I met my old friend and the director of the Southern Alleghenies Planning and Development Commission, Ed Silvetti this morning and rode with him to the Somerset County Court House to see the Governor and the Secretary of the Department of Community and Economic Development. The Governor had some announcements that pertained to Bedford County as well as Somerset so I wanted to be there for that and discuss another economic development matter with him. The announcement for Bedford was that five bridges were scheduled to be repaired. The bridges in this state are in bad shape. What most people don’t understand when they hear numbers or percentages of bridges in Pennsylvania that are “structurally deficient” is that those figures only pertain to state owned bridges. The county and municipal bridges are not included. In this area, the percentage of local government bridges that are structurally deficient are higher than the state owned bridges. There are less of them, about one quarter of the bridges in this area are under local government control. This is a growing problem as well that needs addressed. There is a lot more work scheduled for bridge repair than ever before but it will take a long time to catch up. This should be our transportation priority.
- John
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