10K Friends of PA Praises Transportation Spending

The Sustainable Land Use watchdog group “10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania” is praising the state for the way it spent its first round of Transportation based federal stimulus money. All 50 states had to have at least half of their money obligated to specific projects by June 29th. A report from Smart Growth America shows nation wide 63% of the funds were allocated to highway system repair and maintenance projects and 31% was dedicated to new highway capacity. Smart Growth American and 10,000 Friends had pushed for states to so spend at least half on existing infrastructure. In Pennsylvania, 91% has been slated for repairs and maintenance. 10,000 Friends regional director Marilyn Wood says there is a long list of reasons why the focus needs to be on repair not expansion. She says the state department of transportation has been in a growth mode for the last 30 years and now cannot afford to maintain the system it has. That means expansion is a bad fiscal move. She says repairing existing roads helps to halt urban decay and opening new highways only leads to more sprawl. Wood also says road and bridge repair generates 16% more jobs than new construction and can generally be started faster, which allows jobs to come on‐line sooner. The same study shows that Pennsylvania did not allocate any of the funds or public transportation. Nationwide just less than 1% was spent on mass transit capital projects. Wood says that is not concerning because the state used other federal stimulus funds on public transportation.