Wolf Administration Local Bridge Program to Benefit Bucks County

Wolf Administration Local Bridge Program to Benefit Bucks County

12/6/2017-HARRISBURG

A local bridge improvement program announced as part of the Wolf
Administration's Road Maintenance and Preservation, or Road MaP, initiative

will make possible a partnership to rehabilitate a bridge in Bucks County,
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) Secretary Leslie S.
Richards said today.

"The bridge challenges facing counties are in some ways more daunting than
what
we have faced tackling the backlog of maintenance on the state system,"
Secretary Richards said. "Since we are making significant progress, we are
using the new Road MaP program to help counties with their bridges. I
commend
the county and our regional planning partner for recognizing and acting on
these needed improvements in Bucks County."

The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission today added a $2 million
project to rehabilitate the King Road Bridge over Herkaken Creek in New
Britain
Township to its transportation improvement program, a necessary step as
part of
PennDOT's collaborative planning process with metropolitan and regional
planning organizations statewide. PennDOT is allocating $2 million in
federal
funds toward the project. The King Road bridge, built in 1912, is
structurally
deficient and is posted with a 7-ton weight restriction.

Through Road MaP, PennDOT is making opportunities available for counties
who
have taken steps to enhance their transportation networks by collecting the
$5
vehicle registration fee enabled by Act 89 of 2013, the state
transportation
plan. Chester, Montgomery, Berks, and Schuylkill counties are also
leveraging
the partnership for bridge projects in their counties.

The partnership makes available up to $2 million for each county that has
passed a fee resolution, with a 50-percent local match commitment required
to
secure the program funding.

"The $5 bridge fee has served as a terrific way for taxpayers to know their

entire contribution has gone to infrastructure repair and replacement in
their
own county," said Diane M. Ellis-Marseglia, Bucks County commissioner.
"Moreover, the impact on residents commutes as well as emergency response
time
and easy access to the local businesses is easily seen and improves the
quality
of everyone's life in Bucks County. It is also pretty amazing to watch
governments of two levels work swiftly and cooperatively together."

"Approximately a third of Greater Philadelphia's local bridges are
structurally
deficient. The Road MaP initiative is way for Bucks County to take action
to
reduce that backlog," said DVRPC Associate Director for Transportation,
Elizabeth Schoonmaker. "By helping to keep our bridges in a state of good
repair, this program will ultimately benefit the entire Greater
Philadelphia
region."

This component of Road MaP is aimed at addressing the needs of
Pennsylvania's
6,477 locally owned bridges, of which 2,038 – or more than 31 percent – are

structurally deficient. The need to improve local bridges was underscored
when
the biennial Transportation Performance Report, assembled by PennDOT, the
State
Transportation Commission, and the Transportation Advisory Committee and
viewable at www.TalkPATransportation.com, identified local bridges as the
only
category receiving a "low" performance rating. Since 2008, PennDOT has cut
the
number of structurally deficient bridges on the state system from a high of

6.034 to 3,280.

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