ACP Pubs

Christina Fisher

Transportation News From Pennsylvania And Delaware
August 7, 2008

Pennsylvania – PennDOT is accepting grant applications for its Rail Transportation Assistance and Aviation Transportation Assistance programs, which will provide $40 million in funding to help maintain safety, improve facilities and enhance economic development at rail and aviation facilities.

Railroad companies, transportation organizations, municipalities, municipal authorities and users of rail freight infrastructure with a line item on an active capital budget act can apply through PennDOT’s dotGrants system HERE.

Any public-use airport with a public sponsor and a line item on an active capital budget act can apply online at penndot.airplanonline.com.

Governor Edward G. Rendell recently announced an additional $10 million for the Rail Transportation Assistance Program, which is funded through state capital bond dollars in the general fund. The additional investment expands the program to $30 million.

The Aviation Transportation Assistance Program, also funded through state capital bond dollars, received a $5 million increase, bringing the program to $10 million.

Both programs’ grants are authorized by the General Assembly, approved by Governor Rendell and administered by PennDOT’s Bureaus of Rail Freight, Ports & Waterways and Aviation.

Pennsylvania has more than 6,000 rail miles and more than 7,000 Pennsylvanians are employed by freight railroads. The commonwealth has 133 public-use airports and heliports and 14 airports have scheduled commercial service. In the past fiscal year, 25 grants were awarded under this program.

Delaware – The nation continues to face an infrastructure funding crisis, one year after the tragic collapse of the I-35 W bridge in Minneapolis, Minn. States are increasingly unable to address pressing transportation needs as construction materials costs continue to rise and without any corresponding state or national funding increases.

The problem could be made worse next year when the U.S. DOT may be forced to slash highway funds to states by a minimum of 34 percent because revenue into the federal Highway Trust Fund is not adequate to sustain the program.  

In 2007, the U.S. Congress provided an additional one-time boost of $1 billion for states to address bridge needs, which translated into about $3 million for Delaware. Estimates show that the problems are much more far-reaching – with many states facing budgetary crises and implementing cutbacks in transportation investment – and that the entire national system still needs an infusion of $65 billion to repair or replace the significant number of bridges that are fifty years or older. 

AASHTO recently released a report saying that 20 percent of our nation’s bridges are more than 50 years old. With an average age of 43 years old, it will cost $140 billion to repair and modernize the nation’s 600,000 bridges. 

State Transportation budgets are also struggling to deal with the rising prices of construction materials – asphalt has more than doubled since the beginning of 2008, with increases of as much as 40 percent announced in many regions since July 1; on-highway diesel fuel costs have risen 68 percent in the past 12 months; reinforcing steel (rebar) has roughly doubled since the beginning of 2008; and the price of construction plastics, such as PVC pipe and plastic fencing and moisture barriers, have risen 10-25 percent since early 2008.

Posted by Christina Fisher on August 7, 2008 | Comments (0)