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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE Senator Gib Armstrong Pennsylvania's transportation program has always been an effort to achieve a balance between maintaining what we have and building for the opportunities we want to land. The advent of additional transportation funding in the Commonwealth and the concern subsequent to the catastrophic bridge failure in Minnesota have raised the stakes and the urgency for adjusting the 12-year plan. The reordering of priorities that follows this and the other public hearings will be a crucial determination, for safety and for economic development reasons. For the foreseeable future, bridge sufficiency ratings are going to weigh more heavily on the minds of motorists than the pavement smoothness index. So the split of resources between bridges and roads must be carefully reconsidered. During the discussion of added state funding, the question was often asked: With so many bridges being deemed structurally deficient, why are so few in line for repair or replacement? Local planning groups need a complete and current assessment of our strengths and weaknesses so that their recommendations are made on a best-information-available basis. With the prospect of additional funding, the Commission will hear urgent pitches from those who supported the money and those who opposed it. Where choices have to be made on setting priorities, the areas where public and legislative support was found ought to get every consideration. There seems a lot of public sentiment, among groups and among individuals, that Lancaster and York Counties do not receive a sufficient share of state transportation funding. Both the perception and problem promise to grow worse, without corrective action. In each, business locations and expansions, housing construction, and additional cultural assets will fuel population growth and increase pressure on every mode of transportation. As growth occurs, shippers and motorists look for new ways to avoid bottlenecks, and pressure is put on roads designed for the traffic uses of a much different era. There are numerous projects in the 13th Senatorial District that warrant higher priority. Many have their roots in relieving traffic congestion. Admittedly, working to have the infrastructure keep pace with growth is a better problem to have than trying to find funds to fix things in declining areas. I will not read the details of individual projects into the record. The lists for the two counties that make up the district will be submitted. They feature familiar subjects – improving intersections, alleviating congestion, adding turning lanes, synchronizing signals, widening bridges. To their credit, local communities are doing a good job of identifying and pushing needs. In Lancaster County, Providence Township has a list of half a dozen. Manheim Township has several of immediate need. The same is true of West Lampeter Township. In York County, Lower Windsor Township has four projects on the need-to-do list. Other municipalities have singles or doubles where action is sought. This does not suggest our area has suffered from inattention or a lack of investment. Rather, it indicates that the needs have increased faster than available funding. No one wants their local transportation situation to put them on some disparagement list of the unsafe, where lives are lost, or the non-competitive, where jobs are foregone. We all realize that the process of transportation planning resembles state budgeting – there is never a true end, just periodic restarts. When projects are added as a result of anticipated funding to be yielded by the new transportation bill, communities and individuals can then judge whether it is enough, or still more steps are needed. Of all the issues we must deal with, transportation is the one our citizens contend with daily. So it is the one on which they most expect us to deliver results.
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