Valley communities get PennDOT funds for roads and bridges

The grants are funded through revenues from the state gas tax.

PennDOT has announced nearly $460.8 million to help municipalities across the state and the Mon Valley maintain their roads and bridges.

These investments, which are funded by state gas tax revenues, help cover the costs of critical maintenance like snow removal and road repaving.

“Each of the commonwealth’s 2,500 municipalities has their own unique needs and challenges,” PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll said in a press release. “Gov. Shapiro’s commitment to keeping Pennsylvania’s roads and bridges safe and accessible is showing up where we need it most: in our communities where local officials can direct the funding for transportation needs.”

The formula used to allocate funding is based on population and miles of locally owned roads. To be eligible, a roadway must be formally adopted as a public street by the municipality, meet certain dimension requirements, and be able to safely accommodate vehicles driving at least 15 miles per hour.

Listed in the release was funding for communities throughout the Mon Valley. In Allegheny County are Clairton, Dravosburg, Duquesne, East McKeesport, Elizabeth Township, Elizabeth Borough, Forward Township, Glassport, Liberty Borough, Lincoln Borough, McKeesport, Port Vue, West Mifflin, White Oak and more.

The Westmoreland County communities include Rostraver Township, Monessen and North Belle Vernon. In Fayette County, Brownsville and Belle Vernon will be receiving funding.

Washington County communities include Carroll Township, Fallowfield, Monongahela, California, Charleroi, Donora, North Charleroi, Roscoe, Speers, Stockdale, Twilight and more.

Allegheny County was granted $35,592,999.03 in liquid fuels funds this year, Fayette County was allocated $10,092,302.73, Washington County was given $9,120,161.25 and Westmoreland County was granted $13,489,127.40.

Shapiro has invested nearly $1.87 billion in liquid fuels funds directly to these communities, which covers around 19,525 miles of roadway and 1,757 state and local bridges.

Pennsylvania is home to nearly 121,000 miles of public roads. There are 2,500 municipalities that manage 78,000 miles of roadway and more than 6,600 bridges.

PSATS Executive Director David Sanko said municipalities continue to maintain two-thirds of the state’s road miles, and liquid fuels funding remains “essential” to keep the roads safe and well maintained.

New technologies are reshaping how people travel, according to Sanko, and the traditional revenue streams that support local infrastructure are not keeping pace.

“We appreciate PennDOT’s ongoing partnership and the General Assembly’s willingness to explore sustainable, long-term funding solutions,” he added. “Together, we can ensure that Pennsylvania’s local roads remain strong and ready for the future.”

PSAB Executive Director Chris Cap said the liquid fuels allocations are an essential funding component for maintaining roads.

“Borough communities across Pennsylvania will continue to maintain our portion of the local transportation network and we highly value our exceptional partnership with PennDOT,” Cap said.

Elizabeth Township manager Tammy Firda said the annual funding has rules and guidelines and is audited by the state.

Elizabeth Township is set to get $397,336.07 in funding with $1,671.40 for bridges and 53.29 miles would be covered.

Firda added that township commissioners will decide what the funding would be used for at a later date.

Acceptable expenditures for municipalities include construction, reconstruction, maintenance, repairs, advertising, purchasing road machinery that costs more than $4,000, other equipment, electricity and signals and more, according to Elizabeth Borough Manager Scott Craighead.

There are also opportunities to use funding for bush and debris removal, lane and crosswalk painting and markings, road materials, guide rails, traffic calming activities, traffic and engineering studies and more.

“That is the liquid fuel allocation that municipalities receive annually,” Craighead said. “Our annual allocation is around $47,000. The borough uses it mostly to pay street light electric bills and road salt funding.”

Alison Figueroa, secretary/treasurer for Belle Vernon Borough, said they received $29,854.75 in liquid fuels funding, and it will be used for road-related expenses, rock salt, general maintenance on roads and vehicles.

White Oak Councilman George Pambacas said they may use their funding for roads, but he did not declined to identify any because there are plenty of upcoming paving projects throughout the borough.

White Oak received $243,292.14 in funding for 34.43 miles of roads.

“Additionally, we’re going to have the borough engineers do an evaluation of all the streets in White Oak, ranking them from the most needed work to the least needed, and then we’ll go from there,” Pambacas said.

Forward Township was granted $134,458.99 in funding for 25.50 miles of roads, which is around the amount it receives every year, according to Chairman Tom DeRosa, “(We use it) generally for the roads,” DeRosa said. “If a pipe caves in on the road, so we dig up the road, we use that for that. Since I’ve been here, we’ve asphalted every road in the township. We only have one dirt road left, and we are unable to asphalt it because it is too steep.”