide range of bridge and road improvements, including those on Pennsylvania's interstates, the turnpike and secondary highways.
Those projects will be funded with borrowed money that will be repaid by tolls on I-80 and the turnpike. Tolls on the 530-mile long turnpike will be increased by 25 percent in 2009 and 3 percent each successive year. The same tolls charged on the turnpike will be charged on I-80.
Specifically, Act 44 authorizes PennDOT to lease I-80 to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to operate, maintain and improve the highway under a 50-year lease agreement. There would be 10 electronic toll booths installed along the highway.
Joseph Brimmeier, CEO of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, outlined how it will work.
* The proposal provides an average of $945 million each year for the next 12 years for highway and bridge repairs across the state. It will also help Pennsylvania's 73 transit systems.
* It will raise about $1 billion a year over the 50-year life of the agreement that allows the Turnpike Commission to take over I-80.
* For the first time ever, said Brimmeier, the budget solution "establishes an inflation-resistant, long-term funding stream to solve Pennsylvania's transportation funding crisis."
* It immediately gives enough money to speed up critical highway and bridge projects across the state's northern tier.
* It ensures public management of Pennsylvania's infrastructure, as opposed to selling off parts to private corporations, and guarantees there is significant capital investment in the state's transportation network.
* More than 50 percent of the monies raised will be earmarked for roads and bridges. Less than that will go to public transit systems in 73 communities across Pennsylvania.
* All toll revenue from I-80 will be re-invested in that specific highway as well as state and local roads and bridges in the I-80 corridor.
Interstate 80, opened in segments between 1960 and 1970, is a transcontinental highway extending from New York to San Francisco across 11 states. I-80 is presently tolled in Ohio and Indiana.
In Pennsylvania, the 311-mile I-80 runs from Ohio to New Jersey. It is a four-lane divided highway with 58 interchanges and 425 bridges.
Throwing the taxpayers money into another rathole isn’t the answer. Despite the glowing list, you know and I know that money is going to the third world savages in Philly and Pittsburgh.
Looking forward to the day when I can vote with my feet.
Doesn’t sound good at all.
SEPTA Slush Fund Alert!
You beat me to it so I just posted #3.
Gee, just less than half goes to the Socialist cesspools that now pretty much control Pa politics. Great job.
PING!
I'm from Maryland, by the way, but I take an interest in road-related issues in the US. Good luck on your pending exodus from PA.
Thought the Interstate was federally controlled ....
The last 3 federal transportation acts make this perfectly legal. It’s the wave of the future.
Do Ohio and Indiana take money generated from the I-80 tolls and give it to local communities for their public transit systems?
Indiana sold (long term lease)their toll road.
No, the Interstate system is owned by the states, DC, and Puerto Rico (There are three unsigned interstates in PR). Federal money is granted to the states to build a portion of it (Chargeable interstates), other portions are built out of state funds only (non-chargeable interstates).
The US government owns one bridge in Washington, DC only.
Aside from a few notable exceptions (Interstate 99, the Bud Shuster vanity road) the designation of roads in the system is controlled by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO).
Yes, I’m a Road Geek.
Indiana still owns the road, they hired someone else to maintain and operate it for the next 50 years.
Wow! a 25% increase on the most expensive road in the nation. This state is beyond comprehension. These roads need to be boycotted!
If I remember my history (but sure it has changed) President Eisenhower initiated the Interstate system based on what he saw in Germany after WWII ... so now I guess it’s the states that control it and can do what they want which I think is not what he had intended ....
“inflation proof” should read....”and we will charge more and more each each as we see fit to keep our coffers full”.....
Not that I know of. The claim is that I-80 tolls in PA will be spend on I-80 and surrounding roads, anyhow.
It’s actually a 75-year lease.
There's apparently another oddball-numbered interstate being considered: Interstate 3 (named after 3rd Infantry Division, IIRC). It will run from Savannah, GA to near Knoxville, TN. There is already opposition growing (because if it's built, we're doooooooooooooooooooomed).
But I-3 is not written into legislation, unlike the Infamous I-99. If it gets built it might be a Southern I-93 or I-87 which would fit into the grid and be approved by AASHTO.
I’m not rational when it comes to I-99 and don’t even get me started on I-238...
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