PennDOT and the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission have signed a 50-year lease agreement and have filed a joint application requesting that the Federal Highway Administration allow the tolling of Interstate 80.

Although the parties to the agreement and Rendell administration officials expressed optimism that the request would be approved, the Highway Administration quickly noted, "The approval of any application under this program is a discretionary decision. We will take into account a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, actual or expected competition from other interstate facilities."

Meanwhile, Robert Latham, spokesman for the Transportation Construction Industries coalition, reminded the House Republican Policy Committee that the revenue to be collected as a result of tolling I-80 will fill only half of the nearly $1 billion annual funding gap identified last year by the governor's Transportation Funding and Reform Commission. The committee had invited Latham and others to discuss the merits of public-private partnerships in meeting transportation infrastructure needs.

A former Virginia transportation secretary and a representative of a company that develops private highway projects told the committee of the significant success that Virginia has enjoyed with such partnerships. However, they acknowledged that Virginia's success had been confined to new projects rather than the monetization of existing highways, and they agreed that public-private partnerships are only part of a comprehensive solution to funding highway needs.

Latham noted that while the highway funding legislation approved in July is far from perfect, it at least addresses part of the funding crisis and represented all that the General Assembly and Governor Rendell were able to achieve up to this point. Repealing the measure known as Act 44 and starting from square one would be a grave mistake, he said.

Latham noted that eliminating the entire $1 billion annual gap still would not provide for increasing Pennsylvania's highway capacity. Noting that traffic congestion will continue to increase, he called for the development of "a vision for Pennsylvania's future mobility" as the next step in a comprehensive solution to the highway funding crisis.