Application to turn I-80 in Pa. into toll road rejected

April 7, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

HARRISBURG, Pa.

The federal government has rejected Pennsylvania’s application to turn Interstate 80 into a toll highway, Gov. Ed Rendell said Tuesday, eliminating a key source of money to pay for highway, bridge and mass transit projects across the state.

The decision was a victory for many lawmakers and congressmen across northern Pennsylvania who had opposed the idea as an unfair burden on the residents and businesses they represent. It also could set up a thorny, election-year search by lawmakers for money to maintain a state transportation system already considered underfunded.

Rendell said he would call a special session of the Legislature to find a way to replace the $450 million-plus per year that tolls were to produce for transportation projects.

Rendell, who had lobbied heavily in favor of the I-80 tolling application, said he disagreed with the federal government’s reasons for rejecting it.

The I-80 tolls were a key component of a heavily debated 2007 state law designed to generate billions of dollars to fix roads and bridges and subsidize mass transit systems.

That law, which also authorized higher tolls along the existing turnpike system, has already provided more than $2 billion in new transportation money, but revenues will drop sharply in July without the I-80 tolls.

It was expected to provide about $60 billion over the next half-century.