State bridge repairs could cost $11 billion

By Riley Yates

The Morning Call

May 03, 2008

It would cost $11 billion to fix the nearly 6,000 state bridges in need of repair, a daunting financial hurdle that threatens to get worse with rising construction costs, potential losses of federal aid and increasingly aging spans, a key state official said Friday.

In Bucks County alone, one in three bridges are structurally deficient -- a slice of a statewide problem that requires massive investment to address, said James Ritzman, deputy secretary of planning for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

The need comes despite nearly tripling spending for bridge repairs since 2003, to $700 million last year, as more and more spans require work, said Ritzman, who spoke at a breakfast sponsored by the Upper Bucks Chamber of Commerce.

''It's not that were not dealing with them well; it's not that we're not replacing more than we ever have,'' Ritzman told business and civic leaders. ''It's just that there are a lot of old bridges that continue to get older, continue to get in disrepair, that haven't been addressed because we don't have the resources to invest in them.''

Aging bridges and roads have been in the public eye since last summer, when a Minneapolis bridge collapsed, killing 13 people and injuring 145. The attention was underscored in March, when a cracked pillar forced the temporary closure of a three-mile elevated stretch of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia.

In Lehigh and Northampton counties, 56 locally owned and 118 state-owned spans are considered structurally deficient, a designation that means they need repairs or replacement, but are not unsafe.

In Bucks County, 212 of 645 state bridges are deficient, as are 47 of 164 local ones. A total of nine bridges are closed and 81 have posted weight limits.

And the problem may not be getting better anytime soon. A state study released in November 2006 said an additional $230 million a year was needed to begin fixing bridges, with a goal of reaching standards seen in the rest of the nation in just under two decades, Ritzman said.

''I could imagine my ninth-grader coming home and saying, 'Dad, I didn't do real good in this class today, but don't worry, I have a corrective action plan going and in 17 years I'll be at the average,' '' Ritzman said. ''You look at that and say, 'How aggressive is it?'''

Adding to woes: construction costs that are expected to rise 6 percent to 8 percent a year, and a federal highway trust fund that is projecting a $5 billion deficit this year.

Proposals for a national gasoline tax holiday -- as pushed on the campaign stump by presidential hopefuls John McCain and Hillary Clinton -- could also hurt federal highway aid to Pennsylvania, Ritzman said.

''If you cut it in half, you look at $900 million of things that don't happen, which would be huge,'' he said.

To pull money into the system, Gov. Ed Rendell is taking bids from companies interested in leasing the Pennsylvania Turnpike, a proposal he hopes could raise billions of dollars for road, bridges and mass transit.

In his most recent budget plan, Rendell also asked lawmakers to approve borrowing an additional $200 million a year for 10 years for bridges.

Two local officials said Pennsylvania should consider leasing bridges directly to the private sector, getting companies to make repairs in exchange for the right to charge tolls.

Milford Township Manager Jeff Vey and John Miniger, a Bucks County Airport Authority board member, said the move would speed up schedules by offering the incentive of profits.

It has been successfully done by other states, they said.

''We've heard of how dire things are in Pennsylvania. We need to look at a different model,'' Miniger said.

State law currently prohibits such proposals, said Ritzman. ''There is no enabling legislation.''

riley.yates@mcall.com 215-529-2607

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