PITTSBURGH (TNS) — Six months ago, state officials couldn’t have been happier as the U.S. Department of Transportation regularly announced billions of additional dollars that would be available for road and bridge projects.
Now, with rampant inflation and problems getting basic materials like concrete and asphalt, especially for overnight work, Pennsylvania Department of Transportationofficials say they are concerned that the federal windfall may not have nearly the benefit they expected.
Cheryl Moon-Sirianni, a district executive for PennDOT, said last week that low bids for contracts have been coming in 10% to 20% higher than the department anticipated. Among the problems are the cost and availability of construction materials, rising fuel costs, and the availability of workers, especially for the overnight work the department prefers to reduce the impact of road projects on traffic.
“It’s very disappointing,” Moon-Sirianni said. “We were very excited when this money became available because it would allow us to do a lot of work that we know needs to be done.
“It’s extremely frustrating. If you’re letting $300 million in projects out for bids and they come in 10% higher than expected, that’s $30 million of projects you can’t do.”
The higher costs aren’t just limited to the Pittsburgh area.
“We’re seeing higher costs, supply chain issues, and our contractors are also having problems getting laborers and especially night work laborers,” said Christina Gibbs, spokeswoman for PennDOT’s District 10, which covers Butler, Armstrong, Clarion, Indiana and Jefferson counties.
“We’re working through the challenges as best as we can to keep projects moving forward at this time. I don’t currently have an exact percentage of bid increases, but we are definitely seeing an increase in costs.”
Christine Spangler, director of project delivery at PennDOT’s central office in Harrisburg, said bids across the state are averaging about 4.7% higher than expected, but that’s after the department made adjustments for inflation at the beginning of the year. So the overall impact is actually even higher.
“It is a concern,” she said.
Moon-Sirianni said job-site issues with lack of materials haven’t delayed projects yet, but contractors have had to become more nimble and switch to other aspects of a job when they can’t get paving material or other products when they want them. Some companies are struggling to find crews willing to work overnight, and night-time deliveries of concrete and asphalt can be difficult.
“That’s something we’re struggling with,” she said. “The workforce is struggling right now. If people can work during the day, they’re going to work in the daytime.”
Joe Robinson, PennDOT’s acting director of construction and materials, said hiring, working at night and delivery of paving material are all also statewide problems.
For concrete producers, road work is such a small part of their overall market that when business is booming, it doesn’t make economic sense for them to operate their plants overnight to fill a few jobs, he said.
“The producer is saying, ‘I’m going to cater to the customer who is keeping me busy all of the time,’” he said. “That’s been something we’ve had to deal with in years past.”
Robert Latham, executive vice president of Associated Pennsylvania Contractors, agreed.
“A lot of the concrete work available overnight is limited,” Mr. Latham said. “The supply companies aren’t going to keep a plant open and staffed for just a couple of jobs.”
Procedural changes at PennDOT could help reduce the impact of inflation on road work, Latham said. The industry has asked PennDOT to allow low bidders to order materials earlier rather than waiting at least 30 days for the authorization to proceed.
“That way, they can go ahead and lock in prices as soon as possible because they can go up a lot on a weekly basis,” he said.
