Op-Ed: Public Engagement, Feedback Central to PennDOT’s Bridge Plan

The following Op-Ed piece released by PennDOT Secretary Yassmin Gramian provides an update on the Major Bridge P3 initiative, particularly in Clarion and Jefferson Counties.

I want to provide the community with an update on the public engagement and significant analysis that has occurred through the Major Bridge Public-Private Partnership (MBP3) initiative, particularly in Clarion and Jefferson counties. The initiative is part of PennDOT Pathways, a program we launched in late 2020 and is aimed at implementing reliable transportation funding options.

The MBP3 Initiative leverages capital investment through the P3 model to rebuild critical infrastructure, which will be paid back by those who use the bridge through tolls. The nine bridges in the initiative – including the I-80 bridges at Canoe Creek in Clarion County and North Fork in Jefferson County – were identified after months of planning, evaluation and analysis. Candidate bridges were evaluated based on factors such as their condition, cost to replace or rehabilitate, feasibility of construction starting within two to four years for near-term benefits, and geographic balance across the state.

The vast needs of our state and locally owned transportation network were underscored by the recent Fern Hollow bridge collapse in Pittsburgh. Traditional funding methods and resources are not enough to address our needs, which is why in 2020 we started and last year we completed a Planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) study identifying funding alternatives, with the tolling of major bridges in need of replacement as the most viable near-term solution. The PEL also established a framework for evaluating and assessing those projects in coordination with the Federal Highway Administration and other stakeholders, and we have worked with them actively through this process as we do routinely.
At the community level, we have engaged the public, stakeholders and officials who could be impacted by these projects – in fact we’ve gone beyond state and federal outreach standards. This collaboration followed in-depth studies and analyses of traffic data and road networks surrounding each bridge, potential impacts on the environment and recreational areas, and proposed improvements to local roads which had to be completed before any decisions on tolling would be made. These outreach efforts continue so as to meet federal requirements and will also be further analyzed later in the project to ensure that the selected bridges are viable candidates for inclusion in the project.

Last summer we met with dozens of elected and public officials, first responders, business and school leaders and others at a series of local workshops. They shared their feedback on our initial analyses of potential impacts from vehicles that might use local roads to avoid tolls. The sessions resulted in numerous changes and planned improvements in and around the bridges. For example, PennDOT will pursue one-way tolling at each of the I-80 bridges due to their proximity and other factors.

The public and other stakeholders heard about these and other ways we listened to them when we held formal public meetings later in the year. Each project had both an in-person open house public meeting and an online meeting that could be accessed anytime during a 30-day period. PennDOT reached out to more than 60,000 households and businesses statewide – including more than 9,000 in Clarion and Jefferson counties – through a detailed mailer announcing the meetings. We advertised the meetings in local papers, emailed invitations to 2,400 people who signed up for notifications (430 for Canoe Creek and North Fork alone), shared flyers with community agencies and promoted the meetings in social and traditional media. We were pleased that we had more than 500 online and in-person visitors for Canoe Creek and nearly 400 for North Fork who learned about changes and improvements we were initiating in direct response to comments we had heard throughout the 12-month process. The meetings also shared improvements PennDOT proposes to make to roads, intersections and traffic signals to limit the potential impacts of diverting traffic. Post-construction studies will also be performed to ensure the improvements address the needs and that no new issues arose.

We are currently reviewing proposals from teams who were qualified and invited to submit proposals for this initiative, and we expect to announce a selected proposer in March.

Since this public process began, the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (also known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) passed. While it is expected to bring new federal highway and bridge funds to Pennsylvania over five years, we will need additional state matching funds and there are requirements for how and where the funds can be spent. Additionally, if the federal funds were committed to the nine bridge projects in the MBP3 Initiative, those projects would take up more than half of the new federal funding. This means that these much-needed funds would only benefit a handful of projects, minimizing statewide benefits.

With our state’s overreliance on the gas tax, and the tax’s reliability fading as electric vehicles become more prevalent and fuel economy of vehicles increase, we owe it to future generations to develop reliable, sustainable solutions to transportation funding. As we consider those options, no matter which ones are pursued next, PennDOT remains committed to our transparent process that continues to include robust outreach and engagement with the public.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of exploreJeffersonPA.com.

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