I suspect (but cannot prove) that the FHWA will not allow a state to impose tolls only on traffic crossing a state boundary as part of the Interstate System Reconstruction & Rehabilitation Pilot Program, for practical reasons (a single tolling point is likely to cause shunpiking) and for reasons of equity (states should not be allowed to discriminate against interstate travel).
On its face, that may be true, but in practical application, most of the interstates that the states are pushing for this program carry a higher-than-normal percentage of true interstate (or out-of-state) traffic.
H.B., that is correct (at least in most cases). The Virginia proposal to toll I-95 is an exception.
I-80 connects nothing of real significance in Pennsylvania, but it's a major route from the Midwest to NYC.
I've driven almost none of I-80 in Penn's Woods, but from looking at a map, it seems you are correct. "A whole lot of nothing."
Other people that I trust say that long sections of I-80 in Pennsylvania need reconstruction and repair (and probably widening, though that was not included in the PTC/PennDOT proposal that was submitted to USDOT).
I-95 connects nothing of real significance in North Carolina, but it's a major route from Florida to the Northeast.
Absolutely correct. I am one of those users, driving rather frequently from Maryland to South Carolina.
And I
know that long sections of I-95 in North Carolina are badly in need of widening and total reconstruction.
And even though NCDOT has done some remediation work, there are still about a dozen overpasses (mostly around and north of Lumberton) that are too low for Interstate-legal truck traffic.
A toll collection point near the state line would just be a much more obvious symbol of what those states are really trying to do; which is collect tolls from out-of-state motorists who are just passing through.
That's true, though (strange as it sounds), I
liked the PTC/PennDOT proposal for tolling I-80 (I did
not like the proposal to divert most of the I-80 revenue to militantly unionized hourly transit employees in urban areas of Pennsylvanian far from the I-80 corridor, however - nor did the Bush and Obama Administration USDOTs).
Four-wheeled vehicles with E-ZPass transponders would have gotten the
first toll collection gantry they passed on I-80 free of charge, in that way making a fair number of short intrastate trips toll-free.
Did you ever drive the Connecticut Turnpike in the years before it was de-tolled? I did. Even though there was no E-ZPass back then, it was pretty obvious to me that the barrier tolls were located in such a way to allow many local trips on the Turnpike to be free of charge.