Tuesday, March 17, 2009

PA Transportation Projects Outlined

Pennsylvania transportation officials have finalized the list of infrastructure projects the state's $1.03 billion stimulus grant will fund.
The projects range in price from 66 million dollars to restore Philadelphia's Girard Point bridge to a 40-thousand dollar effort to repair a span crossing a creek in Liberty Township, Tioga County. In all, 399 bridges and 608 miles of road will be repaired, repaved or upgraded with stimulus funding. Transportation Secretary Allen Biehler says it's going to be a busy construction season...

"The deadline that's set in the program is to make sure that we've got the work started within 12 months. Our intent is to get that work started in approximately six months so we can really charge the economy. Our intent is frankly to beat those deadlines significantly."

Biehler says the projects will create thousands of construction jobs, citing a federal formula crediting every billion dollars of infrastructure spending with the generation of 30-thousand jobs.
State transportation officials worked with regional planning organizations to select the final projects. In Allegheny County, 46 million dollars will be spent on Route 28 in Pittsburgh and Millvale to prepare the road for a widening project. $30.5 million will go toward repairs on the Ft. Duquesne Bridge.
Biehler says he hopes that every project will be completed by 2010. A quarter of the funding goes toward projects in southwestern Pennsylvania, another quarter to the southeastern region, and the other half to the remainder of the state.

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