Turnpike bidding goes into overtime

HARRISBURG - Preliminary bids for a 75-year lease of the Pennsylvania Turnpike came in so close to one another that at least some of the bidders have been given five more days to sweeten the pot.

Gov. Rendell said yesterday that the highest bid submitted by Friday's deadline and all other bids that were at least 90 percent of the highest bid qualified for the right to submit a best and final offer by the end of the week.

The governor did not say how high the initial bids were or how many qualified for the additional time. "The bids are sufficient that I think the legislature has to give this a hard look," he said at a news conference to announce the delay.

Rendell said he was happy with the results so far. "Given what's happened to the market recently, absolutely," he said. "You know, it's not a great time to be doing this and would that we had done it a little earlier, but it is what it is."

Rendell plans to submit the largest bid to the General Assembly but he acknowledged that "it may be difficult" to get the legislature to act by the end of June.

The winning bidder will have to post a $100 million letter of credit that can be forfeited if the legislature signs off on a deal but the bidder backs out.

Rendell has proposed a 75-year lease of 500 miles of the turnpike system to raise billions of dollars to repair crumbling roads, rebuild decaying bridges, and help subsidize mass transit.

A long-term turnpike lease would replace the multi-billion-dollar transportation-funding law that passed the General Assembly last summer. That law would add tolls to Interstate 80, among other things, and has engendered bitter opposition among the people and businesses along the major east-west artery.

Rendell said he was pushing to have the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and the state Transportation Department submit documents by the end of this week to the federal authorities who will approve or reject the I-80 toll conversion.

"If I were a legislator, I'm not sure I would want to vote this in a vacuum," Rendell said of the turnpike-leasing plan. "I'd want to know what happened to I-80 first."

Under terms of the lease, the operator could increase tolls by 25 percent early next year and then annually by 2.5 percent or the consumer price index, whichever is higher.