Dec 6, 2013 By Erin Hayes for The 6 min read

WAYNESBURG — State officials, citing federal shortfalls and indecision in the nation’s capital, are hailing a new transportation bill as the fix to maintaining Pennsylvania’s infrastructure — especially in the southwestern region where roads have taken a heavy beating due to the recent expansion in energy production.

This was the message presented to township supervisors invited to attend a Greene County Transportation Public Participation Panel as part of the state’s Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) being developed for 2015-2018.

“There is light at the end of the tunnel,” said Sen. Tim Solobay, D-Canonsburg, during the Thursday discussion.

Without the passage of the transportation bill, signed into law last month by Gov. Tom Corbett and effective Jan. 1, the dialog at this year’s panel, held every other year, might have “gloomy,” he said.

This year’s meeting was particularly important because of the recent changes in funding, Greene County Commissioner Chuck Morris said.

The transportation bill, HB1060, is expected to raise $2.3 billion over the next five years by eliminating the 12-cents-per-gallon state tax currently assessed at the retail level and removing the artificial cap on the Oil Company Franchise Tax (OCFT) charged at the wholesale level.

Joseph Szczur, executive director of the state Department of Transportation’s District 12, acknowledged that critics of the law believe that increases of as much as 30 cents per gallon will ultimately be passed to consumers at the gas pump. However, Szczur said, those increases should be viewed as a “user fee,” adding that it’s important for users to see what they’re getting for their investment.

Pennsylvania currently ranks 15th nationally on state and local gas tax, “but we can probably expect to jump to fifth once the law goes into effect,” said Matt Pavlosky, public involvement and outreach coordinator with Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC), a regional planning agency serving 10 counties.

Soon to be known as Act 89, Szczur said the transportation bill will raise transportation funding with other increases to be phased in over a five-year period, including a hike in fees for vehicle registration, drivers’ licenses and certain traffic violations.

About $351 million is estimated to be raised in the first six months following implementation of the law, Szczur said, but of the $2.3 billion expected to be raised over five years, $1.3 billion will be allocated for highways and bridges, $500 million for mass transit, $237 million for local roads, $86 million for turnpikes, $144 million for multi-modal purposes and $30 million to repair dirt and gravel roads.

“That’s huge,” Szczur said, referring specifically to funding made available to local roads and bridges.

That funding jumps from $34 million in the first six months to $237 million over a five-year period, representing a 60 percent increase over current allocations to local governments.

“We have no breakdown yet of what each municipality is going to get, but they are definitely going to see an increase in liquid fuel allocations,” he said.

Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) — the federal transportation legislation that went into effect last year — triggered a dramatic refocusing of priorities at the federal level, and directed funds to be invested in mass transit and on highways that carry the heaviest traffic counts.

For Greene County, that means funds were to be concentrated on 22 miles of Interstate 79 and a small portion of Route 21 from Waynesburg to Masontown — only a fraction of the county’s 1,500 miles of highway and 500 bridges that had previously been eligible for federal funding, presenters said.

This major policy shift basically left local communities to fend for themselves, said Chuck DiPietro, SPC’s transportation planning director.

“The feds have basically been telling us, ‘That’s your problem,'” he said, referring to maintenance of mid-level transit systems. He said that ongoing problems at the federal level offer no guarantees of future funding.

“The problem with continuing resolutions seems to be growing,” DiPietro said. “With that hanging over our heads, the state of Pennsylvania had to jump in, and we had to jump in when we did. I don’t know what other states are going to do if they don’t do the same.”

Passage of the bill was also necessary to protect the investment the state has made over the last 10 years in its transit system, which has seen an increase in usage of as much as 30 percent due to increased energy production in the southwest region of the state, presenters said.

“We recognize that the federal legislation has triggered a nationwide shift to invest in the most heavily-used pieces of the nation’s system, and that’s a rational approach. But Greene County’s roads bear much heavier loads than typical rural roads as we produce America’s power,” said Robbie Matesic, executive director for Greene County Economic Development. “Our families and workers need and deserve the safest transportation system we can possibly provide in these times of limited resources. We need to assure that a road or bridge failure on the state system doesn’t cause unintended consequence when the traffic takes a different route onto our township roads.”

DiPietro said that PennDOT performance standards that prioritize safety must be met and maintained on the regional network first because meeting these standards is, in essence, a “report card” considered by the state agency when allocating funding to supporting roadways.

Both Solobay and state Rep. Pam Snyder, D-Jefferson, vowed to work diligently to direct funding to Greene County.

The township supervisors who attended the meeting were mostly quiet during the presentation, with only one asking how to enforce speed limits in a municipality too small to operate a police department.

“Our goal is to educate you so you know how to compete (for funding) — or even to help you determine if it’s worth your time,” Pavlosky told audience members.

Supervisors are encouraged to submit their transportation concerns by visiting the SPC website at www.spcregion.org and accessing the TIP Project Input Form, Pavlosky said. SPC also accepts input at (412) 391-5590.

Input should be submitted by Dec. 31 to be considered for the 2015-2018 TIP development period, he added.