Posted on 09/06/2022 7:18:08 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
For months, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has been saying that $5.6 billion in additional federal funds through the Biden administration’s stimulus program won’t come close to addressing all of the state’s road and bridge needs.
Now, a national online research organization agrees, at least on money for needed bridge work.
InMyArea Research released a report last week that claims the $26.2 billion in stimulus funds for bridges nationwide over the next five years falls an estimated $7.3 billion short of the amount needed just to upgrade bridges rated in poor condition. Pennsylvania’s allocation of $1.63 billion for bridges is about $888 million below what it needs, the report said.
It called the federal effort “a great start.”
“The [stimulus package] throws a lot of money at roadway repairs and sets aside a hefty sum for bridges specifically,” the report said. “For some states, it’s more than enough to tackle their broken bridges. For others, it’s woefully insufficient.”
Pennsylvania, which the American Road & Transportation Builders Association said in February had the second most bridges in poor condition in the country, falls in the latter category. That’s because the agency estimated Pennsylvania had 3,198 bridges in poor condition, second only to Iowa, which had about 1,300 more.
Across the country, the ARTBA study said there were 43,578 bridges in poor condition.
The IMA report found Pennsylvania ranked fifth nationally with 15% of its bridges in poor condition. The state’s financial shortfall of $888 million ranked second only to New York, which needs $1.3 billion more to address its poor bridges.
Some states — Utah, $199 million; Nevada, $188 million; North Dakota, $158 million; Vermont, $140 million; and Delaware, $129 million — will receive more money than they need to upgrade poor bridges.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
No, they won’t, but they’re currently increase at the rate of about 6% per year. After 2023, with $400 million/year more in revenue to play with, assuming President Butt-Head doesn’t destroy transportation altogether, there will hopefully be fewer bonds issued, leading to a slower increase rate for tolls.
Some of it went to your state police.
Pretty sure the rate increase is legislative. Standing law automatically increases 6% or something, but could be remembering incorrectly
Why are people in other states having to pay to fix PA?
And it ‘taint ‘nuff to scratch the surface. Never is.
“Once all of the bureaucrats and interest groups get their cut there never is enough”
True statement. All you have to do is look at all the infrastructure legislation that has passed over the decades. Maybe 10% of the goal gets done after all the politicians get their 10% cut.
Obama did. Shovel ready meant they were ready and able to shovel that money into their pockets.
That is why politicians live large on what would be middle class pay.
Indeed. One wonders how many of them are in Democrat-controlled STATE locales where they’ve had a multitude of times they could have addressed the looming problem, but DID NOT because it meant spending local tax money that would cost the Democrat politicians VOTES.
PA takes money for road repair paid by gas taxes to build bike paths etc. rather than fixing bridges and roads. Then they cry that infrastructure is falling apart.
And some of it went to other things. Once again, tax dollars promised for one thing, goes to another thing. It took Republicans to pass the gas tax. That’s what is really hideous.
There are no priorities in PA. I wonder if that many people live their personal lives that way. Should I buy food this month or buy that fancy digital device I keep seeing? Should PennDOT spend money on repairing roads and bridges, or buy some more fancy digital signage that can remind me to get vaxed. Which comes first?
The answer is everything comes first, and that is probably true for most individual budget decisions. All you need to do is borrow money. There are no consequences to that other than nothing ever gets done. That’s the real wasteful spending … doing many things half-assed so nothing works.
Besides that, all of the lakes, rivers and streams are going to be dried up in a few years anyway. Who the hell needs bridges? sarc/
I wonder why Pennsylvania’s spending for Medicaid is so much higher than the other states?
Greta, I love you!...
And the Pittsburgh’s “journalism” branch of the DNC pretends it doesn’t understand what the “stimulus” was all about. Hint: Infrastructure work? No. Jobs? No.
All of you without the vision of our overlords here in PA just can’t see the forest through the trees.
This ferris wheel, which the state gladly gave $10M to some company building this $600M thing, will solve all of Pittsburgh’s bridge problems.
People from all over the planet will flock to Pittsburgh to ride this thing. This ferris wheel is the last thing Pittsburgh needs to become a world class city and destination. The tax money raised from the ferris wheel will FINALLY give the state the money it needs to fix the bridges, roads, and other things failing in the state.
Do you doubt the state? You must be racist if you do.
Our state sanctioned casinos have given us significant property tax relief and have fixed our schools according to top minds.
Stadiums, largely funded by over $1B in taxpayer money (1996 dollars) that were built in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia have sparked incredible economic and population growth (in fact, growth was so ridiculous that PA lost an electoral vote!).
Moreover, when the tolls on I-76 and the Johnstown Flood tax are repealed, we will see even more economic growth.
I’m telling you, fixing a bridge or road with that $10M is stupid. More money needs to be spent on ferris wheels. They’re the key to economic prosperity.
I’m going to go back to huffing glue and killing brain cells now ... it helps with my Biden impersonations.
Enviro groups are already suing to stop all the infrastructure repairs.....HARMING “Mother Nature.”
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