Efforts by the States to obtain funds in sufficient amount for desirable Interstate System improvements through increased taxes or the authorization of general-obligation bonds have generally failed or have been inadequate. Proposals to borrow funds for improvements which may be thought to benefit principally motorists from othee States can hardly be expected to find favor with the voters of any State.
The Congress has recognized the importance of encouraging the capitalization of future revenues, and section 5 of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1950 (64 Stat. 785) provided as follows:
Sec. 5. Any State, county, city, or other political subdivision that shall issue bonds and use the proceeds of such bonds for the construction of toll-free facilities in order to accelerate the improvement of the National System of Interstate Highways, the Federal-aid primary highway system, or the Federal-aid highway system in urban areas, may apply any portion of the funds herein, or hereafter, authorized for expenditure on said systems of highways and apportioned to such State under the provisions of section 1 to aid in retirement of annual maturities of the principal indebtedness of such bonds to the extent that the proceeds of such bonds are actually expended in the construction of said systems of highways: * * *.
Four States have availed themselves of this means of accelerating improvement of their highway systems up to March 1, 1955. A total of 180 projects having an estimated total cost of $116,006,860, of which $66,108,358 may eventually be paid from Federal-aid funds, had been programed in the 4 States for the improvement of 656.8 miles of highway under the bond program.
Since the end of World War II the demand for solution of traffic problems on main highways has become increasingly urgent. At the same time there has been no provision of public funds, or steps toward financing, that offered relief within a reasonable period of years. In this situation some of the States have resorted, in increasing degree, to toll financing of highways, in order to effect a solution when it was felt delay could not longer be tolerated.
PRESENT TOLL ROAD DEVELOPMENT
Pennsylvania Turnpike
The first of the modern toll roads was the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The possibility of using the right-of-way of the never-completed South Penn Railroad, on which tunnels already penetrated several of the parallel mountain ranges, had long been envisioned. In contrast to driving over the winding road that crossed the mountains on steep grades, the prospect of traveling rapidly and easily through these barriers was most inviting. After much official and unofficial discussion in the State, the Pennsylvania Legislature created the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission in 1937, with authority to finance, construct, and operate a turnpike from Middlesex to Irwin (roughly, Harrisburg to Pittsburgh).
Despite the topographic conditions that gave the low-gradient route an unusual advantage, and despite the large volume of truck traffic moving between the population and industrial centers at the ends of the proposed turnpike, all efforts to sell bonds to private banking interests were unsuccessful.
