CLARION, Pa. -- Opponents of tolling Interstate 80 across Pennsylvania may end up taking their fight to state and federal courts.

"It's our last option and it could be a long, bloody one," said Brad Ehrhart, executive director of the Clairon County Economic Development Corp.

He said more business owners, other economic development agencies, civic groups and residents are coming forward in the wake of Act 44, which directs the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to raise tolls on its own road and convert I-80 into a toll road.

"[Legislators and Gov. Ed Rendell] think people won't do anything now that Act 44 is law," Mr. Ehrhart said. "It's typical of how they do things," referring to legislative pay raises that were enacted late at night two years ago and triggered public outrage.

Mr. Ehrhart said if it takes a lawsuit to stop tolls, opponents will seek to enlist help from the trucking industry and public watchdog groups like the Allegheny Institute and Commonwealth Foundation.

He made the comments in an interview after a four-hour symposium, called "Perspectives on I-80," sponsored by the Clarion Area Chamber of Business and Industry yesterday at a church near Clarion, the center of a growing public fight against tolling the 311-mile highway.

For now, Mr. Ehrhart said, opponents will try to persuade the Federal Highway Administration that the I-80 revenue-raising proposal adopted by the Legislature and signed by Mr. Rendell in July fails to meet criteria established in a federal transportation bill to qualify as a pilot project to turn a free interstate into a toll road.

At the same time, they will pressure lawmakers to repeal Act 44 by spreading word that tolling I-80 will be devastating to the whole state, not just the rural counties through which the highway passes. They also continue to hold that a record $9.6 billion in borrowing authorized under the act is risky and bad policy.

Pennsylvania Turnpike Chief Executive Officer Joe Brimmeier said while his agency is complying with the legislative mandate, he acknowledged that the FHWA could reject the state's application to toll I-80 as the third and last pilot project of its type in the United States.

"This is not a done deal," he said.

Tolling I-80 and increasing turnpike tolls are supposed to generate a total of $116 billion in extra revenue for roads, bridges and 73 public transit systems over the next 50 years, starting with $750 million in the current fiscal year. The turnpike has already borrowed $532 million and sent nearly $300 million of it to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

"We'll continue doing environmental, engineering and traffic and revenue studies and let the Federal Highway Administration make its decision," Mr. Brimmeier said. "We're here to listen and learn and hope to come to some reasonable resolution about what Act 44 mandates us to do."

Mr. Brimmeier got an earful, not from anonymous audience members as in past meetings but from a series of hand-picked speakers participating in legislative, economic development, community and business panels.

The legislative panel included U.S. Rep. John Peterson, R-Venango, who has unsuccessfully tried to amend the federal transportation bill to block I-80 tolls, and five Republican state House and Senate members who have been unable to advance legislation to repeal Act 44.

"Tolling I-80 will make us a totally noncompetitive state," Mr. Peterson said. "A lot of companies will close their doors, saying we can no longer afford you. Who are the losers? You are."