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Federal queries may halt toll plan for Interstate 80

Federal queries may halt toll plan for Interstate 80

HARRISBURG -- Pennsylvania's campaign to place first-time tolls on Interstate 80 hit a pothole yesterday, when a federal agency sent a laundry list of questions that must be answered before the application proceeds.

But exactly how deep and wide the pothole is depends on whom you talk to. Opponents of the proposed tolls, including numerous politicians from northwestern and north central Pennsylvania, were optimistic that the questions could seriously delay or even kill the tolling plan.

But Turnpike Executive Director Joseph Brimmeier wasn't losing his cool. He sounded certain he can supply the necessary information to satisfy the Federal Highway Administration and keep the application on track.

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The state doesn't expect to activate the I-80 tolls until 2011, so there is time to amend the application.

The bill authorizing the program, Act 44, calls for increases in turnpike tolls in 2009 and each year thereafter, plus tolls on I-80, to raise nearly $1 billion a year for needed repairs to hundreds of miles of state highways and 6,000 ailing bridges, and provide financial help to mass transit agencies, especially the Allegheny County Port Authority and SEPTA in Philadelphia.

But officials and residents of northern Pennsylvania, through which I-80 runs from New Jersey to Ohio, think they are being unfairly burdened to pay for transportation repairs in other parts of the state.

U.S. Reps. John Peterson R-Venango, and Phil English, R-Erie, have joined with several Republican state senators from the I-80 area to urge the federal officials to reject the state's toll application, which was filed in October.

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The FHWA hasn't acted yet, but this week it did send the Turnpike Commission a detailed list of questions about what it plans to do.

Mr. Peterson said the FHWA letter "didn't come as a surprise to me." He said that if the Turnpike Commission answers the questions truthfully, "there's little chance of them securing tolling approval. Our state leaders must go back to the drawing board, as this hastily passed tolling scheme appears to be all but flat-lined."

He prefers Mr. Rendell's original idea for raising transportation funds -- leasing the turnpike to a private firm for $1.7 billion a year over 99 years.

Also pleased with the FHWA letter was state Sen. Jake Corman, R-Centre, who said that I-80 tolls "will hurt commuters who drive on I-80 and have a devastating impact on local economies."

First Published: December 14, 2007, 5:00 a.m.

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