Former PennDOT Secretary Barry Schoch, ever the realist, cautioned us for years that even with the passage of a transportation funding measure, our road and bridge woes would not disappear overnight.
Sure enough, the American Road & Transportation Builders Association recently came out with its annual report on structurally deficient bridges. While the Keystone State is making progress – we’ve reduced the number by 2,000 since 2013 – we’re still second in the country, both in terms of the raw number and in the percentage of structurally deficient bridges.
We are making progress, however. We were first in those categories in 2013. Moreover, after replacing 50 of the state’s bridges in its first year, the Rapid Bridge Replacement Program will hit its stride with 200 more this year.
News accounts of these developments are linked below.
Transportation Issue Update
- The good news is that Pennsylvania has reduced its number of structurally deficient bridges by about 2,000, but we’re still second in the nation in terms of the number and percentage.
- Fifty bridges were replaced last year as part of PA’s Rapid Bridge Replacement Program, and 200 are on tap for replacement this year.
- In public transportation news, a PennDOT study projects that Adams, York, Cumberland, Perry, Franklin, Dauphin and Lebanon counties could save nearly $2.3 million annually by consolidating fixed route and shared ride transit services under a single municipal authority.
- Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has asked Congress to approve a $98 billion spending plan on transportation projects this year.
- Municipalities will receive more than $445 million in fuel tax revenue, a 16 percent boost compared with last year, and about $125 million more than before passage of Act 89.
- One phase of a long-awaited and much anticipated project started Monday in Northumberland County. The Central Susquehanna Valley Thruway project is expected to be finished in 2024.
- The march toward self-driving cars is moving forward. Here’s an update from Governing magazine.