I-80 was originally going to be a turnpike with tolls, the same as the PA turnpike (I-76) to the south, according to “Pennsylvania Highways: Interstate 80“:

The longest east-west Interstate in Pennsylvania, Interstate 80 was originally conceived as the Turnpike’s Sharon to Stroudsburg Lateral Connection prior to the Interstate legislation being signed. The first proposed alignment was from the Delaware Water Gap to the Susquehanna River, and one map showed the terminus in Millersburg. Later, it was revised to be a parallel highway to the mainline Turnpike. On June 29, 1956, when the Interstate Act was passed, all planning was moved to the Department of Highways.

Tolls on I-80 have been proposed several times, with proposals in 1998, 2004, and again this year.

The former Representative Bud Shuster, who can’t keep his hands off of other interstates, wanted to have tolls collected on I-80. The reason being that it is need of repair, and that most traffic on the highway is from out of state so tax those who use it most. The proposal was rejected by former Governor Ridge. Then an article in the April 7, 1999 Greensburg Tribune-Review reported that the Ridge Administration had gone back to this plan, but with him being selected as Secretary of Homeland Security and moving to Washington, this plan seems to have been axed. The idea of imposing a toll was not a new idea, and had gone back as far as the late Governor Milton Shapp’s administration in the 1970s. The plan was resurrected in the 1980s when the Turnpike Expansion bill was signed which led to the construction of PA Turnpike 60 and PA Turnpike 66, and the completion of PA Turnpike 43.

The idea of tolling the Shortway came back to the surface in 2004. On March 1, Department of Transportation Secretary Allen Biehler told the state House Appropriations Committee that a series of toll plazas could be built approximately every 30 miles along the Interstate. He also said that the feasibility study had been going on for several months and would take another two to complete.

This implementation is more like the Garden State Parkway system than the entry-exit system used on the PA and NJ turnpikes. The idea is that local travelers would not have to pay the tolls, only the intercity travelers and truckers would be paying tolls.