A telephone town hall meeting will be held as part of an ongoing public comment period for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation study to explore sustainable transportation funding options, which include tolling the bridge on Interstate 80 in Carbon County.

As part of the ongoing public comment period for the PennDOT Planning and Environmental Linkages study, the telephone town hall meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The public may preregister for the telephone town hall, but it is not required.

There are three ways to join the telephone town hall:

• Preregister for the meeting at https://www.penndot.gov/about-us/funding/Pages/default.aspx to receive a phone call to join at the start of the meeting.

• Dial in directly to the meeting at 855-756-7520, Entry Code Ext: 73539#

An on-demand virtual public meeting and comment period for the study is available through June 1. The virtual public meeting for the study will be accessible online through June 1 at www.penndot.gov/funding.

In support of the PennDOT Pathways program, the study is being conducted to identify near- and long-term alternative funding solutions and establish a methodology for their evaluation.

State Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-Carbon, said that under this proposal, PennDOT wants to toll more bridges and roads in Pennsylvania through Congestion Pricing - where all users driving in a specific zone are charged variable fees based on how many cars are on the roadway - along with a Vehicle Miles Traveled Tax, a policy of charging motorists based on how many miles they have traveled.

“I think one of the great things about our country and our society is freedom of movement,” Heffley said. “I think these proposals are really constrictive on freedom of movement because it’s a massive tax increase on anybody that doesn’t ride mass transit.”

Heffley added that Gov. Tom Wolf “has not worked collaboratively at all with members of the House or Senate on these proposals.”

“I think people should definitely voice their concerns on these massive tax increases on people who commute to and from work,” he said. “I think people should be aware of it, and log into it and voice their concerns.”

Heffley acknowledged that there are some transportation issues, but that they should be directed at building and maintaining highway infrastructure.

“These are tax increases, additional tolls,” he said. “The Vehicle Mileage Tax is very restricting, express lane tolling and express tolling.”

In February, PennDOT announced candidate bridge projects being considered as a part of the Major Bridge Public-Private Partnership Initiative.

This initiative - the first of the PennDOT Pathways Program - was formed in response to one of the early findings of the study - that tolling of major bridges in need of replacement or rehabilitation is a potentially viable near-term funding solution.

The draft PEL study report is available for review and identifies additional medium- to long-term funding alternatives to be considered for implementation.

Online comments can be submitted directly from the meeting website or via other comment submission methods, including emailing at PennDOTPathways@pa.gov, or calling the hotline at 717-325-6129.

To request assistance to participate in the virtual public meeting or review the PEL study, contact PennDOT’s Communications Office by emailing dotcomm@pa.gov or calling 717-783-8800 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Anyone who has other questions or challenges may contact PennDOT’s Bureau of Equal Opportunity to request help by emailing RA-penndoteoreports@pa.gov or calling 1-800-468-4201; TTY (711).