WHITE HAVEN, Pa. — Site surveyors can be seen parked under the Lehigh River Bridge in White Haven.
This comes just after PennDOT announced plans to repair the bridge at a cost to drivers.
The agency is considering a plan to raise money by putting tolls on interstate highways across the state, including near the White Haven exit.
"I think it's kind of absurd to add more expenses to people's lives now at this point, especially with everything that is going on. It's going to be a little difficult, and people are going to be upset about it," said Anthony Joseph, Wilkes-Barre.
PennDOT says the tolls would cover the cost of much-needed repairs to the bridges as part of its major Public-Private Partnership or P-3 Initiative.
Nine bridges across the state are on the list to be tolled.
Tolls would be collected through an E-ZPass or pay-by-plate option to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which would send the money to PennDOT.
Brandon Andras runs Ovy Trucking in White Haven with his dad. His tractor-trailers use the bridge several times a day. He hopes the plan is not approved.
"That would be pretty bad. We have a lot of loads going on (Interstate) 80 east. I mean, we are right off the highway. We are only a quarter-mile away, so it's going to be rough. We have probably nine trucks going out that way almost every day, every other day. It's going to be bad," said Brandon Andras, Ovy Trucking.
People Newswatch 16 spoke to are concerned that if drivers try to avoid the tolls, it will heavily congest local roads.
Louis Esa is the mayor of East Side, near White Haven. He doesn't deny the bridge needs to be repaired but hopes the money is raised in a different way.
"I am not for tolls, but the problem I find is going to be the traffic that comes through the borough in White Haven here, and it will be way too much. People are not going to want to pay it. Trucks, for the most part, probably won't want to go too much out of the way, but anytime there is an accident or a problem on this interstate, we get flooded. I think there should definitely be a lot of discussions before they decide to put tolls on that bridge," said Esa.
If approved, the tolls would be between $1 and $2 for both directions and would begin, along with the construction, in 2023.