Centre County targets local bridge repair in latest round of fee for local use revenue
Centre County received about $600,000 in local use revenue this year, and now commissioners will decide how to allocate funds toward bridge repair projects.
The county started its local transportation funding program in 2017 with a variety of funds (liquid fuels, fee for local use and Act 13 “at risk bridge” fund) to improve transportation. The program has helped the county provide municipal funds for roadway improvements and matching funds for various grants. In Centre County’s case, that includes PennDOT’s Road Maintenance and Preservation (RoadMAP) program, Anne Messner, Centre County’s transportation planner, said during Tuesday’s commissioners meeting.
The county received roughly $600,000 in fee for local use revenue this year, Messner said. This is the $5 vehicle registration fee that the commissioners enacted in 2017 through the ACT 89 transportation bill. The county has about $341,000 in its December allocation of the fee for local use revenue.
The funds have been moved around a bit, she said, in order to meet the requirements for the RoadMAP program. The county dedicates the $5 fee toward $2 million worth of bridges, which allows the county to leverage federal funds, Messner said. This is the third and final transfer this year to meet the $2 million RoadMAP requirement.
The 2022 Fee for Local Use recommendations include $24,000 for bridge repair on Kato Road in Snow Shoe Township and $50,350 for bridge repair on Unionville Pike in Union Township. Then, the recommendation is to allocate $175,000 to the to the local bridge bundle that was approved in 2019.
For every dollar of Fee for Local Use funds, the county is eligible for federal RoadMAP funds. Messner said this is important because the county has two bridges — Hoy Road bridge in Walker Township and Lower Geroge’s Valley Road in Potter Township — that have been approved by the Metropolitan Planning Organization for RoadMAP funds.
That doesn’t quite get the county to the $2 million mark. Messner said because they don’t know what the cost increases would be for the bridge bundles, the suggestion is to put the remaining dollars into the reserve. When the prices do come in for construction, there is some “wiggle room” but will still have exceeded what was needed in terms of dedicating the $2 million, Messner said.
“Thankfully we’re able to utilize all of those funds and … with the infrastructure act passing, hopefully in another year or two, we’re going to see a lot more funding for local roads. And there’s always a local match and thankfully, we’ll have money available to assist our 35 municipalities with a local match,” Commissioner Mark Higgins said.
The commissioners will vote for final approval of the allocation of funding during Dec. 21’s meeting. Additionally, the commissioners will vote on amending Resolution 5 of 2021 to substitute fee for local use funds for Act 13 funds in the 2019 Bridge Bundle.
