Pennsylvania revamps P3 law after unpopular toll program shot down

Pennsylvania has revamped its legislation governing public-private partnerships within the wake of a court docket choice that struck down a high-profile P3 bridge program.

The brand new legislation voids the Pennsylvania Division of Transportation’s skill to impose tolls to pay for the $2.5 billion Main Bridge P3 Initiative. It additionally reduces the division’s skill to impose consumer charges on different new infrastructure tasks.

“In the present day, thou shall not toll,” mentioned Sen. Wayne Langerholc, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee and sponsor of SB382, on July 7 from the Senate flooring.

Gov. Tom Wolf, who final 12 months had pledged to veto the invoice, signed it into legislation on July 11 after negotiating with lawmakers and within the wake of unfavorable court docket choices concentrating on the P3 bridge program.

The brand new legislation illustrates the controversy that may stymie infrastructure tasks backed by new consumer charges like tolls.

In Pennsylvania, the courts sided with sad residents who had sued to cease this system, arguing that PennDOT’s P3 Board had authorised the plan with out neighborhood enter or specifying which bridges can be focused. A commonwealth court docket ruling on June 30 primarily killed this system, with the ruling elevating questions concerning the constitutionality of the state’s whole P3 legislation.

The brand new legislation doesn’t have an effect on PennDOT’s skill to proceed to work with the non-public staff it employed for the Main Bridge Initiative, although the contract will doubtless must be restructured.

In March, the division introduced it had entered right into a predevelopment settlement with a staff led by Macquarie Infrastructure Developments LLC to restore or exchange as much as 9 interstate bridges.

The proposed pricing and supply phrases of the primary bundle of bridges was to be submitted by Macquarie in December, a timeline that can now doubtless be pushed again as PennDOT weighs its subsequent transfer.

“The trail ahead on the Main Bridge P3 Initiative remains to be being decided,” mentioned a PennDOT spokesperson. The brand new legislation doesn’t prohibit P3s or non-compulsory tolling, the spokesperson famous. “The administration continues to welcome to encourage lawmakers to work with the administration to phases out the fuel tax whereas creating a sustainable funding answer for our infrastructure.”

The tolling was anticipated to account for almost all of the supply funds backing the P3, however the income sources should not detailed within the contract and the commonwealth’s Motor Automobile Fund was the last word backstop.

Along with lowering its skill to impose consumer charges, the brand new legislation requires PennDOT to develop an in depth evaluation of a proposed transportation mission previous to requesting approval from the P3 Board, submit the evaluation to the Normal Meeting and the P3 Board, and permit for a 30-day public remark interval earlier than any P3 Board voting.  

“I had critical considerations with PennDOT’s authority to primarily tax and applicable funds with out extra oversight from the Normal Meeting,” Langerholc mentioned in an announcement after the invoice’s passage.

In a tweet, Langerholc mentioned the Normal Meeting would “proceed to dialogue with @GovernorTomWolf on how one can correctly fund our roads and bridges.”

Lawmakers have mentioned the commonwealth can faucet a few of the Infrastructure Funding and Jobs Act to cowl transportation infrastructure wants and even COVID-19 pandemic support.

Pennsylvania has greater than 3,200 spans which might be categorised as structurally poor, in response to the American Highway & Transportation Builders Affiliation.