Remember that Pennsylvania Department of Transportation plan to toll major bridges that need repairs or replacement in Pennsylvania that I wrote about last fall?

Well, it’s no longer an “idea.” PennDOT has come out with some specifics, and while it does not involve bridges on heavily traveled two-lane highways in our area or Route 22, it will involve several key spans on Interstate 80 and one on I-78 just south of the Lehigh County line near Lenhartsville in Berks County, along with seven others statewide.

Not surprisingly, business leaders, truckers’ groups and area legislators are in an uproar in opposition to the proposal, and so am I.

PennDOT, however, is attempting to justify the proposal by saying it needs to plug a multibillion-dollar hole in its highway and infrastructure budget and to offset a nearly half-billion-dollar decrease in funds to pay for improvements because of the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic which has reduced travel, and, in turn, motor vehicle tax revenues. PennDOT also believes more fuel efficient vehicles and trends toward electric vehicles will further worsen the revenue picture.

The way I see it, such a move will lead to a sort of triple taxation on motorists, and it will also impose costs on nondrivers in the form of higher prices for food and most other goods transported by the thousands of trucks that use these roads daily.

You can expect these trucking companies to pass along the extra costs to the wholesalers, which, in turn, will pass them along to us, the consumers.

As for us motorists who are already paying the second-highest gasoline tax in the country, we will be saddled with another nuisance cost. Drivers who fill up in the state pay 58.7 cents per gallon. This does not include the 18.4 cents per gallon federal gas tax.

The PennDOT plan would slap tolls on the bridge over the Lehigh River in Carbon and Luzerne counties near White Haven and the one on I-80 over the Nescopeck Creek in Luzerne County. Tolls would also be earmarked to replace the I-78 bridge in Berks County, a prime route between the Poconos and Lehigh Valley and the Harrisburg area and points south.

In all, there are nine bridges identified in the first round, with PennDOT being vague about where the project might go from there. Once each bridge has been identified for inclusion in the program, it would have to go through public hearings, environmental investigations and meet other local, state and federal criteria before it is a done deal.

For those who travel frequently out of the area, you will be interested to know that the other bridges include those on Interstate 81 in Susquehanna County (north of Scranton); I-83 South in Dauphin County near Harrisburg and York, and Interstate 95’s Girard Point Bridge in Philadelphia. The other three are in western Pennsylvania.

Along with annual increases imposed by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, motorists are angry that our leaders cannot come up with a better plan than just slapping tolls or perennially increasing them on infrastructure throughout the state. Where is the vision to deal with this major problem?

These types of shortsighted decisions by our officials can also have an impact on the many businesses that have relocated throughout our region because of accessibility to major highways and markets in the Mid-Atlantic states and the Northeast.

Taken to its unpleasant but logical conclusion, when do transport companies say enough is enough and consider taking their business to more friendly states?

With these projects scheduled to begin in two to four years, PennDOT plans to hold public sessions to flesh out the details behind these proposals in a few months. We need to have our voices heard that there has got to be a better way.

PennDOT will try to explain how these projects will affect not only motorists but also nearby communities once alternate routes are set up during construction. You can bet that diverting traffic during construction is going to put a strain on some of the smaller, secondary feeder roads that adjoin the interstates.

At the heart of this proposal is the plan for PennDOT to farm out these projects to private construction firms, with the idea that each project would be financed by the tolls. Don’t think the tolls will ever disappear. They will continue even after the projects are paid off and will be earmarked for maintenance or diverted to help nearby communities.

What is still up in the air is the amount of these proposed tolls? Maybe a dollar or two is the number I have been hearing. If you are a commuter and use these bridges, you will have increased your costs by hundreds of dollars a year. The proposed PennDOT bridge tolls (PennDOT calls them “user fees”) would be assessed through the E-ZPass system. Those without E-ZPass transponders would be billed by mail. E-ZPass users will get a small discount.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com