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Roads to ruin

3 min read

A report released Wednesday said the typical Pennsylvania motorist is on the road to ruin – and that it is crumbling.

TRIP, a national transportation research group, released a study about roads and bridges across Pennsylvania, and it was as ugly as the surface of Interstate 70 approaching the Speers Bridge.

The report, “Future Mobility in Pennsylvania: The Cost of Meeting the State’s Need for Safe and Efficient Mobility,” was publicized at a news conference at the Allegheny T Station on Pittsburgh’s North Side.

In it, TRIP – a Washington, D.C., nonprofit – said road and bridge deficiencies cost each Pennsylvania motorist more than $1,400 annually in operating costs, crashes and delays because of congestion.

Specifically, TRIP said 37 percent of Pennsylvania’s major roads and highways provide commuters with a rocky ride, and that 42 percent of its bridges have either deteriorated significantly or don’t meet current design standards.

The Pittsburgh area, long known locally and derisively as “The Pothole Capital of the World,” fared even worse in the report. TRIP said 48 percent of major roads in the city’s urban area are in poor or mediocre condition, and that traffic congestion costs the average driver in the region about 39 hours in delays and 18 gallons of gas each year.

The report recommends increased investments in road and bridge repairs to enhance safety and alleviate congestion.

Joe Kirk wholeheartedly endorses these findings. Kirk is executive director of Mon Valley Progress Council and a longtime proponent of the Mon Valley Expressway, which runs from Large to Morgantown, W.Va. He hopes that it someday extends in one direction to Pittsburgh International Airport via the planned Southern Beltway, and in another to just east of the Squirrel Hill Tunnels.

“The report clearly documents how far behind and how critical the condition of our highway system is, and it’s not a pretty picture,” said Kirk, who attended Wednesday’s conference. “We have about 5,000 structurally deficient bridges, the largest number of any state in the country.

“There is a cost in not investing in roads and bridges infrastructure,” he continued. “In Pennsylvania, we have seen a decline in real dollars of 45 percent in funds available for road maintenance and construction.”

The passage of Senate Bill 1 is one of Kirk’s fervent hopes. That bill, thus far stalled in the state Senate, would earmark billions of dollars for construction or repair of roads and bridges statewide. The state Transportation Department would like to spend $1.9 billion a year on these areas.

Kirk, and PennDOT, are hoping this bill can be approved before the Legislature begins summer break June 30. Kirk is somewhat optimistic the Senate will pass the bill in the next few weeks, but isn’t sure the House will. And he prefers that the bill doesn’t languish until the fall.

“It’s possible, but a lot of people will have to pull their oars in the same direction,” said Kirk.

He is an advocate of expanding the Mon Valley Expressway through the upper valley and connecting with Interstate 376 – the Parkway East – outside the Squirrel Hill Tunnels, on the oft-congested eastern edge of Pittsburgh.

“If the Mon Valley Expressway bypass was around the Squirrel Hill Tunnels,” Kirk said, “that would alleviate traffic congestion there by about 75 percent.

“This would be a massive project, but I say ‘Let’s not talk small.’ It would take massive investments, but that can yield massive results.”

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