Beaver County Rep Wants PennDOT to Manage Turnpike

A State House Republican is making another push to consolidate the Turnpike Commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Representative Jim Christiana, in his second term from Beaver County, is authoring a bill to get rid of the Turnpike Commission.
Republicans have introduced similar measures in previous sessions, but the legislation has never gone anywhere.
However, the GOP now controls the House for the first time since 2006.
Christiana says the Turnpike's staff is out of sync with its its responsibilities, arguing the Commission has one manager for every thirteen miles of roadway.

"It's just disproportional. It's redundant. It's inefficient operation of the Turnpike Commission. And we should just allow PennDOT to do what they do for thousands and thousands of miles of roadway - and that's just manage the roadways of Pennsylvania."

Christiana wants to abolish the Turnpike Commission, and create a subdivision within PennDOT to manage the toll road.
A House Republican spokesman says the bill is "definitely" something GOP leaders want to look into during the legislative session, once work begins on January 18th.