How Valuable is I-80 Tolling?

When the Federal Highway Administration rejected the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission’s proposal to toll I-80, one of the numerous reasons was there had been no market valuation of the sweetheart deal – i.e. the Turnpike Commission promised to pay exactly what legislators wanted to get in new revenue.

So, to prepare for another application to the feds, the Turnpike Commission submitted an after-the-fact study showing that, yes, their plan was perfectly within reason.

But surely there is no reason to question that study is there.  I’m sure it was done by a company with a long history of evaluating transportation projects or other major assets, not by a company that has no experience in that area until they took the Turnpike Commission’s check.  Right?