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Sunday, February 12, 2012

State needs to repair bridges before one falls

Should Gov. Corbett have put out a plan to repair roads, bridges?
Yes, his own task force urges $2.5 billion more a year
No, can’t afford the tab right now
Yes, can’t wait for a deadly bridge collapse
No, fix only really bad bridges until economy picks up
View results

If nothing else, motorists and mass transit users across Pennsylvania are learning a great deal about patience from Gov. Corbett. While setting out his latest budget proposal last week, the governor deferred yet again on mapping out his strategy to repair the state’s crumbling highways and prevent its 5,000 structurally deficient bridges from falling down.

Corbett even trimmed transportation funding by about 9 percent, slashing several hundred million dollars from the $6.43 billion being spent this year. But for the fact that the governor said it’s “critical that we address our transportation issues,” it looked like he might be headed the wrong way down the road.

Without question, it’s time for Corbett and Republican state legislative leaders to start their engines, and map out a route to deal with a funding crisis that’s only gotten worse in the year since Corbett’s been in office. The crisis stems from years of deferred maintenance, as well as the collapse of a 2007 highway and transit funding plan that called for tolling Interstate 80. The tolls never went up. As a result, road and bridge work has been deferred and such critical transit projects as the overhaul of the Philadelphia City Hall subway station are on indefinite hold.

A task-force study pegged the state’s annual funding need at $3.5 billion to repair roads and bridges across the state. SEPTA’s capital needs dictate that the transit agency should be spending twice what it receives each year from Harrisburg. It’s certainly the governor’s prerogative to carve out transportation from the budget process, as he explained on Tuesday. As long as that’s followed by decisive action, and soon, it won’t really matter — provided that the end result is a long-term solution for rebuilding the state’s infrastructure.
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Posted by Inquirer Editorial Board @ 3:00 AM  Permalink | 2 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 7:58 AM, 02/12/2012
    Road repairs are what the taxes on gasoline are supposed to take care of no??
    — rumblefish
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:45 PM, 02/12/2012
    I'm trying to understand how the poll responses to the four options are 53.0%, 22.6%, 39.8%, and 35.1%? No matter which calculator or abacus I use, it comes out to over 100%!
    — CrotchetyOldMan


2 comments
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