Governor Wolf Reinforces Commitment to Rural Communities, Local Infrastructure with New Investments

Governor Wolf Reinforces Commitment to Rural Communities, Local
Infrastructure with New Investments

2/12/2018-KING OF PRUSSIA

Governor Tom Wolf today outlined Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
(PennDOT) plans to fix more locally owned bridges and improve more than
1,100
miles of rural and low-volume roadway through multi-year investments
included
in his budget proposal released this week.
The department is implementing five-year investment programs including a
Rural
Commercial Routes program that will improve low-volume roads through
industry
partnerships and with cost-effective treatments like Recycled Asphalt
Paving
(RAP); and rehabilitating or replacing at least 85 municipally owned
bridges
over five years.
"These investments build on the Road Maintenance and Preservation Program
[Road
MaP] that we started last year to increase effort on not only major routes,
but
also lower traffic roadways across the state," Governor Wolf said. "We will

leverage partnerships with local governments and private industry to bring
targeted and much-needed improvements."
The Rural Commercial Routes program will invest $200 million over the
five-year
period on roadways seeing, on average, fewer than 3,000 vehicles daily.
More
than 360 miles will be improved in 2018-19 alone, including roadways posted

with weight restrictions as well as an estimated 260 miles to be improved
with
lower-cost pavement treatments such as RAP.
The program will also expand cost-sharing partnerships with heavy hauling
industries to improve roadways not originally designed to handle heavy
vehicles, many of which are posted with weight restrictions. Examples of
industries that have previously taken part in the 50-percent cost-sharing
partnership include timber, aggregate haulers, Unconventional Oil and Gas
and
Natural Gas, and more.
"Many businesses rely on our rural roadways to transport their products,"
PennDOT Secretary Leslie S. Richards said. "These investments will improve
travel not only for these industries, but also residents."
The administration is also expanding its focus on locally owned bridges by
rehabilitating or replacing 85 to 100 bridges over five years. The $50
million
program will add bridges to the department's Twelve Year Transportation
Program, requires no local match, and will bundle bridges for savings and
efficiency wherever feasible.
The local bridge investments complement the local bridge program included
in
Road MaP which makes 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.
While significant progress has been made on state-owned bridges – with
1,600
repaired or rebuilt since 2015 – 30.7 percent of the more than 6,500
locally
owned bridges are structurally deficient compared to 12.2 percent on the
state
system.
"We commend the local government officials who have made investments in
their
communities' infrastructure," Richards said. "This program will underscore
our
commitment to helping our local partners in our shared mission of safe,
efficient travel."
The new investments complement the improvements completed and underway
across
the state. PennDOT has put out 684 bridge contracts and roughly 1,400
contracts
for roadway and other improvement projects worth approximately $7.5 billion

since January 2015.
More information on Road MaP and Act 89 can be found on the "Act 89
Transportation Plan" page at www.penndot.gov.

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