William World News William F. Yurasko's blog v.14 – Nats, Redskins, Capitals, D.C. life, transportation, not so much Penn State anymore,

Financing for turnpike/I-95 connector concerns auditor general – The Inky
In not-all-surprising news, that Pennsylvania Turnpike/I-95 green card scheme has gotten the attention of Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale.
DePasquale said he was especially interested in why an entity was created to broker the deal, in which wealthy foreign investors would lend the turnpike $200 million [...]

Chinese investors to fund turnpike-I-95 connection – The Inky
The multi-generational saga to build an interchange between the I-276/Pennsylvania Turnpike and Interstate 95/Delaware Expressway just got weirder:
To help pay for the construction of the long-awaited connection between the Pennsylvania Turnpike and I-95, turnpike officials plan to borrow $200 million from wealthy foreign investors.
The investors, expected to [...]

Photo by I.C. Ligget – The control cities are weak, should be Del Mem Br/Baltimore/Washington

Working to end the bottlenecks – The Inky
The extension of the New Jersey Turnpike car-bus-truck lanes southward to Exit 6, the Pennsylvania Turnpike interchange is progressing well.
Billed as the biggest ongoing roadway project in the United States, the undertaking will transform [...]

I think the fellow who does the TollRoadsNews blog must have gotten stuck in traffic going from the Pennsylvania Turnpike to Interstate 70 recently because he has a pretty angry post up about the non-direct connection. For the unfamiliar, Breezewood is the eastern end of the I-70/76 concurrency. I-70 splits off from the Pennsylvania Turnpike [...]

Over the next couple of weekends, NPR is running a series called I-95: The Road Most Traveled. I-95 is the busiest interstate corridor with 100 million people living along it. I drive on about 3 miles of it every week day and have spent countless hours cruising up to New Jersey (though not much lately) [...]

Tolls on I-80 denied – The CollegianU.S. rejects Pa.’s request for I-80 tolls – The InkyU.S. says no to Interstate 80 tolls – Post-GazetteLawmakers seek plan to fix roads – CDTThere will not be tolls along I-80 in Pennsylvania as proposed, the Federal Transportation Administrator blocked it.
I was all ready to call Pennsylvania the “tollbooth [...]

Spanish firm offers $12.8 billion to lease turnpike – The InkyGov. Ed Rendell released plans to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike to a Spanish company. I still don’t understand how doing this makes sense other than providing an initial windfall. I hope it does not go through.
New Jersey and Delaware are thinking of doing the same [...]

Rendell expects to name turnpike lessee soon – The InkyGood news — tolls on the federally funded Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania may not happen. The bad news is the reason why they won’t happen.
Gov. Ed Rendell is still pushing to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike which essentially transforms a public utilities into private monopoly.* I am [...]

The Post-Gazette reports that Gov. Ed Rendell has pulled back on his plans to privatize the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
David Jones (there he is again) isn’t going to be happy with this news as he has a long column in today’s Patriot-News detailing his recent experience with Turnpike ineptness and surly employees.
Pennsylvania Turnpike, Ed Rendell, [...]

Mike Joseph of the CDT notes that one of Pennsylvania’s leading political analysts, G. Terry Madonna, thinks Gov. Ed Rendell should lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike to Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez:
Chavez, whose country is rich with oil, would be eager to lease the turnpike, Madonna said: “He’ll do anything to get his hooks into America.”
And then, [...]