"This is a great day for Pennsylvania," Rendell said in aprepared statement. "We urgently need new funding for road andbridge repair, and a turnpike lease will help us meet that need.Under the terms and conditions we set, the turnpike will beupgraded and tolls will be no higher than the Turnpike Commissionwill charge."

Abertis, a Spanish toll road operating company from Barcelona,could retain the right to raise tolls 25% next year, and then hiketolls 2.5%, or the rate of inflation, the following years. The firmpartnered with Spanish investment firm Criteria CaixaCorp andCitigroup. The operator directly manages more than 2,000 miles,while indirectly managing 3,000 miles of toll roads in Spain, theUnited Kingdom, Italy, Puerto Rico, France and Argentina.

Rendell extended the bidding for the lease of the PennsylvaniaTurnpike past its original May 9 deadline because two top bidderswere with 10% of each other, and were given an additional week toresubmit. Goldman Sachs had the second highest bid with $12.1billion.