Inquirer Editorial: Lawmakers should get back to work - carefully

How many dangerous bridges will it take to goad Harrisburg into acting on Pennsylvania's dire transportation-funding needs? Whatever the number is, the state doesn't seem to have reached it yet. But the Department of Transportation is working on it.

Another 1,000 bridges across the commonwealth - including 134 in the Philadelphia region - were recently designated as being in such bad shape that their continued use will be contingent on new weight restrictions to be imposed by state Transportation Secretary Barry Schoch.

Schoch assured the driving public that the bridges are "not unsafe," and that the goal of the restrictions is to slow further deterioration. Still, it's hard to take much comfort given the growing roster of risky highway spans, especially in light of the legislative traffic jam over funding roads, bridges, and mass transit.

The short-term impact of the bridge limits could be more congestion as commercial vehicles are rerouted. Of greater concern, some ambulance runs could be longer along corridors with weight-limited bridges. In Philadelphia, Spring Garden Street, City Avenue, and Frankford Avenue all have newly restricted bridges.

The weight limits will be phased in over several months, which gives members of the state House and Senate time to get back to their desks. If the summer break didn't refresh their outlook on finally crafting a plan to raise at least $2.5 billion a year for transportation, maybe the prospect of commuting to the state capital over thousands of structurally deficient bridges will spur them to deal with the problem.

Every motorist in the state should be concerned about traversing the nation's largest collection of ailing bridges - nearly 4,500 at last count. Left unaddressed, spans that date to the mid-20th century and earlier are mishaps waiting to happen.

The dimensions of the state's transportation crisis, though, go beyond bridges to encompass crumbling roads and strapped transit agencies like SEPTA, which needs about $5 billion to properly maintain its network of trains, buses, and trolleys. SEPTA helps drive a region that serves as the state's chief economic engine, and underfunding road repairs is expected to cost 12,000 jobs and threaten another 50,000 over the next decade.

With those high stakes in mind, and despite his limited-government conservatism, even Gov. Corbett has proposed increasing gas taxes and motorist fees to raise billions for transportation. In June, the state Senate went further, approving a smart plan drafted by Transportation Committee Chairman John Rafferty (R., Montgomery) to raise $2.5 billion annually. But its House Republican critics seemed too concerned about tea-party primary challenges to worry about the state's infrastructure.

The House's proposals would cripple hopes of providing any new aid to transit and fall far short of the need for roads and bridges. Where legislators left the issue after the June budget deliberations is exactly where they should take it up this month. Their goal should be a transportation funding deal that looks like the Senate plan.