HAZLETON - State Transportation Secretary Barry Schoch said a plan to extend the Hazleton South Beltway factors into Pennsylvania's choice of whether to raise money for roads, bridges and mass transit.
If the Legislature approves funding that Gov. Tom Corbett requested, the beltway will extend to the Humboldt Industrial Park, Schoch said Friday in Hazleton.
With even more money, which the state Senate approved but the House hasn't, a simpler turn from eastbound 924 to southbound Interstate 81 would replace a left turn followed by a loop that motorists drive now.
Those two projects, estimated to cost $25.5 million, would ease the commute for 8,200 workers in Humboldt.
Schoch said the significance of the funding package goes beyond projects in Hazleton and other municipalities that he visited during the day.
Failure to approve the funding will cost Pennsylvania in other ways.
The average state bridge is 50 years old, and thousands of bridges would close or post lower weight restrictions unless they are repaired, he said. Every time a bridge closes prices rise because trucks drive farther to make deliveries. Motorists put more mileage on their cars while making detours.
In Luzerne, Lackawanna, Wayne, Pike, Susquehanna and Wyoming counties, 450 bridges are structurally deficient, George Roberts, the executive for the state Department of Transportation in the Northeast, said.
Schoch said maintaining the status quo will cause some 12,000 workers to lose jobs, whereas the proposed transportation funding could give 50,000 people jobs fixing bridges, maintaining roads and building highways.
"I don't think it takes a lot of study to see the contrast and the right decision," Schoch said. His remarks from PennDOT's storage dome on Route 924 in Hazleton drew support from local business leaders.
Donna Palermo said the Greater Hazleton Chamber of Commerce, where she is president, advocated for extending the beltway and cutting out the loop onto I-81 for years.
"If the area is to grow economically, we have to keep up our transportation infrastructure," Palermo said.
CAN DO Executive Director W. Kevin O'Donnell said the beltway extension would link I-81 with Commerce Drive in the industrial park, providing a direct route home for anybody driving south from Humboldt.
O'Donnell said the beltway extension is estimated to cost $20 million, while eliminating the loop onto I-81 would cost $5.5 million.
Paying for new projects and maintaining roads, bridges and mass transit could be done with $1.8 billion a year that the governor proposed raising.
To raise funds, Corbett suggested uncapping the Oil Franchise Tax paid by fuel companies, which the governor's study committee estimated would cause gasoline prices to increase 28 cents a gallon within five years.
In addition, the governor sought to increase fees for driver's licenses and vehicle registrations.
To those revenues, the Senate proposed tacking $100 or more to tickets for violations of motor vehicle laws.
Sen. John Gordner, R-27, said he supported the Senate bill, which passed 45-5 on June 5. Gordner said the bill seeks to raise revenues along the lines of a 1997 law that he backed rather than the 2007 proposal to charge tolls on Interstate 80, which he opposed.
State Rep. Michael Carroll, D-118, said he doesn't expect the House to approve all of the Senate's funding measures. Some House members, for example, object to the higher fees for traffic violations, but Carroll expects the House to pass a version of the bill by the end of the fiscal year on June 30.
"The money is for our transportation network. It's time to get this job done," Carroll said.
Schoch said his department will stretch the dollars raised. His ideas for economizing include repairing up to 100 bridges at a time, which he said will save on design and construction costs.
PennDOT also saves by sharing expertise and resources with the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.
Turnpike Commission CEO Mark Compton said PennDOT will loan the commission the use of a salt shed in the Pittston area. This will save the commission from replacing a shed that deteriorated.
In return, the commission will supply brine for coating icy roads, sparing PennDOT from building a new brine plant. Those trades will save the agencies $1.5 million that they would have spent by duplicating services they can get from each other, Compton said.