Jul 31, 2013 4 min read

An impasse between the Corbett administration and the Legislature could result in longer commutes for trucks, school buses and emergency vehicles because of new weight restrictions proposed for 2,200 state and locally owned bridges.

The restrictions would affect 116 PennDOT spans in Washington, Greene and Allegheny counties, plus an undetermined number of local bridges.

Transportation Secretary Barry Schoch told the Senate Transportation Committee Wednesday the weight restrictions are necessary because the Legislature has failed to approve higher gasoline taxes and motorist fees.

The restrictions could be imposed as early as this month, although “the exact timing isn’t determined yet,” said PennDOT spokeswoman Erin Waters-Trasatt Wednesday from Harrisburg.

She referred drivers to the PennDOT website, which lists 49 bridges in Washington County, 24 in Greene County and 43 in Allegheny County.

They cross familiar creeks such as Chartiers, Buffalo and Pigeon in Washington County, Saw Mill and Montour runs in Allegheny and the north fork of Wheeling and Whiteley, in Greene County and Castile Run.

Asked which local spans would be added to the spreadsheet, Waters-Trasatt said, “Some of that is being determined. We are looking at ones that qualify under certain engineering criteria and analyzing the impact on each community. We’ll be working with stakeholders. Some are already posted with weight restrictions.”

All the bridges on the PennDOT list are considered structurally deficient.

State Sen. Tim Solobay is a member of the committee Schoch addressed, but the Canonsburg Democrat said he had already committed to attend a full day of events in the district so he sent a staffer to monitor the proceedings in Harrisburg.

Schoch “didn’t say anything he hasn’t said before,” commented Solobay, who voted with the majority 45-5 a few months ago to pass a bill that would have devoted $2.5 billion a year to repairing the state’s transportation infrastructure by removing a cap on the wholesale price of gasoline that the state senator deems as “artificial.” Any jump in the price of gas would’ve been attributed to the transportation package, yet without the enacting of the bill, the price of fuel has gone up anyway, Solobay said.

What drivers don’t realize is that they are paying for their vehicles’ misaligned front ends and blown tires as they trundle through potholes, Solobay said. He harked back to the near-collapse of the Birmingham Bridge on Pittsburgh’s South Side a few years ago.

“If that bridge would’ve dropped into the Mon River, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now,” Solobay said. “It would’ve been our wake-up call.”

Although the Senate passed the transportation bill it never reached the House floor. Until that happens state Rep. Pam Snyder, whose 50th District includes Greene County and parts of Washington and Fayette, said she doesn’t have direct comments regarding its language.

“Until I have a bill in front of me outlining exactly how it will work I can’t really say much,” Snyder said. “We need to fix our infrastructure, definitely. We really have an opportunity to sit down and discuss this and come up with a good solid transportation bill.”

Snyder said she remains hopeful that both sides can come together to find a way to fund a transportation bill that does not place the burden on the backs of the taxpayers of the commonwealth. She said she is open to any suggestions or plans that will fix the state’s roads and bridges without that happening.

“I have always believed and continue to feel that the health, safety and welfare of the people is the most important thing whether that be protecting them with a police force or keeping a bridge safe,” Snyder said. “The last thing we need to happen is to have a bridge collapse.”

“The majority (Republican) party does not have the votes to pass a transportation tax or any tax for that matter. It doesn’t have the votes because many of them signed a no-tax pledge.” She noted, however, that the no-new-taxes caveat has been circumvented in some “really creative” ways, such as the Marcellus Shale impact fee, known as Act 13 of 2012, that imposed a fee on gas and oil wells drilled in the state.

“They had the county commissioners adopt the impact fees so they didn’t have to,” said Snyder, a former Greene County commissioner.