Wednesday’s hearing in Kidder Township about tolling the Interstate 80 bridge over the Lehigh River hosted by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation was abruptly canceled just as the event was to start. The Interstate 80 bridge connects between East Side Borough in Carbon County and White Haven Borough in Luzerne County. The toll gantry is proposed to be in East Side.

A meeting room in the Mountain Laurel Resort was set up with easels and displays. The team of speakers had set up displays around the room and were ready to meet the public. At about 10 minutes before the start of the event, all of the Penn­DOT officials and consultants were asked to come into another room. After several minutes, an official came out and announced to the public and media that the hearing was canceled.

Liz Berger of East Side Borough attended, and said that the PennDOT officials had no answers as to why the meeting was canceled or whether it would be rescheduled. Berger, an owner of Lehigh Gorge Campground in East Side, is a member of the local committee formed to oppose tolling the Interstate 80 bridge. As everyone was packing up, Berger approached a presenter to ask him a specific question about the project, and was told that “we can’t answer any questions.”

An email from PennDOT that arrived at 5:45 p.m. announced the cancellation of the I-80 Over Lehigh Bridge public hearing. Another email from PennDOT just after 9 a.m. on Thursday announced the cancellation of the hearing for that afternoon regarding the I-78 Lenhartsville Bridge Replacement - also proposed to have tolls.

A statement by email from Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff that arrived at 4:51 p.m. said “Commonwealth Court Judge Ellen Ceisler placed an injunction on the continuation of Gov. Tom Wolf administration’s bridge tolling plan which entails the tolling of nine interstate bridges in Pennsylvania.”

A full court review of Judge Ceisler’s injunction would be next, but there are no details at this time since the injunction is so new.

State Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-Carbon, said in his weekly newsletter Friday, “I am grateful for the judge’s ruling and am hopeful Commonwealth Court will agree with us that the governor and PennDOT are trying to circumvent the process established by state law. Under Act 88 of 2012, each project’s scope, framework and impact on citizens must be assessed and a cost/benefit analysis must be conducted before approval. That clearly has not happened with the tolling plan.”