"Avellino, Maureen" <mavellin@paturnpike.com> wrote:
From: "Avellino, Maureen"
To:
Subject: PA Turnpike Commission
Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 15:03:29 -0500


Dear Turnpike Customer,

Thank you for writing to express your concerns about tolls on the
Pennsylvania Turnpike.

This toll increase simply keeps pace with inflation since the last increase.
According to the Consumer Price Index or CPI, the cost of tolls will not
increase at a higher rate than other goods including medicine, food, gas, or
homes. One service, however, that has in fact outpaced inflation is the cost
of rebuilding roads, says the Automobile Association of America (AAA).

The last time tolls were increased for the Pennsylvania Turnpike was 1991.
Since then, Turnpike customers have enjoyed a holiday from toll increases.

Our Turnpike is a safe road today. But, if we do not implement a toll hike,
the potential clearly exists for the road to become unsafe. With current
revenues, it will take 104 years to reconstruct the Turnpike; but with the
proposed increase, we could finish in just 30 years. We will also be able to
widen the road where it tends to bottleneck, build new ramps, more adequate
shoulders and sound walls, eliminate dangerous curves, improve interchanges
and make E-ZPass work even better for drivers.

The original PA Turnpike was constructed in the 1930s using the best
engineering practices of the day. It was made up of just 9 inches of
concrete poured upon compacted earth and designed to carry only 500,000
vehicles annually. More than 60 years later, some 500,000 vehicles pound the
road every day, including thousands of tractor-trailers weighing more than
75,000 tons (a size unheard of back in the mid-20th century).

These facts are noted because the vast majority of the Turnpike has never
been reconstructed. Today's best engineering practices demand that our
highway is rebuilt using more than two feet of modern road-building
materials. This reconstruction is critical for keeping the road safe.

In addition, the Turnpike is responsible for more than 800 bridges many of
which are in need of replacement. The engineering design life for a bridge
is roughly 50 years. It should be cause for some alarm that 300 of our
bridges are at least that old today - and an additional 300 will be that age
in the coming decade. Hence, in the next 10 years, 600 of 800 bridges will
be significantly older than their intended design life.

Every penny of this increase will go to improve the road, and none will be
spent on administration, which will continue to be streamlined. Further,
this will be the last toll increase for at least the remainder of this
decade, so Pennsylvania Turnpike customers can once again enjoy a holiday
from toll increases while driving a better, safer road.

If you would like additional information about the specific projects that
are planned, our Capital Plan, or other issues related to the toll increase,
please visit our website at www.paturnpike.com and review our Commonly Asked
Questions or press release sections, found under the Special Announcements
heading on our home page.


Maureen Avellino
PA Turnpike Commission
Customer Assistance Center
(800)331-3414