Seen at TollRoadsNews:
USDOT have told Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) and DOT that their application to toll I-80 does not meet the requirements for even conditional approval. And they have posed four pages of questions they say must be answered by state authorities if they wish to continue with the application. The questions are sharply worded, suggesting the feds consider the state application to be a shoddy piece of work.
TollRoadsNews has a nice summary of what those questions are…and the entire tone of the response reminds me of some insurance rate filings I’ve worked through with uncooperative state regulators.
My favorite passage of the response (again quoting TRN):
A legal requirement to demonstrate how present funding is inadequate to maintain I-80 provokes sharp questions by the feds about the low priority Pennsylvania has been giving to interstate maintenance:
- asking why US interstate maintenance funds have been transferred for other purposes
While I’m not opposed to tolling highways to fund their construction and maintenance (assuming that that is what the tolls are going for), I do appreciate it when someone points out hypocrisy by a state agency.