Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission officials today announced the Commission has made its first payment of $62.5 million to PennDOT in accordance with Act 44, the legislation passed last month that helps close a wide transportation-funding gap in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

It is one of four payments to be made to PennDOT in the initial year of Act 44, which was signed by Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell July 18. In all, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission will make payments to PennDOT totaling $750 million in fiscal year 2008 alone.

“This is just the first of many such payments with a grand total of $57 billion to be paid by the Turnpike to PennDOT over a 40-year timeframe,” said Turnpike CEO Joe Brimmeier. “In making this transfer, we’re moving ahead with the State Legislature’s groundbreaking transportation-funding plan.”

Brimmeier added that the initial payment represents “the first step in an historic measure to help fund the state’s highways, bridges and mass-transit systems so desperately in need of financial support.”
        
The state received the $62.5 million disbursement Aug. 7. As per the legislation, the Turnpike’s next payment is due by the end of October.

“We at the Turnpike Commission look forward to working with Gov. Rendell and State Transportation Secretary Allen Biehler on this unique public-public partnership,” Brimmeier said. “Everyone here at the Commission is proud to have played an integral role in helping to solve the state’s transportation-funding crisis.”