Pennsylvania commission approves updated 12-year transportation plan

Pennsylvania’s State Transportation Commission updated its 12- year program, which anticipates $84 billion will be available over the next 12 years for improvements to roads, bridges, transit systems, airports and railroads.

The 12-year program, is a multimodal, fiscally constrained planning tool used to identify and prioritize Pennsylvania’s transportation projects and the funds needed to complete them. State law requires the State Transportation Commission to review and update the 12-year program every two years. No capital project can move forward unless it is included in the 12-year program.

The newly adopted program, which takes effect Oct. 1, incorporates funding from the federal bipartisan infrastructure law, and anticipates the following funding availability in the first four years of the 12-year program from federal, state and local sources:

• $16 billion for state highway and bridge projects.
• $11.4 billion for public transit.
• $331 million for multimodal projects.
• $232 million for rail freight.
• $168 million for aviation.

Public input early in the 12-year planning process played a key role in identifying investments in the various transportation modes.

When asked to rank 10 categories in order of importance, people ranked freight ninth. However, other aspects of transportation that directly affect trucking were ranked high:

1. Road pavement
2. Bridges
3. Traffic flow
4. Interstate highway
5. Walking
6. Transit
7. Passenger rail
8. Bicycling
9. Freight
10. Aviation

There also seems to be some discrepancy between how the public would spend the money versus how PennDOT budgets its money.

Source: Pennsylvania State Transportation Commission

“The bipartisan infrastructure law has already made a noticeable impact on transportation projects in Pennsylvania across all modes,” PennDOT Secretary Yassmin Gramian said in a statement. “While additional investment in our large transportation network is certainly needed, PennDOT takes pride in being a responsible steward of federal, state and local dollars to help improve infrastructure across all modes.”

Four rural planning organizations, 19 metropolitan planning organizations and one independent county partnered with PennDOT in the review and development of the update.

Now that the State Transportation Commission has approved the update, it has been submitted to the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration for review and approval. The Federal Highway Administration coordinates with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to review the plan’s conformity with air quality requirements.

For more information about the 12- year program, visit TalkPATransportation.com. LL

More Pennsylvania news.