PITTSBURGH (TNS) — With the possibility of tolling eliminated, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the Senate Transportation Committee are trying to work together to figure out how to replace nine major bridges across the state.
At a committee meeting in Pittsburgh Wednesday, committee Chairman Sen. Wayne Langerholc Jr., R-Johnstown, and PennDOT officials discussed the funding options for the bridges. The department is continuing to work on a public-private partnership with a group of contractors headed by an Australian firm while Langerholc would prefer traditional PennDOT construction for most of the work, paid through a bond issue.
After a discussion that lasted about 75 minutes, the department and committee agreed to compare the cost of bonding to the public-private partnership. Langerholc said he is optimistic that a path will be chosen before the end of the year even though there are only nine days left when the Senate will be in session.
”I think it’s something we have to get done,” the senator said. “If it doesn’t happen this year, then early next year. It has to get done.”
PennDOT’s plan to use a private group to replace the bridges and maintain them for 30 years using tolls of $1 to $2 to pay for the work was ruled illegal by Commonwealth Court in June. The court sided with communities opposed to the plan who argued PennDOT didn’t follow proper procedures when it asked the state’s Public-Private Transportation Partnership Board to approve tolling without naming the bridges involved.
After the court ruling and as part of the state budget process, Gov. Tom Wolf agreed to drop the tolling plan and support legislation that clarified the process for approving public-private partnerships so the Legislature would have a role. That means officials have to find another way to pay for the bridges.
After a pause of about six weeks, PennDOT has resumed working with Bridging Pennsylvania Partners, a group headed by Macquarie Infrastructure Developments LLC, Larry Shifflet, PennDOT’s deputy secretary, told the committee. Most of the $20 million in preparatory work that group has done, including changing environmental plans to eliminate the impact of tolling on local roads, would be transferable if the state decided to go in another direction, he said.
Right now, the department is looking for other funding sources to pay the estimated $2.8 billion for the bridges, he said. PennDOT had decided to move ahead with tolling as part of a plan to address an annual shortfall of about $8.1 billion a year in money spent on state roads and bridges.
The department had broken the bridges proposed for tolling into two groups, six in rural areas that would cost $70 million-$80 million a year over 30 years and three in urban areas including South Fayette that would cost $220 million-$230 million annually for 30 years.
{p class=”krtText”}Langerholc made it clear he is “not in favor of that at this point.”
{p class=”krtText”}”We want to ensure that all of that work stays in Pennsylvania and that Pennsylvania companies have an opportunity to be the lead contractor,” he said. “If that means breaking up these nine bridges and doing them separately, that’s OK.”
{p class=”krtText”}Doing construction the traditional way would eliminate a profit estimated at 10% to 15% for the public-private partnership, Langerholc said. He has proposed using federal bonds to help pay for the work.
{p class=”krtText”}Shifflet agreed to create a cost comparison between the partnership model and bonding.
{p class=”krtText”}”It’s important we have this open dialogue,” he said. “We need to focus on how to move forward.”
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