The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (DOT) owns 21,000 miles of roadways, mostly in rural areas. Of these, 27 percent have not had more than basic maintenance in up to 20 years, and of the roads that aren’t interstates or on the National Highway System, 26 percent are rated as “Poor” on the International Roughness Index.
On roadways with fewer than 2,000 vehicles it increases to 33 percent.
In addition, Penn DOT maintains approximately 25,400 bridges with approximately 250 that move into the poor condition category annually because of age and deterioration.
Yassmin Gramian, Penn DOT secretary, spoke on the link between road conditions and the state economy.
“We need reliable transportation solutions at the federal and state levels to keep our economy moving and to support the roadways that connect our farmers and our communities,” Gramian said. “We’ve been forced to move funding from lower-traffic roadways to interstates or other high-traffic roads, and we’re doing what we can to address this problem.”
Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said investing in transportation infrastructure strengthens competitiveness across the agriculture industry.
“It ensures farmers, agribusinesses and food processors can safely navigate and transport items to market and into a global economy,” Redding said. “Safe and reliable roadways help preserve farmers’ bottom-lines and ensure consumers are guaranteed timely goods at a cost savings.”