In The News

Lawmaker defends I-80 toll proposal, motor carriers oppose it

The state lawmaker who is urging Pennsylvania transportation officials to resubmit their federal application to toll Interstate 80 says toll roads are better maintained than those that are toll free.

Pennsylvania state Rep. John Pallone, D-Armstrong-Westmoreland, filed a resolution May 12 urging transportation officials to dust off the I-80 tolling application that was rejected in 2008 by the Federal Highway Administration. While state law calls for I-80 to be tolled, the FHWA has the final say.

Pallone says truckers and other highway users should support the I-80 toll effort, using the Pennsylvania Turnpike as a model.

“If you remember, I think it was two years ago, many of the interstates were closed Feb. 13 or Feb. 14. The Pennsylvania Turnpike was open and it was clean, because I drove on it,” Pallone told Land Line Now on Sirius XM.

OOIDA opposes the tolling of existing federal highways because tolls amount to a double tax on highway users.

Land Line Now followed up news of Pallone’s resolution by reporting that the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association stands against the tolling of I-80.

“We are opposed to tolling existing interstates, roads for which we are already paying and have paid over and over again for our use taxes and fuel taxes,” PMTA President Jim Runk said.

Runk said Pallone’s statement about tolled roads being better maintained may have merit on the most basic level, but added that the Pennsylvania Turnpike was conceived and built as a limited access toll road whereas I-80 was constructed with public funds.

“The turnpike is generally a closed road. It has its own system of maintenance, repairs, snow removal and police and so forth, which can be considerably costly,” Runk said.

“PennDOT has to take care of the other roads because those are all state-owned roads. We have more state-owned roads than New York, New Jersey and New England put together and you can see the mammoth job.”

Runk said Pennsylvania has, through the years, diverted considerable amounts of highway funds to mass transit and other non-highway uses. Then, there’s the issue of traffic diversion when a toll is increased or introduced.

“I don’t think there’s a doubt that the impact would be tremendous,” Runk said. “I think it’s pretty reasonable to suggest that they would divert.”

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– Staff Writer Reed Black contributed to this report.
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