Dec 18, 2019 3 min read

Pennsylvania is notorious for many things. Near the top of that list of shortcomings is transportation. Failures in that regard affect our everyday lives and our future prosperity.

The litany of complaints as outlined in a legislative task force report, “Build to Lead,” comprise a transportation crisis of “crumbling roads, failing bridges, aging rail cars and buses along with hours of time wasted on congested highways and inner-city gridlock.”

According to an analysis of the report by MediaNews Group staff writer Evan Brandt, efforts to address those problems have come up short. The highest gas tax in the nation meant to fund $2.1 billion in highway and bridge construction and maintenance has not produced the promised results. One of the reasons, according to the report, is that funding is being diverted to pay for state police. Many municipalities rely on troopers rather than providing police service of their own.

State auditors estimate that about $4.5 billion was diverted from the state’s Motor License Fund to the state police since fiscal year 2012-13. Currently, an estimated $1.25 billion or 65% of the state police budget is paid for with nearly one-third of the entire Motor License Fund, Brandt wrote.

As a result, only 27% of PennDOT’s projects in 2017 were completed, according to Auditor General Eugene Pasquale. Projects important to communities are being put on hold. The Keim Street bridge that connects Pottstown and North Coventry Township has been closed for 10 years, much to the chagrin of local residents. In Berks County, a $600 million plan to upgrade the Route 422 corridor is being scaled back to a single project: the $35 million replacement of a bridge over the Schuylkill River and ramp reconfiguration at the Interstate 176 interchange.

This is about more than frustrated motorists being stuck in traffic. The legislators who wrote the report took in the big picture: Failure to repair and upgrade roads and bridges and pursue options such as rail threatens economic growth and the commonwealth’s future prosperity.

Among its recommendations are expanding passenger rail and giving counties and cities the ability and authority to create local funding solutions and public/private partnerships to expedite construction projects.

Central to this is a dedicated source of funding. Inadequate funding and the diversion of transportation funding to the state police has increased the backlog of work, according to the report.

Pennsylvania and its cities also lag the rest of the nation in transit improvements. A rail connection of some kind between Reading and Philadelphia was among the projects the report’s authors said should get further consideration, Brandt reported, highlighting a longstanding item on the wish list of every revitalization analysis done for the region in the past 20 years.

The “Build to Lead” report makes several recommendations for the Legislature to increase the pace and scope of transportation improvements.

Among those recommendations are increasing public/private partnerships to leverage funding for projects; updating design standards and expediting permits to encourage cost savings; giving cities and counties authority to implement local solutions, similar to the $5 vehicle registration fee Montgomery County implemented to raise money for infrastructure work.

These ideas come in the spirit of building a transportation system to lead Pennsylvania into the future. At stake is not just the well-being of today’s commuters. The future economy depends on moving people and goods efficiently from one place to another. It’s time to move Pennsylvania up on the list of results toward a brighter, faster, less congested tomorrow.