Harrisburg, PA – December 13, 2007, The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), has returned the application submitted jointly by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) seeking federal approval to toll Interstate 80. FHWA has declared the application incomplete and says it will not move forward until the state addresses at least fourteen requirements and questions.

Senator John H. Eichelberger, Jr., has made many attempts to steer the legislature away from the PTC and PennDOT proposal to toll I-80. John says “aside from being bad public policy, the plan would put more control in the hands of an agency ill-equipped to handle the responsibility of securing Pennsylvania’s future transportation needs.”

“I held this bill up for a week and a half in the Senate, I participated in a rally on the front steps of the Pennsylvania Capitol and I was one of eleven senators to sign a letter of concern addressed to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, all in an effort to point out problems associated with Act 44, the current transportation bill. As a freshman senator, I just could not get this train stopped. The Federal Highway Administration also has significant problems with this application. Many of these problems are those that myself and others identify. These issues will be very difficult, if not impossible, to satisfy. The state’s plan simply does not seem to fit the federal program,” John says.