Tractor Trailer Trucks are the Problem on Our Small, Local Roads

Route 41, commonly known as Gap-Newport Pike, is a 20-mile, two-lane rural road connecting Hockessin, Delaware to Gap, Lancaster County. It is a narrow undivided road with sharp curves, steep inclines, and limited sight distances. The road has long been a dangerous thoroughfare because of large numbers of tractor trailers.

Hundreds of home owners and farmers living along Route 41 enter and exit the roadway multiple times each day to get to work, plow fields, run errands, and go about their daily lives. In so doing, they risk their lives. Every day, people living on Route 41 are forced to compete for road space with large tractor trailer trucks avoiding Turnpike tolls on their way to and from the Port of Wilmington and surrounding areas in Delaware and southern New Jersey.

The crash incidence of tractor trailers traveling on Route 41 is much higher than the state-wide average. A few years ago, PennDOT recognized the entire 20 mile road as a high-volume large truck "crash corridor." In 2001, alone, five people died in vehicle crashes on Route 41.

Since 1993, more than thirty people have been killed on Route 41 and scores injured. In 1998, alone, eight motorists lost their lives on the highway. Most of the fatalities on Route 41 involve heavy trucks, which are incapable of negotiating the narrow and hilly road. A typical tractor trailer truck traveling on Route 41 weighs upwards of 80,000 pounds, is 53 feet long, and is the equivalent of a sledgehammer hitting a tin can when colliding with an automobile.

• Doris Wilson knows. The Cochranville grandmother was nearly killed in December 1997 while waiting to make a left-hand turn into her driveway off Route 41 just north of Route 926. A large truck with poor brakes plowed into the rear of her car, crumpling her four dour sedan and leaving Ms. Wilson with permanent injuries and chronic pain. Although Ms. Wilson can no longer lift her grandson or tend to her flower beds, she considers herself lucky.

• Elaine Wiker of Christiana was not so lucky. A tanker truck smashed into the back end of her car in January 1998 as she waited to make a left-hand turn into the Dutchway Markets. The impact sent her car into the path of an oncoming car, resulting in a three-vehicle wreck that closed the road for three hours and left her paralyzed.

• PennDOT worker Mike Jablonski died on Route 41 in April 2001 when a tractor trailer veered into him on the shoulder of the road outside Aunt Annie's headquarters in Gap. The truck was trying to avoid a car stopped to make a left turn. Mr. Jablonski was thirty two and father of two young children.
• Fifty-year old West Grove resident, Edna Hughes, was killed on March 30, 1998, after she pulled-out from a diner just north of Avondale and was struck from behind by a tractor trailer that failed to stop.

• Fifteen-year old Jamie Blevins lost her life on Route 41 in April 1997 when a tank truck hit the back of her car as she and her mother waited to turn into Dutchman's Farm Market. The impact sent the car spinning across the northbound lane, where it struck a concrete curve and then spun back across the southbound lane.

• Mark Kachel died on Route 41 from an encounter with yet another tractor trailer truck. In February 1993, while on his way to work, a tractor trailer jack-knifed on wet pavement and slid sideways into his pickup truck, crushing him between the overturned rig and a guardrail. Mark Kachel, a father of four, was twenty-nine.

Tractor trailers and other large trucks are the problem

Anyone who has endured the seemingly interminable horror of waiting to make a left-hand turn off of Route 41 as 80,000 pound rigs rumble by at 65 miles per hour knows that the safety problem with the road is tractor trailers. Nearly all the safety and congestion problems plaguing Route 41 can be traced to tractor trailers, over two-thirds of which originate from and are destined to distant locations outside Chester and Lancaster Counties. These are mostly trucks with three or more axles, including tractor trailers, dump trucks, tankers, and auto carriers, which typically weigh between 62,000 and 100,000 pounds. Because of their size and weight, such trucks simply cannot safely negotiate the limited sight distances, narrow travel lanes, and rolling terrain of Route 41. They are the primary reason for the congestion, high accident rate, crumbling infrastructure and deteriorating quality of life along Route 41.

According to PennDOT's 1994 Final Needs Study — a study documenting deficiencies with the road and serving as the basis for PennDOT's decision to build a new, high-speed, 4-lane highway — truck traffic is the primary reason:

Heavy truck traffic (trucks with three or more axles) along PA 41 is currently 16% of the total average daily traffic volume. Also, combined heavy and light truck traffic accounts for 30% of the total ADT. This heavy truck traffic contributes to the deficient capacity of PA 41, especially through Avondale Borough. Trucks typically move slower through the intersection than automobiles, which increases the travel times and delays of all traffic. The resultant increase in travel times and delays at key intersections along PA 41 affects capacity for both local and through traffic. Also, heavy truck traffic during peak hours creates an adverse affect on the commuter traffic for this corridor. (p. 5)

. . . poor pavement condition throughout the study corridor; existing depth of pavement required to support existing truck traffic does not meet current PennDOT design standards. (p. 5).

. . . total trucks, including double axle trucks, accounted for 36% of the reportable accidents along the PA 41 study corridor. This coincides with the current high volume of heavy truck traffic (16%) and total truck traffic (30%) utilizing PA 41. (p. 24)

. . . Fatal accidents were concentrated in the northernmost segment of the study corridor, where the fatality rate was 0.0852 compared to the statewide average rate of 0.0208. Also, 100% of the fatal accidents involved trucks. (p. 25).

. . . heavy truck traffic (trucks with three or more axles) along PA 41 is currently 16% of the total average daily traffic volume. This heavy truck traffic contributes to the deficient highway capacity along PA 41, especially through Avondale Borough. (p. 30)

Large, Through-Truck Traffic Will Worsen When PennDOT Completes Part of "The Port of Wilmington Memorial Highway"

As bad as the situation is now, it promises to get worse: The Port of Wilmington, DE is winning the fierce competition for fruit shipments with the Port of Philadelphia, and is now the largest port of entry in the United States for South American fruit. The Port of Wilmington's chief ally in this competition continues to be the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT).

• In 1995, with no notice to the citizens living along Route 41, PennDOT asked the Federal Highway Administration to designate the road as part of the National Highway System, thereby changing its classification to a commercial roadway and encouraging more tractor trailer trucks to use Route 41 as a major truck route to the Port of Wilmington.

• In 1999, again with no notice to the citizens living along Route 41, PennDOT paid for half the cost of a new $30-million intermodal facility twelve miles east of Harrisburg to promote more tractor trailer traffic on Routes 41, 30, 283, and 322 to link up with Interstate Highway 80. The majority of this truck traffic is to and from the Port of Wilmington and the Great Lakes Region.

• From 1996 to the present, PennDOT has spent nearly a billion dollars on piecemeal expansions to these local roads to accommodate tractor trailers.

• Now, PennDOT plans to complete a taxpayer-funded, 200-mile, 4-lane highway through Pennsylvania's farmbelt so that longhaul trucks can travel more easily to the Port of Wilmington, Delaware and avoid paying Pennsylvania Turnpike tolls. The rural communities along Route 41 will serve as the gateway to this truck route.

Expanding Fruit Shipments at the Port of Wilmington, Delaware

The Port of Wilmington, Delaware is winning the competition with the Port of Philadelphia for fruit shipments. Growth in intermodal container traffic is expected to continue unabated, as the Port of Wilmington grows to accommodate larger and larger container ships. Bananas and fresh fruit comprise 60% of all commodities handled annually through the Port of Wilmington, the largest importer of South American fruit in the United States. Nearly all of the produce that is destined to Harrisburg and points West is transported by truck on Route 41. For example, Dole Food Co. brings 90 percent of its imports through the Port of Wilmington and uses Route 41 as its truck route for all points west.

In 1999, the Port of Wilmington expanded its cold storage capacity to become one of the world's largest dockside cold storage terminals. In 2000, Dole received delivery of two of the largest reefer container ships in the world. The ships carry twice the quantity of bananas as before and were custom-designed specifically for accessing the Port of Wilmington. This expansion has substantially increased the number of tractor trailers traveling on Route 41.

Dramatic Changes in Port Traffic

Some of the most dramatic changes in intermodalism are occurring at the ports and the interface points at port, terminal, and landside access facilities.

Container ships are getting bigger, shipping companies are merging or forming alliances, and they are demanding the consolidation of port facilities into super-hubs. These new organizations increasingly have the market power to dictate the terms of engagement with individually operated state and local port authorities. Terminal operating and inland transportation costs account for 45 percent of the cost of waterborne transportation. Thus, ensuring an efficient water/land interface is critical in achieving cost-effective marine transportation and meeting the demands of the maritime shipping industry. Ships can now handle 6,600 20-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs, the standard measurement of container traffic), up from 4,000 just a few years ago.

These large ships require both improved waterside access (deeper harbors, etc.) but also improved terminals and landside access facilities (similar to the impact that the first 747s had on airport terminals constructed in the 1950s). The trade imbalance in the I-95 Corridor is a major barrier to achieving this efficiency. The largest single product shipped through the ports and terminals of the Corridor is "air" - 80 percent of containers move empty. Terminals are essentially large parking lots for the storage of empty containers.

Norfolk Southern's new $30 million Rutherford Intermodal Facility Has Greatly Increased Truck Traffic

Another important reason for the growth in tractor trailer traffic on Route 41 is due to Norfolk Southern's ("NS") construction in June 2000 of a major new rail and truck transfer point at the old Conrail Rutherford Yard in Dauphin County, located 12 miles east of Harrisburg. [Click here and here for more details.] Since the construction of the Rutherford Yard, tractor trailer traffic traveling on the roads into the Rutherford Yard has increased six-fold. [Click here to see U.S. Surface Transportation Board, Finance Docket No. 33388, Proposed Conrail Acquisition, Final Environmental Impact Statement, Section 2.3 Intermodal Facilities, Table 2.3 Intermodal Facilities That Meet or Exceed the Board's Thresholds for Environmental Analysis, p. 2-20, (noting that the Rutherford Yard would increase tractor trailer traffic from 136 per day to 796 per day)].

PennDOT made a deal four years ago with Norfolk Southern ("NS") railroad to help build a $30 million intermodal terminal at Conrail's old Rutherford Yard located ten miles east of Harrisburg on Route 322. The facility, which was completed in June 2000 with a $15.5 million dollar subsidy from the Commonwealth handles all of NS's freight going to and from Delaware and southern New Jersey.

NS's $30 million Rutherford Yard has 600 paved tractor trailer parking spaces and four inbound/outbound lanes. The facility handles freight destined to and from the Port of Wilmington and points East, including New Jersey. The freight is transported to and from Rutherford in 53 foot long by 102"-wide trailers/containers that are interchangeable between rail cars and tractor trailer trucks. The Rutherford Yard handles truck freight from NS's trucking subsidiaries, Triple Crown Services, Thoroughbred Direct Intermodal Services, Inc. and Modalgistics Corp.

The Rutherford Yard generates at least 796 tractor trailer trips per day or 242,780 tractor trailer trucks per year traveling on the roads into the Rutherford Yard, assuming the conventional 305 travel days in the year. [Click here to see U.S. Surface Transportation Board, Finance Docket No. 33388, Proposed Conrail Acquisition, Final Environmental Impact Statement, Section 2.3 Intermodal Facilities, Table 2.3 Intermodal Facilities That Meet or Exceed the Board's Thresholds for Environmental Analysis, p. 2-20, and click here to see Section 5.3.19, Southeastern Pennsylvania-Transportation: Roadway Systems, p. 5-377.]

The construction of the Rutherford Yard nullifies the expected benefits of the deal made to split up Conrail.

Most, if not all of the Rutherford Yard freight travels to and from Delaware and southern New Jersey by truck on Route 41, thereby enabling NS to avoid expensive investments in rail infrastructure at the Port of Wilmington; investments that it promised to federal regulators when it petitioned to split-up Conrail in 1997.

As it did recently with the Hollidaysburg Car Shop, NS is reneging on its promise to upgrade rail infrastructure at the Port of Wilmington and thereby to reduce truck traffic on local roads.

This large increase in truck traffic and its associated impacts on road infrastructure and air quality would appear to nullify a fundamental justification for the split-up of Conrail between the Norfolk Southern and CSX railroads.

This time, however, NS's failure to perform is being helped along by PennDOT, which proposes to spend close to a billion dollars on a brand-new four-lane highway from the Delaware state line to Harrisburg thereby ensuring that trucks using Norfolk Southern's Rutherfor Yard can avoid Pennsylvania Turnpike tolls.

As long as NS continues to renege on its promise to restore rail access to the Port of Wilmington and long-haul tractor trailers are allowed to avoid the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the number of tractor trailers using Route 41 will continue to grow with the Port of Wilmington's expansion to accommodate larger and larger container ships.

Route 41 Tractor Trailers Cause Problems in Lancaster County

In Lancaster County, tractor trailers that begin or end their journey in Wilmington or points East via Route 41 are having a detrimental effect on road capacity and safety in the historic and agricultural communities along US Route 30 in Lancaster County. Again, trucks appear to be the problem. According to Lancaster County data, 5,500 trucks or 37% of the average daily traffic, use Route 30 daily. Just like Route 41, PennDOT is using the harm caused by all these trucks to push through its plan to construct a large new highway along the nine and a half-mile section of Route 30 from Route 896 in East Lampeter Township to Route 41 in Salisbury Township.

Like with Route 41, PennDOT's only solution to US 30 is a major capacity expansion, perhaps even a brand-new multi-lane expressway linking-up with Route 41:

We will initially explore a range of alternatives from 4- and 5-lane widenings of the roadway to 'mini bypasses' around some villages to the construction of a new multi-lane roadway on new location. Several locations for a new highway would be explored. We will also study a grade-separated interchange at U.S. 30 and PA 41. [www.route30corridor.com]

Tractor trailer trucks using Routes 41 and 30 transport so many bananas that it has been dubbed the "Banana Highway.":

"[T]he Banana Highway. You may not know the significance of that, but the reason we call Highway 41 the Banana Highway is that the Port of Wilmington in the State of Delaware! Okay? Now we're dealing with still another metropolitan region. The Wilmington metropolitan region, the Port of Wilmington, is now the principal import port on the east coast for fruit from Central and South America. Every banana that gets eaten in Pittsburgh travels up Highway 41 and right through Lancaster County. Okay? Now, you think that's funny, but consider this: That when we think we have control over our destinies, what's going on in the world, right now, as we speak, the fruit companies, like Dole, are building massive new ships, new technology, to bring fruit in. I mean, these are like supertankers, only they're gonna be carrying fruit. And that's gonna mean there's gonna be a lot more fruit that will be distributed by highway truck from the Port of Delaware! Port of Wilmington, and it's gonna come up 41. And when it gets to the end of 41 it's gonna hit Route 30, and it's gonna go Route 30 to 283 and hit the interstate system in Harrisburg. "

According to Lancaster County's Chief Transportation Planner, Christopher Neumann, these trucks should be taking the Turnpike:

. . . truck traffic is heavy on local highways like routes 30, 41 and 283, as food and other goods are delivered to central Pennsylvania from places including the Port of Wilmington in Delaware. And, truck traffic is growing heavier because many tractor-trailers coming out of Wilmington are using those Lancaster County roads to avoid paying tolls on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Those trucks, we feel, would be more appropriate on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, but they're avoiding it because of the high tolls. Tractor-trailers typically pay about 22 cents per mile on the turnpike, for a round-trip toll of about $40 between Harrisburg and Wilmington. Intelligencer Journal, November 18, 1999.

Route 41 Tractor Trailer Cause Problems in Centre County

Tractor trailers that begin or end their journey in Wilmington or points East via Route 41 are having a similar impact on Route 322 in south central Centre County. There, PennDOT is planning yet another 4-lane along Route 322 to serve large trucks.

Based upon the data compiled from PennDOT's South Central Centre County Transportation Study ("SCCCTS"), approximately 65% of the trucks on Route 322 were tractor trailers and 35% were straight trucks or delivery type trucks. Of these tractor trailers, 90% had neither an origin nor destination in the study area, which is defined as State College, Potters Mills, Centre Hall, Pleasant Gap, and Boalsburg. [Click here to see SCCCTS Origin and Destination Summary Report.]

According to PennDOT, perhaps as much as 70% of the tractor trailers traveling on Route 41 use Route 322 to reach Interstate 80 beyond State College:

The team also researched truck travel entering and exiting Pennsylvania from Delaware on PA 41, and New York on Route 15. The analysis confirmed that U.S. 322 is not only a popular route in Central Pennsylvania, but also serves as a nationwide connection between ports in Philadelphia and Delaware to the Great Lakes region. . . This data has provided the following information: Past studies as well as the 1999 Origin & Destination (O-D) study show that approximately 70% of tractor trailers on Route 322 are traveling through the study area to reach I-80 and points west of the SCCCTS area. This is consistent with the 1985 and 1995 O-D studies that concluded approximately 70% of the trucks surveyed on Seven Mountains (U.S. 322) are destined for I-80 and points west. . . According to information obtained from the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) and PennDOT: . . . tractor trailers using PA 30 and PA 41 as routes between the origin and destination points of Philadelphia/Delaware and markets west of Pennsylvania contribute to the through tractor trailer volumes being experienced in the SCCCTS area.

The conclusion that the same tractor trailers on Route 41 are also traveling on US 322 was confirmed by a representative of the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association:

Jeff Sheffer, a representative from the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association (PMTA), provided an opportunity for CAC members to ask questions concerning truck routing decisions. Jeff explained that truck routing is contingent on factors such as highways which allow hauling of hazardous waste and width restrictions. For trucks traveling from the ports of Wilmington and Philadelphia to the Great Lakes Region, U.S. 322 is the cheapest and quickest route.

The South Central Centre County Transportation Study has concluded that the high volume of through-bound large trucks on Route 322 originating on Route 41 could be taking the Pennsylvania Turnpike but choose not to because of the toll costs:

Based on the origin and destination of most trucks, they are seeking an east/west route through the state. The PA Turnpike and I-80 offer an east/west route. North/south routes which intersect the PA Turnpike and I-80 are Routes 322 and 11/15. We have heard from trucking companies that distance is a factor in determining one route over another. A longer trip equates to additional costs. For example, the trip from Harrisburg to the same interchange on I-80 using 11/15 is 40 miles longer than using U.S. 322. Another option is to use the PA Turnpike. However, the toll cost per truck is a deterrent. Therefore, trucking companies have chosen to use the routes, which fit their travel desires and do not introduce additional operating costs.

Finally, it appears that the growth in truck traffic in the region is prompting local communities in south central Pennsylvania to ask the same fundamental question: should local communities be fundamentally and permanently altered merely to accomodate the needs of tractor trailer trucks:

True costs of highway development are not adequately and fully described. In general, we desire to see greater attention paid to light rail and other transit options for the future of our Region's transportation picture. Similarly, we believe that rail and, specifically intermodal facilities, need to be more carefully considered in our crossroads region. We believe that our highway system cannot and must not bear significantly more truck traffic. To this end, we have continued our efforts to obtain funding to undertake a region-wide multi-modal goods movements study. If truck freight trends continue on pace, we may not remain a viable, healthy set of communities in our region. This is particularly true of the many significant historical boroughs and cities in our region such as Gettysburg, New Oxford,York, Lebanon and Lancaster.

PennDOT's Secret Plan to Complete a Two-Hundred Mile Truck Route

In the past six years, PennDOT has spent more than a $700,000,000 dollars for piecemeal widenings of portions of Routes 30, 283, and 322 to accommodate long-haul tractor trailer trucks which use these local roads to get to Interstate-80 without paying Pennsylvania Turnpike tolls.

It is evident that the Route 41 project is part of a larger PennDOT plan to complete an unpublicized, new 200-mile, four-lane highway for tractor trailers, connecting the Port of Wilmington, Delaware to Interstate 80 in Centre County, Pennsylvania.

It now wants to spend at least two billion more to complete this new, tractor trailer highway. In the process, communities all along the route will be destroyed, and this new freeway will siphon truck traffic and much needed revenue from the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

The following testimony at the 1998 State Transportation Commission hearings in Lancaster County revealed a plan to construct a four-lane, highway from Route 283 to the Delaware state line, mainly to facilitate the travel of trucks bound for NS's Rutherford yard from the Port of Wilmington:

In coming months... the Norfolk Southern rail company is expected to buy and expand the Rutherford Yard, a major rail and truck transfer point in Dauphin County. The railroad expects that when the expansion occurs... its trains will bring massive amounts of additional cargo to the region. The company says 3,000 to 4,000 more trucks of merchandise initially will drive through the county each year on their way to export overseas. Those trucks, headed for the port at Wilmington, Del., will take off on Route 283, a highway capable of handling them... But Highway 283 connects with Highway 30, part of which is under reconstruction and part of which remains a two-lane road with center turn lane, which connects with Highway 41, which is a substandard, two-lane artery... By improving Routes 30 and 41... the state would help a multi-county region - improving economic expansion and traffic safety from Dauphin County to Lancaster County to the state border in Chester County.

Following this hearing, PennDOT secured $500,000 in the 1998 state highway bill to conduct a "Major Investment Study" between PA Route 926 to US 30. See Section 336(j) of Act 78 of the Pennsylvania Laws of 1997. A "Major Investment Study", or "MIS," is required by FHWA regulations whenever a "major metropolitan transportation investment" is contemplated. Accordingly, it is quite clear that PennDOT's long-range plan is to expand the entire twenty mile length of Route 41 to a four-lane highway between Delaware and Harrisburg.

Click the photo for a map of the PennDOT Tractor Trailer Highway

PennDOT vetoed tolls on Interstate 80

Upon closer examination of PennDOT's recent road-building efforts, it is evident that the Route 41 project is part of a larger plan to complete a little-known 200 mile four-lane truck route connecting Wilmington, Delaware to Interstate 80 in Centre County, Pennsylvania. In the past five years, PennDOT has spent more than $700,000,000 to improve sections of this 200 mile truck route in a piecemeal fashion. In this way, PennDOT has evaded a more comprehensive environmental review that would examine whether it makes sense to spend billions on road widening for tractor-trailers seeking a low-cost route across Pennsylvania at the expense of local communities.

At a cost of more than a billion more dollars, PennDOT now wants to finish the truck route by completing the last remaining two-lane portions consisting of the entire twenty mile length of PA 41, a ten mile stretch of US 30 in Lancaster County, and a ten mile stretch of US 322. In the process quiet communities all along the route will be destroyed so that long-haul trucks can reach I-80 without impediment. In turn, PennDOT will satisfy the needs of big trucking while ignoring the needs and desires of local citizens. If and when it is completed, the truck route will be a four lane restricted access route that will siphon even more truck traffic from the Pennsylvania Turnpike, thereby starving it of vital toll revenue.

PennDOT's Secret Plan to Complete a Two-Hundred Mile Truck Route

Since 1995, PennDOT has spent more than $700,000,000 expanding US 30, PA 283, and US 322 to accomodate long-haul tractor trailer trucks seeking a low-cost Northwest passage to I-80.

• US 30

From 1998 to 2001, PennDOT spent another $45.7 million to widen the "western section" of Route 30 from the Rohrerstown Road to the Manheim Pike interchanges for a project length of 2.7 miles. See www.penndot8.com/projects/0030-010/.

In September 2000, PennDOT began construction on the $87.5 million 4.7 mile "eastern section" of Route 30 from the Route 222 interchange to the Route 462 intersection. See www.penndot8.com/projects/0030-011/default.htm.

• PA 283

• US 322

Also from 1998 to 2001, PennDOT constructed the $50 million 5.6 mile Milroy Bypass involving the construction of a four-lane bypass around Milroy and widening of the existing US 322 from Milroy to Reedsville.

From 1999 to 2002, PennDOT constructed a new $194 million eight-mile, four-lane, limited access highway connecting Route 322 (the Mount Nittany Expressway) with the Bellefonte Bypass, south of Interstate 80. The new highway is designated as I-99 and U.S. 220. According to PennDOT, the project is necessary because "frequent left turns by motorists into commercial developments and increased truck traffic resulting from the truck ban on Route 144 also have increased congestion as well as safety problems and concerns." See www.penndot2.com/route26/background.

In April 2002, PennDOT began construction on the $130 million Northern Lewistown Bypass project to expand 12 miles of US 322 in Mifflin County, including new interchanges for Routes 22/522 and 322 north of Lewistown. According to PennDOT, the new road "will provide motorists with a modern, four-lane Route 22/322 all the way from Milroy, east of State College, to the Hershey/Harrisburg area." See www.penndot2.com/route22_322/index.html.

PennDOT's multi-billion dollar subsidy to the trucking industry can be traced back to the Department's abrupt decision in 1999 to reverse a twenty-year effort to impose tolls on Interstate 80, which would have created a funding source to repair I-80's deteriorated infrastructure and would have discouraged tractor trailers from traveling on non-interstate routes to reach I-80. See Federal restrictions lifted, now politics block I-80 toll, Montgomery County Observer Online.

PennDOT's fateful reversal cleared the way for billions of dollars in new highway spending to widen segments of the truck route leading to I-80. By deciding not to toll I-80, PennDOT ensured that long-haul tractor trailer trucks would continue to be drawn like magnets to secondary roads leading to I-80, mainly US 322, PA 283, US 30, and PA 41. Hence, roads that were never designed nor intended for such trucks were overwhelmed, thereby giving PennDOT the justification it needed to widen the roads.

The effort to toll I-80 began in 1984 with the publication of a report by the Governor's Toll Road Task Force which recommended that I-80 be tolled to pay for the heavy damage inflicted by large tractor trailers. In 1985, the Pennsylvania legislature enacted Act 61, which authorized the Turnpike Commission to impose tolls on Interstate 80. This would have created a funding source to pay for maintenance on I-80 and for construction of the Turnpike extensions. See Act 61 of Pennsylvania Laws of 1985. The Turnpike Commission's ability to place tolls on I-80 was contingent, however, on approval by the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the U.S. Congress, and PennDOT:

(e) Conversion to toll roads. — In order to facilitate vehicular traffic within and across the Commonwealth, and after completion of the turnpike extensions and improvements authorized in subsection (a), and subject to prior Legislative approval by the General Assembly and the United States Congress, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is hereby authorized and empowered to convert to toll roads such portions of Pennsylvania's interstate highway system as may be required in order to facilitate the completion of the turnpike extensions and improvements authorized in subsections (b), (c) and (d), and to operate and maintain such converted interstates as toll roads upon the approval by the Congress of the United States of America and the General Assembly of this Commonwealth of legislation expressly permitting the conversion of such interstates to toll roads. Such conversions shall take place at a time and manner set forth in the plan for the conversion prepared by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. [www2.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/BI/BT/1985/0/SB0441P1353.pdf].

Then, in 1987, the second hurdle to tolling I-80 was cleared. The federal highway bill, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century ("TEA-21"), gave Pennsylvania the authority to place tolls on I-80. in order to pay for necessary maintenance and repairs. See SEC. 1216(b Interstate System Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Pilot Program. In fact, the conference report expressly authorized placing tolls on I-80 :

The conference adopted the House provision to allow a State to toll segments of the Interstate system. The provision allows up to three states to participate provided that revenues generated from the tolls will be used to reconstruct, improve or maintain the facility. The conferees understand that certain segments of the Interstate require substantial maintenance and rehabilitation funding above available resources, such as Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania.

Unfortunately, having cleared the first two hurdles in its effort to place tolls on I-80 — state and federal legislative authorization — Pennsylvania was unable to clear the final hurdle — PennDOT approval. In 1999, after donating $15.5 million toward Norfolk Southern's new Rutherford Truck Yard, PennDOT abruptly reversed course and refused to impose a toll on I-80. See Federal restrictions lifted, now politics block I-80 toll, Montgomery County Observer Online. Instead, PennDOT embarked on an unprecedented multi-year road-building campaign to expand long-haul tractor trailer capacity on all of the rural arterial roads leading to I-80 of which the Route 41 project is just the latest installment.

Why did PennDOT abruptly decide in 1999 to abandon its effort to obtain federal permission to convert I-80 into a toll road, concept without explanation? No one but PennDOT knows. However, two facts are undeniable. First, the trucking lobby is one of the largest political contributors in Pennsylvania and PennDOT works hard to please the lobby, as evidenced by this PennDOT press release:

Pennsylvania received an early present from the nation's truck drivers this holiday season who acknowledged that roads in the Keystone State are "most improved in the nation," according to the latest trucker survey by Overdrive Magazine. Pennsylvania, for the fifth year, was voted "most improved." "This feedback from one of our toughest critics — the nation's truck drivers — is further proof that the $2 billion annual investment directed by Governors Ridge and Schweiker and the General Assembly into Pennsylvania's roads is beginning to pay huge dividends in terms of road smoothness," said PennDOT Transportation Secretary Bradley L. Mallory. Mallory said that smooth pavement is the most important product PennDOT can provide in terms of customer satisfaction surveys. He further emphasized that PennDOT will continue to deliver improvements where they make the most sense by targeting the remaining interstates and expressways that are in poor condition.

Commission officials acknowledge that the PTC may be in competition with PennDOT for available federal monies . . . Provisions of state law restrict the use of federal funds on the Turnpike to those approved by the Secretary of Transportation in the absence of a specific federal charge to the contrary (e.g., specific projects and funding enumerated in ISTEA). PennDOT's general policy has been to not authorize federal funding for the Turnpike unless the monies are specified in federal law (e.g., ISTEA funding for the Mon/Fayette projects

Accordingly, by allowing long-haul tractor trailer trucks to overwhelm rural arterial roads like Route 41, PennDOT was able to expand its road building empire and funnel billions of federal highway construction dollars to its engineers and consultants.

PennDOT has already programmed into the state transportation improvement plan the expansion of Route 41 from US 30 to PA 926 to accommodate tractor trailers. See DVRPC Freight Projects in the TIP Goods Movement & Economic Development: Pennsylvania (describing PennDOT's two PA 41 projects, Delaware State Line to PA 926 and US 30 to PA 926). In fact, PennDOT estimates that the expansion of the northern portion of Route 41 from Route 926 to US 30 will cost at least $100 million. See DVRPC 1999 TIP Project # 6928.