PennDOT begins task of selling bridge tolls’ importance
As it pushes to begin charging tolls to pay for replacing or upgrading nine major bridges across the state, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation will spread a message that is part public education and part sales pitch.
Under its Pennsylvania Pathways program to find other reven u e sources for projects, PennDOT announced Thursday that it will prepare federal paperwork to begin charging tolls of $1 to $2 to cross the bridges. Under a public-private partnership, a developer will replace the bridges and be responsible for their upkeep for up to 30 years, while the state will use the toll proceeds to pay for the work.
The proposed tolling sites in Western Pennsylvania are the Interstate 79 interchange at Bridgeville in Allegheny County and two sets of bridges on Interstate 80: Canoe Creek in Clarion County and North Fork in Jefferson County.
The department will deploy staff at virtual meetings beginning this week as it conducts federally required meetings about the proposed toll sites. The meetings also will serve as an opportunity for PennDOT to talk about its funding crisis, the importance of tolls to pay for the bridge work, and the potential reduction in state-funded local road work if the agency can’t find other revenue sources.
“It’s very important for us to educate people on what our needs are,” said Ken McClain, director of PennDOT’s Alternative Funding Program, which was created last fall. “Transportation funding is very, very complicated. People think they understand it, but they really don’t.”
In fact, Mr. McClain maintains, transportation right now may be a bargain. Motorists now spend an average of about $380 a year on gasoline taxes, he said, about one-and-a-half to two times less than they spend for utilities such as natural gas and electricity.
Mr. McClain, Transportation Secretary Yassmin Gramian and other PennDOT officials who spoke at news conferences last week in each district where proposed tolling sites are located repeated the same facts and figures about the agency’s financial troubles. The biggest factor is the state’s reliance on federal and state gasoline taxes for 74% of its revenue.
Because the taxes haven’t gone up in decades and electric and more fuel-efficient vehicles have reduced gas usage, the taxes are
generating less money now than they used to. As a result, the state estimates it has transportation needs of about $15 billion a year and has only about $6.9 billion available.
“The gap gets worse every year,” Mr. McClain said. “We are seeing reduced revenues at the gas pump. But we have an enormous responsibility to the traveling public.”
Pennsylvania takes care of 41,000 miles of roads, fifth highest in the country and more than New Jersey, New York and the New England states combined. It’s also responsible for the third highest number of bridges: 25,400. More than half of the bridges at least 50 years old, and 2,500 are in poor condition, second highest in the country.
The state has made progress on bridges, reducing the number in poor condition from about 6,000 in 2008. One strategy involved a similar publicprivate partnership in which one construction group replaced more than 500 small bridges and will maintain them for 30 years.
But there are other factors that hurt the agency’s funding.
Because it neglected work on the interstates for many years while it waited for federal funds that never came, the state in 2019 decided it had to shift $3.15 billion to interstate work instead of local upgrades through 2028. Without interstate improvements, PennDOT officials were concerned that the Federal Highway Administration would take away the state’s other federal transportation funding.
Additionally, the Pennsylvania Turnpike’s requirement to pay $450 million a year mostly for public transit drops to $50 million in mid-2022, and the Legislature hasn’t determined how it will replace that money.
And due to reduced driving during the pandemic, the department expects to lose $500 million to $600 million in gasoline tax revenue for the fiscal year ending June 30. Federal stimulus funds are expected to replace just over $400 million of that.
As result, Mr. McClain’ s job is to identify other revenue sources, and that begins with tolling bridges. If tolling is approved at all nine sites, the funds will pay for $1.6 billion to $2.2 billion worth of work and allow the agency to use gas tax money for other projects.
With an additional $2.2 billion, the department could repave 1,900 miles of roads or install 6,600 miles of guardrails. The department claims every $1.5 billion spent on roadwork generates 15,656 jobs and $3.28 billion in economic output.
PennDOT refers to tolls as “user fees” that directly charge those who benefit from using the bridges. The agency purposely chose projects throughout the state rather than concentrating them in one area so motorists in one region don’t face a larger burden.
If tolls pay off the construction and maintenance costs before the 30year agreement ends, Mr. McClain said, the department is committed to using the additional money for other improvements in the same PennDOT district.
Tolling is part of a growing trend, Mr. McClain said. Across the country, 195 roads, 137 bridges and 15 tunnels generate about $22 billion annually through tolls.
As part of the review process, the agency is required to study the potential impact of motorists trying to avoid toll points by using local roads. If it finds that would create significant congestion, it will make improvements to the local roads or drop the idea of tolling.
Mr. McClain said this push to charge user fees on the interstates is different than former Gov. Ed Rendell’s effort in 2008 to toll I-80. That would have been part of an experimental program that no longer exists, he said, but the agency now allows user fees if a project meets federal criteria.
Mr. McClain and others will be responsible for making sure the tolling projects meet federal and public approval.
“We cannot afford to let these major bridges fail,” he said. “They are of paramount importance to us and we can’t afford to have them unavailable.”