Pa. Turnpike responds to FHWA request

In another effort to gain federal approval to toll I-80, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission revealed a plan on how it would use the money generated for some much-needed improvements on the route.

The report called for resurfacing 80% of the interstate and replacing half of its pavement, some of which is 50 years old. Officials also proposed replacing 60 bridges within the first 10 years. Tolls would allow the commission to spend $250 million a year for a decade to fix the vast array of problems.

“PennDOT has done an admirable job managing resources and repairing the surface,” Commission CEO Joe Brimmeier told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “But the bottom line is that we need to rebuild I-80, and PennDOT cannot provide the funding for this effort.”

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, however, has been criticized for moving too slowly during the tolling application process. The Federal Highway Administration sent back the initial application to toll I-80 back in December and requested specifics. FHWA will award one more tolling project from its pilot program. Virginia and Missouri received the first two.

“You’re talking almost seven months that they’ve been sitting on this application,” U.S. Rep. John Peterson spokesperson Pat Creighton told the Tribune-Review. “If it was such a slam dunk, they would have resubmitted it by now.”