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PennDOT’s “Liquid Fuels” 2022 Allocation Is “By No Means” Enough to Cover Road Repair Costs in PA

PennDOT’s “Liquid Fuels” 2022 Allocation Is “By No Means” Enough to Cover Road Repair Costs in PA | Newtown News of Interest | Scoop.it

The Municipal Liquid Fuels Program funds a range of projects to support the construction, reconstruction, maintenance, and repair of public roads or streets.

 

The amount of a municipality's allocation is based on its population and miles of roads on its approved liquid fuels inventory. To be placed on the system, a road must have a minimum of 33-foot right-of-way in a township and 16 feet in a borough. The "cartway" (drivable surface) must be a minimum width of 16 feet, and the road must be a minimum of 250 feet in length.

 

Newtown Township has 67.29 miles of roads that meet these criteria.

 

In 2022, Newtown will receive $558,474.88 in liquid fuels funds vs. $552,277.09 in 2021 – only a 1.1% increase.

 

Meanwhile, in 2019, the township received $611,209.38 in Liquid Fuels funds [LINK: https://sco.lt/6cVfMG] A PSATS video [LINK: https://youtu.be/tCtMp0qejRw] explains that the amount of liquid fuels funds have decreased in recent years "due toe the growth of alternate fuel vehicles and more fuel efficient cars."

 

“We appreciate that PennDOT recognizes that local government is an important partner of the transportation network in Pennsylvania, being responsible for 2/3 of the road miles in the commonwealth,” said Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors (PSATS) Executive Director David Sanko. “This liquid fuels distribution is an integral part of local funding, but by no means enough to cover the costs of building and maintaining our portion of the network.”

 

johnmacknewtown's insight:

More road improvement is very much needed in Newtown Township.

 

In 2019, 2.7 miles of roads were repaved at a cost of $706,000 or about $260,000 per mile! In 2021, the cost to pave 2.95 miles of roads was about $670,000 or $227,000 per mile. Using these two numbers, the road repaving cost average = $244,000 per mile.

 

American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds held by the township can be spent on paving roads. Even if $430,000 of that money was used to pave roads in 2023, only 4.5 miles of roads could be repaved if the township contributes the same amount of money as is budgeted for 2022.

 

Although that is somewhat more than the minimum necessary of 4 miles to maintain the current overall condition of our roads, it is not a significant improvement.

 

NOTE: Lower Makefield, whose Township Manager Kurt Ferguson was the former Newtown Twp Manager, will spend $3 million to pave 11.41 miles of roads in 2022 ($263,000/mile). $750,000 of that will come from ARP funds (see https://sco.lt/7JQwca).

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Newtown News of Interest
These Scoops are excerpts from articles published in local newspapers and other sources that may be of interest to Newtown area residents. Please click on the "From" link to access the full original article. Any opinions and "insights" appended to these article summaries are solely those of John Mack and do not represent the opinions of any other person or entity.
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