"Country roads, take me home?" For the 27 percent of Pennsylvanians who live in rural counties, the old John Denver song may sound a bit optimistic. Rural Pennsylvania roads and bridges rank among the most perilous in the country, with substandard pavement on 18 percent of roads and structural deficiencies on 25 percent of bridges. A report released last week said the crisis has real consequences, increasing traffic fatalities, stifling commerce and making it more difficult to visit some of the best vacation spots here and around the country.
Pennsylvania has taken steps to address the problem, but it can’t do it alone. Although the state will spend $899 million during the next three years to replace 558 state-owned bridges, that will still leave thousands of state- or locally-owned spans in need of repair. TRIP, the Washington, D.C.-based transportation research group that produced the report, blamed Congress for the mess, saying it does not appropriate enough federal money to maintain the country’s rural transportation network.
The motorist advocacy group AAA said the quickest way revenue could be obtained was through an increase in the federal gasoline tax. Set at 18.4 cents per gallon and used mostly to fund infrastructure projects, the tax rate has been unchanged for the past two decades.
In 2013, the Pennsylvania Legislature and then-Gov. Tom Corbett enacted a major transportation funding package that is helping to address the overall repair problem, but more must be done.
