Kathy Mellott
kmellott@tribdem.com
—
As state legislators scramble for ways to pay for much-needed highway and bridge improvements, a look at what might have been had the federal government approved the tolling of Interstate 80 shows Cambria and Somerset counties will have more than $24 million worth of work delayed, perhaps for many years.
The project total in the six counties making up the Southern Alleghenies Planning and Development Commission is more than $55 million, said Anne Stich, Southern Alleghenies transportation program manager.
Efforts will be made to get as many of the projects as possible on the new transportation plan update – commonly referred to as the 12-year plan, she said.
But others hold little hope for some of the bridge and highway work.
“These projects are just dead in the water,” Cambria County Planning Commission Executive Director Bradford Beigay said Tuesday. “They (Penn-
DOT) said these projects would be delayed and it could be for quite a long time.”
The list developed by PennDOT District 9 in Hollidaysburg shows Cambria County would have received more than $13.9 million over the next three years.
The money would have been used for four bridge replacements and resurfacing of a portion of Route 219 in the northern part of the county. Also being put on the back burner is resurfacing of more than three miles in five sections in and around Johnstown.
All are projects that need to be done, but a lack of funding takes them off the table, officials said.
The news is nearly as bad for Somerset County, where more than $10 million in projects will not be done between 2011 and 2014.
Lost to the state funding crisis is replacement of five bridges and nearly eight miles of highway restoration on Route 281 in Upper Turkeyfoot and Middlecreek townships and New Centerville Borough.
State officials had hoped the tolling of Interstate 80 would generate more than $400 million annually for use on the east-west four lane and on projects in every corner of the state.
In April, the federal Highway Transportation Administration rejected the proposal and a special legislative session earlier this month to look for additional transportation revenue sources was less than productive.
“We’re sort of stymied. An election year is not a good year to increase taxes, especially with gas prices hovering at $3 a gallon,” state Rep. Gary Haluska, D-Patton, said Tuesday.
Hearings by the state House Transportation Committee kick off today in Hershey, the site for comment from much of the area, said Haluska, a committee member.
“Part of the hearings are to say ‘OK, without tolling of 80, you’re going to have to dump a whole lot of projects because there is not a lot of money,’ ” Haluska said.
Five additional hearings will be held through June 17 in Lock Haven, Philadelphia, Scranton, Clarion and Center Valley, Lehigh County.
The hearings begin days after the National Society of Engineers’ release of a report card giving Pennsylvania near failing grades for highways, bridges and mass transit.
A $3.5 billion funding gap between need and revenue has resulted in a poorly repaired and maintained system, the engineers said.
The state was handed a C for its bridges and a D-minus each for highways and mass transit.
The report is confirmation of what the Rendell administration has been saying for some time, said Allen Biehler, state secretary of transportation.
Much of Pennsylvania’s problem is that the highway system is so large and so old, he said in response to the engineers’ report.
Without additional resources, PennDOT will lose ground on the number of structurally deficient bridges, see pavement conditions deteriorate and have no means to tackle much sought-after capacity projects that would ease congestion and improve mobility for many regions of Pennsylvania, PennDOT spokesman Rich Kirkpatrick said.
Rep. Carl Walker Metzger, R-Berlin, who opposed I-80 tolling, said addressing the transportation funding crisis needs to start with fixing mass transit in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
