Parkway, paving, aging bridges could qualify for new infrastructure funding

Editor's note: This story has been corrected and revised with information from the Federal Highway Administration stating that local bridges, too, can get help from the new federal infrastructure bill.

Aging bridges in Erie County could get some money and attention from the $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure bill approved by Congress in November.

The bill will give Pennsylvania more than $2.3 billion in additional funding for highway repairs over the next five years and more than $1.6 billion in additional funding to repair or replace bridges.

And the 51 bridges in poor condition in Erie County qualify for the funding.

"Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, all bridges located on public roads — including those off-the federal-aid highway system and owned/maintained by county or local jurisdictions — are eligible for funding," Federal Highway Administration spokeswoman Nancy Singer said in an email.

List of bridges deteriorating locally: More than 45,000 of America's bridges are in 'poor' condition

Thirty-two of the bridges included on the National Highway Administration's inventory of poor bridges are on township-owned roads or other locally owned roads. Most of the 19 state-owned bridges on the list are on secondary roads and also are eligible for funding.

The Times-News earlier reported that, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, the new infrastructure funding can be used only on "federal-aid highways," or on roads and bridges included on the National Highway System.

The new federal money for Pennsylvania will go to PennDOT and from there will be distributed to regional transportation planning organizations, including the Erie Metropolitan Planning Organization. Local highway planners will determine which projects are priorities for funding.

Erie region projects that may be funded

PennDOT has collected a sample list of 170 construction projects statewide that could be priorities for funding from the federal infrastructure bill.

In Erie County, projects that could be accelerated or expanded are planned improvements to Erie's Bayfront Parkway, construction of a pedestrian bridge over the parkway at Sassafras Street Extension, and Route 20 paving in Girard.

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Bayfront Parkway improvements are expected to begin next summer and continue through 2025. The work will include the construction of dual-lane roundabouts at Sassafras Extension and Holland Street, lowering the parkway beneath State Street, sidewalk and trail improvements, and building a first pedestrian bridge over the parkway near Holland Street.

Total project cost is estimated at $70 million to $100 million. About $51 million so far has been set aside for construction.

In fall 2020: Bayfront Parkway project gets $21 million boost

The additional federal money could pay for a second pedestrian bridge at Sassafras Extension. Estimated cost is $5.5 million.

The Girard paving project would include milling and paving 2.4 miles of Route 20 in Girard borough and township, from Chestnut Street to Imperial Parkway. Cost is estimated at $2.9 million.

In Crawford County, priority projects identified by the Northwest Rural Planning Organization could include the reconstruction of Route 6 from Reynolds Street to Baldwin Street Extension in Meadville and West Mead Township at a cost of $7 million, and preserving or replacing the Spring Street viaduct over Route 6 and the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad in Meadville. Viaduct project cost is estimated at $10 million.

The state of state-owned bridges

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is responsible for maintaining 577 bridges in Erie County.

Of those, 26 are rated in poor condition, including 19 on the Federal Highway Administration's 2020 inventory of bridges 20 feet and longer. Another state-owned bridge in the inventory, on Route 18 over Interstate 90 in Girard Township, was demolished this summer after it was hit and damaged by a truck.

Pennsylvania is second only to Iowa in the number of major bridges in poor condition. Iowa has 4,571 poor bridges, Pennsylvania 3,353, according to the FHA.

Still, that number has decreased in recent years even as bridges continue to age. There were more than 6,000 bridges in poor condition in Pennsylvania in 2008.

An $899 million public-private partnership launched in 2015 replaced 558 bridges in five years, including the Grubb Road bridge over Walnut Creek in Millcreek.

An earlier influx of state bridge funding and funding from state gasoline taxes increased in 2013 also spurred improvements.

"In the last, say, 15 years, we've come a long way in reducing the number of poor bridges to where we're at today, with about 5% in Erie County," said Mark Nicholson, PennDOT bridge engineer in northwestern Pennsylvania. "When I started my career in the early 2000s, the percentage was in the teens."

Statewide this year, 9.7% of state-owned bridges are in poor condition.

State-owned bridges in Erie County that could be eligible for the new federal infrastructure funding include a bridge over Interstate 79 in Erie and Interstate 90 bridges in North East Township.

But both projects could be beyond the bill's five-year timeframe.

Repair or replacement of the bridges over Route 20 on Interstate 90 in North East could be five or 10 years down the road.

"We're looking at all of those bridges. It will be a pretty good-sized project," Nicholson said.

Major repairs to the Route 20 eastbound bridge over Interstate 79 in Erie will await a decision on whether the interchange should be reconfigured.

"We started looking at rehabilitating the bridge, and looked at the cost of paint and repairs and the bridge decks," Nicholson said. "Then we took a step back and asked ourselves if we need all four bridges that are there, or if we should take a look at a new type of interchange to consolidate all of those ramps and maybe have only one bridge or two. We're taking a bigger picture look at the interchange, at something that might be more cost effective for the long haul."

A Waterford Township bridge that has been closed for more than a decade will be repaired next year, but not with the new federal funding.

The Brotherton Bridge, a covered bridge on Niemeyer Road, is owned by the township but is on PennDOT's to-do list because of its historical significance. The bridge over LeBoeuf Creek is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Waterford covered bridge: Repairs now expected in 2021

Design, environmental, historical and funding issues delayed repairs to the bridge originally expected to be completed in 2015, 2018 and 2021.

Bob Howden, of Erie, who has lobbied for the preservation of the Brotherton Bridge, applauds what neighboring Ashtabula County has done to preserve and celebrate its 19 covered bridges. Howden had hoped that the new federal infrastructure money might be used to repair and reopen the Brotherton Bridge if funding is still an issue. It isn't. The $3 million project will be funded by state and federal money already earmarked for the project.

PennDOT plans to seek construction bids in April. Work will include replacing the bridge deck with a new wooden deck with steel supports.

"My concern is preserving the bridge, preventing further deterioration and vandalism," Howden said. "There are only two covered bridges left in Erie County, and we should be doing everything we can to protect and promote them as part of our history."

The new infusion of federal cash for infrastructure comes while Pennsylvania considers new ways to close an $8.1 million annual funding gap for roads and bridges.

About 75% of the money that PennDOT allocates for construction currently comes from state and federal gasoline taxes. Those revenues haven't kept pace with needs and are declining due to more fuel-efficient vehicles, including electric and hybrid vehicles, and a drop in travel through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also, emergency repairs necessitated by washouts and landslides have taken a larger share of the department's funding in recent years. PennDOT budgets about $30 million annually for emergency work. Flooding caused $120 million in road and bridge damages in fiscal year 2018-19 alone.

The Pennsylvania Transportation Revenue Options Commission in July proposed phasing out the gasoline tax and instead collecting tolls on more roads and bridges, increasing vehicle registration fees, charging fees based on how many miles we drive, home deliveries, and Uber and other ride services, among other options.

The full commission report can be read at bit.ly/3pgrsey.

The state of locally owned bridges

Township-owned spans dominate the Federal Highway Administration inventory of poor bridges in Erie County with 32 of the 51 bridges listed.

And they can qualify for increased federal infrastructure funding, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

Municipalities currently pay for bridge and road repairs with a share of fuel tax revenues, but it's not enough to cover major construction costs.

Union and LeBoeuf townships and Erie County shared costs to repair a bridge on Union-LeBoeuf Road over the South Branch of French Creek in 2014. The bridge had been closed for a time that year after a crack was found in one of its support beams.

Emergency repairs totaled $140,000. Union and LeBoeuf townships each paid $35,000 of that cost. The $70,000 balance came from a bridge fund administered by Erie County and fueled with money from a one-time fee on oil and gas wells drilled into the Marcellus Shale.

The Union-LeBoeuf Road bridge is still rated in poor condition and like others in poor condition, is judged to be safe for traffic. But funding for other than priority repairs so far has been scarce.

"Right after I started here about 40 years ago, we were told that there was going to be future funding for bridges as long as we kept them inspected, which we have done," Union Township Supervisor Earl Brown said. "We just received a 107-page inspection report on the bridge last week, but there's no money with it."

Tax dollars often pay the difference for construction not fully funded by fuel tax revenues, known as liquid fuels funds.

Fairview Township gets about $440,000 a year in liquid fuels money and spends between $650,000 and $700,000, mostly for paving, Supervisor Pete Kraus said. The township's general fund pays the difference.

Another $23,000 in liquid fuels funding from Erie County goes toward snowplowing.

"We're lucky in that the only bridge we have is on Millfair Road, and we share responsibility for that with Millcreek," Kraus said. "It's in pretty good shape, but it's not wide enough for bikes and pedestrians, only cars. We'd like to widen it in the future to include a sidewalk at least on one side."

The townships also currently can apply for state funding available to local governments through the Erie Metropolitan Planning Organization, but the Millfair Road bridge might not be a priority.

Grant funds currently also help pay local bridge and road costs, but a regular funding stream is needed to catch up with needs as Pennsylvania's infrastructure continues to age, Brown, of Union Township, said.

"If we're going to take on infrastructure, we need to put some money out there to do it," he said.

The Pennsylvania Transportation Options Commission report suggested that the legislature authorize municipalities to levy special taxes and fees to help fund infrastructure needs.

Contact Valerie Myers at vmyers@timesnews.com. Follow her on Twitter @ETNmyers.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Federal infrastructure money can help repair Erie County's aging bridges