PA Senate approves plan that would toll interstate bridges
A proposal to toll the bridge on Interstate 79 at Bridgeville to help pay for repairs and improvements has largely been greeted with brickbats, and a plan approved by the Pennsylvania Senate this week would nix it entirely.
The bridge, located a few miles from the border of Washington and Allegheny counties, is one of nine interstate bridges the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) has proposed tolling in a public-private partnership to help pay for the cost of upgrades and repairs.
The bill, which was approved in a 28-19 vote, would void the Pathways Major Bridge P3 Initiative, and allow bridges to be tolled only with legislative approval. It would also require PennDOT to publish a detailed analysis of proposals being considered by the Public-Private Transportation Partnership (P3) before they come to a vote, and allow for a 30-day public comment period before the board meets.
The I-79 bridge is located in the district of state Sen. Devlin Robinson, R-Bridgeville, and he said on the Senate floor, “The legislation is designed to correct the P3 board, which has operated in a manner it was not intended when it was created.”
Robinson added that board “overstepped its authority” by not first conducting traffic or financial-impact studies before proposing to toll the bridges, and “the people of Southwestern Pennsylvania had no voice when the P3 board implemented the tax under the cover of darkness.”
State Sen. Wayne Langerholc, a Cambria County Republican, introduced the bill, and he explained, “This P3 plan is a failure. We owe our commonwealth residents more than this.”
Approved mostly along party lines, it did receive support from two Democrats in the GOP-controlled Senate: state Sen. Lisa M. Boscola, from the Lehigh and Northampton area; and state Sen. John T. Yudichak, whose district is in Carbon and Luzerne counties, and includes one of the bridges in the tolling plan.
Through the public-private partnership, the state would strike deals with private contractors to handle bridge and road repairs, and allow the contractors to recoup their costs through tolls. Proponents argue that such alliances are necessary since the commonwealth’s gas tax is no longer sufficient to cover the cost of constructing and repairing roads and bridges in Pennsylvania. Opponents concede that many roads and bridges need to be fixed or replaced, but that the cost should not be shifted to drivers.
The I-79 bridge was built in 1965 and last rehabilitated in 1998. An estimated 87,000 vehicles pass over it daily. Located in South Fayette Township and passing over Route 50, business owners say a tolled bridge would hurt their enterprises, and concerns have been raised that the tolls would increase the number of vehicles on nearby roads that are already clogged with traffic. Both Bridgeville’s borough council and South Fayette Township’s board of commissioners have condemned the plan.
Officials are also looking at widening I-79 near the Bridgeville exit. They have said that if the plan to toll the bridges is approved, the tolls could be $1 to $2 each time a vehicle crosses the bridge.
Following Senate approval, the bill is moving on to the House.