Over 3,000 citizens have come together to prevent PennDot from adding a toll booth on interstate 79. The booth would be placed at the Bridgeville interchange in South Fayette Township.
Peter Linko, a Cross Creek Township resident, told KDKA-TV that he believes citizens should not have to pay for the mistakes of PennDot.
“PennDOT put this strategically in this spot because they knew they could make a lot of money off of it," said Linko to KDKA-TV. "One hundred thousand commuters go up and down that road every day. The unfortunate thing is that now people are going to have to pay the price because of PennDOT’s mismanagement of funds.”
Alexis Campbell, PennDot press secretary, told KDKA-TV that a final decision has not been made yet. The toll would lead to the widening of interstate 79 and would raise revenue. Campbell claims tolls can help with maintenance, upkeep for roads, and highways as well.
"Bridge tolling can provide the funds to repair or replace these costly bridges without using PennDOT’s current funding, which in turn allows those funds to be used for other roadway maintenance, operations and improvements,” said Campbell to KDKA-TV.
These tolls were one of nine projects voted on and approved by Pennsylvania P3 Board on November 12th, 2020. The addition of tolls and highway improvement would be projected to start between 2023 and 2025, the cost of these improvements would be between $100-$150 million.
But according to Campbell nothing has been finalized and enough public out reach could prevent the toll from being added to the highway.
“No final decision regarding any candidate project’s status as a tolled facility has been made, and public input is a critical part of any project, especially one potentially involving a toll. Public meetings for all candidate bridges will be held beginning this fall,” Campbell said to KDKA-TV.
If you’d like to sign the petition, click here.