PennDOT to revamp Greene County bridges, roads
FRANKLIN TWP. — With a stream of sustainable funding opened up through the enactment of Act 89 at the start of this year, the state Department of Transportation has its sights set on several multimillion-dollar highway improvement and maintenance projects in Greene County and throughout District 12.
Officials from PennDOT laid out the major projects for Greene County’s highways and bridges at an annual outreach meeting held on April 24 at the Greene County Career and Technology Center, putting particular emphasis on bridges and road surface improvements.
PennDOT District 12 Executive Joe Szczur said that without the steady funding from Act 89, which at the beginning of the year imposed higher fees on certain driver and vehicle services and raised the price of fuel, the number of structurally deficient bridges would have continued to climb. The increase in state funding, even in the face of possibly a drastic decrease in federal funds, means the trend toward a rise in structurally deficient bridges will be reversed.
Likewise, District 12, which includes Greene, Fayette, Westmoreland and Washington counties, would have seen an increase in weight-restricted bridges, an issue of concern in a region seeing far more heavy truck traffic as the Marcellus shale natural gas industry grows, Szczur said.
PennDOT engineer Darin Glitz joked that he’s probably “the most hated man in Greene County” as he spoke to the group about the improvements being made on Route 19 in Waynesburg. Because that area already suffers from congested traffic in narrow lanes, the improvement project means passing through Waynesburg can be fraught with delays.
That project, Glitz said, is expected to be finished by July 27, 2016, at a cost of about $15 million.
Another ongoing major project Glitz mentioned is the Masontown Bridge on Route 21 at the Fayette County border. Although the old steel bridge has been removed and replaced by a concrete one, work continues to finish the project by October 2015.
Glitz said the Masontown Bridge project will cost around $49.6 million.
PennDOT continues to repair pieces of road that were destroyed in landslides along Route 19 and Interstate 79. The cost of those repairs is expected to be about $2.2 million, Glitz said.
Surface improvements and road rehabilitation are planned for Route 88 between Carmichaels and Point Marion, he said. Surface improvements also will take place on Route 18 between Woodruff and the state border.
“(Route) 18 is in very bad shape,” Glitz said. “It’s getting beaten severely by truck traffic.”
Glitz said pavement preservation will begin in May on Route 21 between Rolling Meadows Road and Gwynn Road, and finish up at the end of next year, at a cost of $1 million to $5 million.
Ron Clark of PennDOT maintenance services said the especially cold and snowy winter wreaked havoc on salt supplies. Greene County used 9,407 tons of salt in 2013, he said, which is about 2,000 tons more than the five-year average for salt usage. The county still has more than 1,000 tons of salt in stock, he said.
“One of the key elements that keeps our usage down is the use of brine,” said Clark.
Salt keeps the ice melted at temperatures of 14 degrees Fahrenheit and up. Brine can be used to 9 degrees, Clark said. When the temperature goes lower than that, he said crews switch to using anti-skid material.
Clark added that PennDOT has a shortage of temporary snow-removal truck drivers because of the Marcellus shale industry hiring so many local drivers who hold commercial licenses.
Clark also outlined Act 89’s changes to the rules governing posted and bonded roads. Posting and bonding rules make haulers responsible for damage caused to rural and secondary roads that were not designed to carry heavy truck traffic, according to information from PennDOT.
First, haulers to and from natural resource extraction sites, such as gas well sites, are not considered local traffic under Act 89, Clark said.
Also, traffic going to and from saw mills and coal-processing plants that are only accessible by posted roads now will be considered local traffic and be permitted to use posted roads unless they cause damage, Clark said.
New technologies and innovation will play an important role as PennDOT moves forward, Szczur told the group. For example, rather than replacing smaller bridges with box culverts, PennDOT is encouraging the use of new technology such as geosynthetic-reinforced soil, which uses alternating layers of fabric and compacted stone to create bridge components and permits flexible design.
“We’ve challenged each of our counties to do at least one of these,” said Szczur.
PennDOT safety press officer Jay Ofsanik also highlighted statistics showing declines in traffic fatalities in District 12. Throughout the district there were 120 traffic deaths in 2013, eight of which occurred in Greene County.
Ofsanik also said police will target aggressive and distracted driving, conducting enforcement waves throughout the year.
Szczur reiterated the importance of Act 89 funding in propelling PennDOT’s design, construction, maintenance and safety initiatives forward through at least the next five years, especially in the face of ever-aging infrastructure and cuts in federal transportation funding.
“We were spiraling down,” Szczur said. “Act 89 is keeping us afloat.”