Ed Blazina

The Pennsylvania Turnpike is ready to make money — potentially tens of millions — by selling space on a new broadband system along the toll road in Eastern Pennsylvania. The agency has nearly completed two projects totaling $95 million to install fiber-optic cable under the berm of about 220 miles of the highway, split almost evenly between the main line from Harrisburg to the New Jersey border and the Northeast Extension.

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission is teaming with Carnegie Mellon University, Allies for Children and others to take a regional approach to improving broadband service in the 10-county area in an effort to take best advantage of $65 billion in recently approved federal infrastructure funds. For more than a year, the planning agency has been working mostly behind the scenes with consultant Michael Baker to identify broadband dead spots, areas with insufficient service, and residents who can’t afford service, under a program dubbed SWPA Connected.