With federal and state funding prospects looking grim, Montgomery County officials have devised an unorthodox plan to pay for a road linking downtown Norristown to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, a $160 million project considered essential to the community's long-delayed revitalization.

It would require motorists who use the proposed new turnpike interchange at Norristown to pay both a toll and a surcharge, most likely $1.

Presented publicly for the first time yesterday, the plan already has an enthusiastic backer: Gov. Rendell.

He was briefed on the idea while in Norristown for the opening of a $17 million, four-level, 483-space parking garage at Main and Cherry Streets, touted as another key element in the county seat's renaissance.

After the ceremony, he met with reporters to announce his support. As a "reward" for such an "innovative approach," Rendell said, he was "strongly inclined" to support the county's request for $20 million from the state for the turnpike connector. The project also includes the renovation and extension of Lafayette Street, a major artery through the Norristown business district.

That still would be $48 million less than local officials had been counting on from Harrisburg.

"There would have been no hope of getting [$68 million]," Rendell said yesterday. Virtually all plans for new road projects are on hold, he said, as that money will be diverted for repairing aging roads and structurally troubled bridges.

The county had gotten that bleak news a couple of months ago. But officials were unwilling to scrap the Lafayette Street project, which has been in the works for nearly 10 years and which had already attracted $25 million in federal, state and county funding for engineering costs. To save the project, they came up with the surcharge concept, which likely would not affect drivers until 2014.

It is only part of a new funding strategy that will require approval from the three county commissioners. The plan calls for the county to build the entire project with $75 million already committed by the Turnpike Commission, the $20 million Rendell proferred yesterday, and $65 million in bonds the county would float to make up the difference.

Revenue from the surcharge would pay off the bonds in about 12 years, said Leo Bagley, the county's chief transportation planner. That is based on projections that at least 2.5 million cars would use the interchange annually.

The county expects to net upward of $60 million over 30 years, Bagley said. That money could then be used for other downtown road-improvement projects, he said. The county also could have the option of ending the surcharge once the bond debt was satisfied.

The county might also find a private investor willing to share the debt, Bagley said.

"This is new and different for Pennsylvania," he said. "But I don't know what our [other] choices are."

Though many uncertainties remain, one thing is absolute, Commissioner Joseph Hoeffel said: "This project won't get built unless we have innovative financing like this."

The sole Democrat on the Board of Commissioners, Hoeffel has forged an alliance with Republican Chairman James Matthews, who also seemed bullish on the plan.

"It's totally revolutionary," he said. "It's never been done by a [Pennsylvania] county."

If the surcharge plan passes legal muster - Bagley and others predict success - Rendell said he hoped it would serve as "a motivator to other counties and other towns to think out of the box and come up with some innovation in looking at these road projects."

County and Norristown officials also took advantage of their rare time with the governor to lobby for help in securing state funding for the $92 million movie studio/office/retail complex proposed for the aged Logan Square shopping center on the outskirts of town.

Rendell gave them a $10 million "verbal" funding commitment, pending Senate approval of legislation that would increase funding for a state redevelopment assistance program.

He was less optimistic about coming up with the $150 million needed to relocate a major obstacle to Norristown's riverfront development plans: the sewer plant. As an alternative to moving it, officials propose capping and renovating it so it would not be a visual or odorous impediment to development. The latter project could cost nearly $100 million.

Nevertheless, Rendell said, he remains committed to Norristown's revitalization.

"We want to keep it going," he said. "The thing about momentum is, it doesn't last forever."