HARRISBURG PA – Funding that Montgomery County PA officials were counting on to help make future improvements to U.S. Route 422 between King of Prussia and Pottstown is likely to be agonized over when Gov. Ed Rendell convenes the state Legislature in a special session beginning tomorrow (Tuesday, May 4, 2010) at the capital.
Legislators return Tuesday to Harrisburg.
Rendell issued notice last week (April 28) that he would pull lawmakers back into Harrisburg to solve what he called “immediate and future transportation funding problems” rooted in the federal government’s recent denial of the Pennsylvania request to impose tolls on Interstate 80.
That currently free highway crosses the entire northern width of the state and is heavily used by truckers. Under Act 44 of 2007, Pennsylvania proposed to impose tolls on I-80 traffic and use the proceeds to pay for road improvements elsewhere, such as those the county wants implemented on Route 422.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) last month officially told the state “no.”
Without the interstate tolls, Rendell said, the state loses $1.7 billion annually in new revenue it hoped would start to pay for $2.5 billion in unfunded transportation needs. Now the state needs, but doesn’t have, a back-up plan. Rendell called the legislative session to create one.
Pennsylvania claims it leads the nation in the number of structurally deficient bridges: 5,646; greater than the number of similarly poor bridges in the New England states, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia, and Maryland combined. It also needs money to repave more than 7,000 miles of roads it said are “in very poor condition,” and about 10,000 miles of roads where the regular resurfacing is “significantly behind schedule.”
Tuesday’s special session is scheduled to begin with an address by Rendell to members of both the House and Senate at 1 p.m.
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Meeting with Joe Hoeffel recently he pointed out the fact the I-80 needs to be tolled and the funds used to maintain that roadways and connectivity. Tolling the road and spending the funds on it exclusively would releive PA taxpayers from the upkeep of I-80 and allow our other highwayfunds to be used elsewheres in the state.
The idea of tolling route 422 is abhorrent to me. There are many other roadways that could be tolled, I bring up routes 309 the Blue route, Route 1, Route 202 or even the Schulykill expressway. Picking our highway is picking on less affluents who havn’t the political clout that people in the areas served by the other roadways mentioned enjoy.
Speak up if you oppose tolling 422 and let PENDOT know they are expected to equitably use the funding they already recieve.