Pa. authorities progress on tolling I-80

MERCER, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has announced potential toll collection locations along Interstate 80.

U.S. Rep. Phil English, R-3rd, called the locations a “poison pill” that will continue to pit rural regions against urban ones.

The turnpike commission announced Wednesday 20 potential sites for nine tolling points on the interstate.

In the 3rd congressional district, locations include Exit 4, New Castle-Sharon-Hermitage-Mercer; Exit 15, Mercer; Exit 42, Emlenton; and Exit 45, St. Petersburg-Emlenton-Butler.

“These ill-conceived toll-booth locations will do nothing more than divert highway tractor-trailer traffic through the heart of some of the largest communities in western Pennsylvania, including Mercer, Sharon, Hermitage and Butler,” English said.

English also decried a turnpike commission plan to divert 87 percent of the tolling proceeds to mass transit agencies in Pennsylvania.

“This continues to be a classical case of robbing Peter to pay Paul, ripping the carpet out from underneath rural Pennsylvania to better serve the Commonwealth’s more affluent communities,” he said.