Pennsylvania seeks tolls on I-80

Pennsylvania seeks tolls on I-80 Pennsylvania is seeking to impose a toll on Interstate 80, one of the state's main east-west highways.
   The state’s transportation department and the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission have submitted an application to the Federal Highway Administration asking for the authority to toll I-80.
   The application said “it is assumed that the toll rate per mile on I-80 will be the same as that on the Mainline and Northeast Extension of the current Turnpike (anticipated to be about 8 cents per mile by fiscal year 2011, when tolled operations would commence.)”
   The Pittsburgh Post Gazette quotes U.S. Rep. John Peterson as saying the tolls could result in cars $36 to cross the state; trucks $150.
   Peterson has introduced an amendment to the federal highway bill that would block the tolls.
   The plan comes at a time when a poll shows public opinion against Gov. Ed Rendell’s proposal to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike to a private operator.
   According to a Quinnipiac University poll of 1,160 voters, Pennsylvania residents oppose the leasing plan by a margin of 47 percent to 40 percent, with the rest undecided.