HARRISBURG — The state Senate's top Republican criticized two GOP congressmen for trying to stop the tolling of Interstate 80, calling them "obstructionists" to a plan to use the toll revenue to pay for bridge and highway improvements.

In a statement released Thursday by Sen. Joe Scarnati, the chamber's president pro tempore from Jefferson County, said money is badly needed to fix nearly 6,000 bridges that are structurally deficient and 9,000 miles of road in poor condition.

And he blamed U.S. Reps. Phil English and John Peterson for failing to secure enough federal transportation dollars for Pennsylvania, forcing the state to come up with a funding plan that, in part, rests on a proposal to toll I-80.

"It's unfortunate the congressmen only seem interested in being obstructionists, rather than working with us in finding solutions to address this crisis," Scarnati said.

Scarnati, whose northcentral Pennsylvania district substantially overlaps with Peterson's, cited legislation announced last week by English and Peterson that would eliminate the state's economic incentive to place tolls on the interstate.

That plan would establish a federal excise tax equal to the amount of new tolls imposed on any federally financed interstate and funnel the revenue into a federal program that helps workers whose jobs were moved overseas.

Peterson contended that Pennsylvania already gets one of the largest shares of federal transportation funding, and that tolls on I-80 will hurt local economies.

"I think that Mr. Scarnati would be well served to have visited with his companies" before he backed the tolling legislation, Peterson said.

Both Peterson and English also took on Scarnati's assertion that they voted for a 1998 federal bill that advanced the prospect of adding tolls to I-80. Peterson said the roads were in much worse shape in 1998, and English's spokeswoman Julia Wanzco said any toll revenue would have been restricted to maintenance on I-80.