Free Republic

BOSWELL — An Indiana County trucker faces more than $1.2 million in fines after authorities said he routinely traveled the Pennsylvania Turnpike with a stolen E-ZPass. State police charged Thomas Howard Wambold, 38, of Blairsville, with 1,241 counts of using the E-ZPass to evade tolls for 21/2 years – between Sept. 23, 2005, and March 24. Wambold was scheduled to be arraigned Monday before District Judge Susan Mankamyer of Boswell. In addition to a $1,000 fine for each alleged violation, authorities contend Wambold owes $575,980 in full fares to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. “My life is over. Thanks,” Wambold allegedly...

Stretching through the rural countryside with limited access and no speed limit in 1940, the Pennsylvania Turnpike was built to resemble Germany's autobahn. Now thanks to a $12.8 billion dollar offer, it may soon become Spain's. According to a report in the Philadelphia Daily News, Gov. Ed Rendell has announced that Abertis Infraestructuras of Barcelona has offered the top dollar bid to the state of Pennsylvania for the rights to manage the toll road under a 75-year lease. The highway could become just the latest in a string of U.S. infrastructure landmarks to be operated by foreign companies. In 2004,...

The nation's transportation experts have identified their top three priorities: a national freight network, urban congestion and connecting new urban centers with the interstate system. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, meeting in national conference last month, heard futurists predict that the cost of meeting the transportation needs would be $3.1 trillion over the next 25 years. State and local governments are turning to "public-private partnerships," or PPPs, to produce the funding. The city of Chicago was happy to partner with a Spanish-Australian group that paid $1.83 billion for a 99-year lease to operate the Chicago Skyway....

The transportation issues facing Texas Gov. Rick Perry earlier this decade were so severe that it was faster to take back roads from San Antonio to Dallas than Interstate 35. That's akin to taking Route 60 to Pittsburgh International Airport from Downtown to avoid the Parkway West. Perry pushed through a package of highway construction projects driven by public-private partnerships, similar to the long-term lease of the Pennsylvania Turnpike sought by Gov. Ed Rendell. Texas' decision to turn to private companies to build and maintain 4,000 miles of highways in key corridors was in response to a business and population...

Available for sale or lease: Historic, 359-mile toll road. Guaranteed income. Heavily worn; needs TLC. Work force of thousands included. See Gov. Rendell for details. Yes, the Pennsylvania Turnpike is up for grabs. Scrounging for transportation funding amid the no-new-taxes atmosphere of Harrisburg, Rendell officially invited suitors yesterday to make an offer for the venerable tollway. "There is only one option that is not on the table - and that is doing nothing," Rendell said of Pennsylvania's quest to find almost $2 billion more each year to bolster its roads, bridges, and public transit system