Group Bids $12.8 Billion for Pennsylvania Turnpike Lease
A team of private interests Monday submitted the highest bid of $12.8 billion to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike for 75 years, the Associated Press reported.
The plan is being backed by Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D), who said it would provide more than $1 billion a year in funding for road and bridge repair over the first 10 years, but the plan still needs the backing of state lawmakers, AP reported.
If approved, the plan is likely to scuttle plans to put tolls on Interstate 80, AP said.
“This is a great day for Pennsylvania,” Rendell said in a statement. “We urgently need new funding for road and bridge repair, and a turnpike lease will help us meet that need. Under the terms and conditions we set, the turnpike will be upgraded and tolls will be no higher than the Turnpike Commission will charge.”
The bid was submitted by a unit of Citigroup Inc. and Spanish company Abertis Infraestructuras, AP reported. It was $700 million higher than the next-highest competing bid. The two losing bids were submitted by Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Transurban Group of Australia, and by a team of Macquarie Infrastructure Group of Australia and Cintra of Spain.
The Cintra-Macquarie group owns a 75-year lease on the Indiana Toll Road, in a deal that was finalized two years ago.
Groups including American Trucking Associations and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association wrote to the U.S. Department of Transportation late last year to protest any potential tolling of I-80.
