Why are tolls still being collected on a road built nearly 70 years ago?
Public pension funds and cadillac healthcare bennies. And Medicaid costs.
“Why”
Because they don’t want to cut spending so they tax wherever they figure they can get away with it.
https://ballotpedia.org/Pennsylvania_state_budget_and_finances
If you scroll down to State Spending by Function, be sure to read the fine print.
Why are tolls still being collected on a road built nearly 70 years ago?
C’mon man!
Because gas taxes aren’t enough...state/fed taxes aren’t enough...tolls aren’t enough...
To line people’s pockets!
To wit, now they are trying to tax the miles driven. Most likely to succeed.
Simple.
In 1933 PA floated a 30 year bond to build the PA Turnpike, with the stipulation that when the bond debt was retired in 1963 the roadway would be toll free.
In 1962, the Turnpike Commission, realized that the debt was about to be paid and the end was coming for the entire political sugar bowl, i.e, commissioners, toll collectors, thousands of "relative/friends" working in the system and vendors paying for all of the corruption.
Solution; float an 'extended bond' to build an extension, and keep the whole corrupt pay off, paying off.
Almost 90 years later, the graft goes on {and little "spurs" continue to be built}.
I have a private one, being built to my house, and the Turnpike Commission even provides a driver, even for my old junker.
S/OFF
Current maintenance and periodic improvements. I doubt that any of the road surface is left between New Stanton and Breezewood from when I first began traveling that stretch of road in 1981 though this past summer, which was my latest trip on it. One can tell the difference in upkeep comparing I-70 from Wheeling WV to getting on the tollway at New Stanton.
The PA Turnpike has been undergoing a massive initiative to reconstruct the entire roadway all the way down to the subgrade and road bed.
Seems like every bridge built, is built with the promise that tolls are temporary until the cost of building it is repaid. A promise that is broken every time. The SF/Oakland Bay Bridge was built with that promise, and the temporary toll was made permanent and raised in price repeatedly, to the point that toll profits were used to build other bridges across the Bay (which now have excessive tolls that weren't needed to build them).