Pocono News Section

PA Lacks Bridge Repair Funds

PA Lacks Bridge Repair Funds - Monday, September 8, 2008 at 5:10PM EST

Reported by: Jeremy Deebel
Monday, Sep 8, 2008 @ 05:10pm EST
Rome Township, Bradford County-

Harrisburg earmarked $350 million to repair or replace hundreds of Pennsylvania bridges over the next year. Eyewitness News spoke exclusively with a PennDOT engineer who says thousands more will soon need to be fixed, but the money to do the work isn't there.

The Battle Creek Road Bridge in Rome Township, Bradford County, was replaced last week. It's just one of several thousand state-owned bridges that have been labeled structurally deficient, in need of being repaired or replaced.

PennDOT Highway Maintenance Manager Warren Knapp said, "It's just a normal aging process. The average age of a bridge in Pennsylvania is 50 years…Every state in the country has the same problem."

Pictures from PennDOT show some of the problems with this bridge, but you can't always see the damage on other structurally deficient spans.

Knapp noted, "Without going through the bridge inspection process, you're probably right. You cannot tell that they would be rated as structurally deficient, but it just means that one element needs to have work beyond normal routine maintenance."

So the bridges are prioritized to determine which ones will be repaired or replaced first. Governor Rendell has authorized $350 million to be spent this year to fix over 400 of Pennsylvania's worst bridges.

Making things even worse is the fact that the price for building materials and petroleum used by PennDOT has skyrocketed over the past year. That means PennDOT's revenues are decreasing, and future funding for bridge and highway work remains a question mark.

Knapp explained, "There just isn't enough funding available to do all the repairs, replacements that are required to keep everything in top-notch condition."

PennDOT officials say people can still travel on structurally deficient bridges without worrying. We’re told if any bridge becomes unsafe, it will be closed down immediately.