I-80 toll foes ratchet up pressure on feds

By Wayne Laepple
The Daily Item

BLOOMSMBURG November 21, 2009 06:21 am

— Interstate 80 toll foes are turning up the heat by writing letters of protest to and meeting with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
U.S. Rep. Chris Carney, D-10, of Dimock, on Thursday was among lawmakers who took their objections directly to the head of the Federal Highway Administration.
The meeting with Federal Highway Administration administrator Victor Mendez provided a “good opportunity” for Carney to voice his concerns in person about the proposal, Carney said in a statement released Friday.
“I have opposed this plan from the beginning because it would stifle economic development along the I-80 corridor, seriously hurt our region’s businesses and put an undue burden on our neighbors who use the highway on a daily basis,” Carney said.
State Sens. John Gordner, R-27 of Berwick, Jake Corman, R-34 of Bellefonte and Gene Yaw, R-23 of Williamsport, and seven other state senators wrote to LaHood, asking him to throw out the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission’s application to enact tolls on I-80.
“I’m very pleased this letter has gone out,” said Ed Edwards, co-chairman of the Alliance to Stop I-80 Tolling and president of the Columbia-Montour Chamber of Commerce. “I encouraged Sen. Gordner to write this letter.”
Edwards said he thought it was important to reiterate the concerns of regional business leaders to the new officials in the federal Transportation Department.
“Their comments need to be carefully considered by the Federal Highway Administration,” Edwards said.
Edwards criticized the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission’s use of financial analysis by Provident Capital Advisors, a firm hired by the commission, which Edwards said had no experience in analyzing highways.
“There needs to be an independent evaluation,” Edwards said.
Edwards said the issue surfaced Thursday in a meeting among Carney, several other congressmen and Mendez.
Maria Culp, president and chief executive officer of the Central Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce in Milton, said: “It seems like it’s out of the state Legislature’s hands now. Sen. Gordner stressed the things we’ve said all along.
“The plan is flawed and doesn’t solve Pennsylvania’s transportation crisis,” she said. “It worsens the situation along the I-80 corridor. We’re being asked to give up jobs to fund transit programs in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.”
Carl DeFebo, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, defended the proposal, noting that the commission selected Provident Capital because they were from outside the usual group of financial analysts and would have a fresh perspective.
The original application, he emphasized, was never rejected by the Federal Highway Administration.
“We filed an 81-page supplement (to the original 2007 application) on Oct. 29,” DeFebo said. “The FHWA asked for additional information two times, in December 2007 and in September 2008, and that’s what we provided in the supplement.”

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