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2 COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 3 APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
4 MAIN CAPITOL 5 ROOM 140 HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA 6
7 BUDGET HEARING DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 8
9 TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2015 9:36 A.M. 10 BEFORE: 11 HONORABLE WILLIAM F. ADOLPH, JR., 12 Majority Chairman HONORABLE KAREN BOBACK 13 HONORABLE JIM CHRISTIANA HONORABLE GEORGE DUNBAR 14 HONORABLE GARTH EVERETT HONORABLE KEITH GREINER 15 HONORABLE GLEN GRELL HONORABLE SETH GROVE 16 HONORABLE WARREN KAMPF HONORABLE FRED KELLER 17 HONORABLE TOM KILLION HONORABLE JIM MARSHALL 18 HONORABLE KURT MASSER HONORABLE DAVID MILLARD 19 HONORABLE DUANE MILNE HONORABLE MARK MUSTIO 20 HONORABLE MIKE PEIFER HONORABLE JEFFREY PYLE 21 HONORABLE MARGUERITE QUINN HONORABLE CURT SONNEY 22 HONORABLE MIKE VEREB HONORABLE JOSEPH MARKOSEK, Minority Chairman 23 HONORABLE TIM BRIGGS HONORABLE MICHELLE BROWNLEE 24 HONORABLE MIKE CARROLL HONORABLE SCOTT CONKLIN 25 HONORABLE MARY JO DALEY 2
1 BEFORE: (cont’d'
2 HONORABLE MADELEINE DEAN HONORABLE MARIA DONATUCCI 3 HONORABLE EDWARD GAINEY HONORABLE JOHN GALLOWAY 4 HONORABLE STEPHEN KINSEY HONORABLE MICHAEL O ’BRIEN 5 HONORABLE CHERELLE PARKER HONORABLE KEVIN SCHREIBER 6 ALSO PRESENT: 7 HONORABLE GENE DIGIROLAMO 8 HONORABLE CRIS DUSH HONORABLE MAUREE GINGRICH 9 HONORABLE JULIE HARHART HONORABLE DOYLE HEFFLEY 10 HONORABLE TIM HENNESSEY HONORABLE JOHN A. LAWRENCE 11 HONORABLE HARRY LEWIS HONORABLE RON MARSICO 12 HONORABLE JASON ORTITAY HONORABLE MIKE REESE 13 HONORABLE JOHN TAYLOR HONORABLE JUDY WARD 14 HONORABLE KATHY WATSON HONORABLE MATT BAKER 15 HONORABLE BRYAN BARBIN HONORABLE VANESSA LOWERY BROWN 16 HONORABLE BECKY CORBIN HONORABLE JIM COX 17 HONORABLE PAM DELISSIO HONORABLE FLO FABRIZIO 18 HONORABLE BILL KELLER HONORABLE ROBERT MATZIE 19 HONORABLE GERALD J. MULLERY HONORABLE MIKE SCHLOSSBERG 20 HONORABLE RON WATERS HONORABLE DAVE ZIMMERMAN 21 DAVID DONLEY, MAJORITY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 22 RITCHIE LAFAVER, MAJORITY DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR CURT SCHRODER, MAJORITY CHIEF COUNSEL 23 MIRIAM FOX, MINORITY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ANNE BALOGA, MINORITY CHIEF COUNSEL 24 BRENDA J. PARDUN, RPR 25 P. O. BOX 278, MAYTOWN, PA 17550 717-42 6-1596 3
1 INDEX
2 NAME PAGE
3 LESLIE S. RICHARDS 9 ACTING SECRETARY 4 DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
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1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Good
3 morning, everyone. I’d like to reconvene the House
4 Appropriations Committee budget hearings.
5 Today we have the Department of
6 Transportation with us.
7 I want to start off the hearing by
8 wishing everyone a happy St. Patrick’s Day. My
9 name is Representative Bill "O'Brien" Adolph today.
10 I’m the Republican chair of the House
11 Appropriations Committee.
12 We are just going to take a couple
13 minutes to go over some ground rules. Please turn
14 off your iPhones, your iPads, all that type of
15 stuff, put it on airplane mode. It interferes with
16 the broadcast.
17 We're going to introduce ourselves, and
18 then we'll get right into our honored guest.
19 Chairman Markosek.
20 MINORITY CHAIRMAN MARKOSEK: Thank
21 you. I'm State Representative Joe Markosek, 25th
22 Legislative District. Markosek is not an Irish
23 name, but I went to Notre Dame, and the Fighting
24 Irish are doing great, especially this week. So,
25 it's a good week for the Irish. I represent the 5
1 eastern suburbs of Allegheny County.
2 MS. FOX: And I’m Miriam Fox, the
3 executive director for the House Democratic
4 committee.
5 REPRESENTATIVE BILL KELLER: I’m Bill
6 Keller. I’m the Democratic chairman of the
7 Transportation Committee, also wearing green today,
8 Mr. Chairman.
9 REPRESENTATIVE GAINEY: Good morning.
10 State Representative Ed Gainey, from 24th
11 Legislative District.
12 REPRESENTATIVE DEAN: Good morning.
13 I’m Madeleine Dean, from Montgomery County. And
14 Montgomery County’s quite proud of you.
15 REPRESENTATIVE DONATUCCI: And top of
16 the morning to you. I’m Maria Donatucci, 185th
17 District, Philadelphia and Delaware counties.
18 REPRESENTATIVE DALEY: Good morning.
19 Mary Jo Daley, from the 148th, which I know you’re
20 very familiar with. Welcome.
21 REPRESENTATIVE CONKLIN: Representative
22 Scott Conklin, Centre County, proud Irishman.
23 REPRESENTATIVE SCHREIBER: Kevin
24 Schreiber, York County.
25 REPRESENTATIVE BRIGGS: Good morning. 6
1 Tim Briggs, Montgomery County.
2 REPRESENTATIVE BROWNLEE: Good
3 morning. Michelle Brownlee, Philadelphia County,
4 1 9 5th Di s tri ct .
5 REPRESENTATIVE O ’BRIEN: Good morning.
6 Mike "Adolph" O ’Brien, Philadelphia.
7 REPRESENTATIVE CARROLL: Good morning.
8 I’m Mike Carroll, Lackawanna, Luzerne, and mayo.
9 REPRESENTATIVE GALLOWAY: Good
10 morning. I’m John Galloway, 140th District, in
11 lower Bucks County.
12 REPRESENTATIVE PARKER: Cherelle
13 Parker, Philadelphia County.
14 REPRESENTATIVE KINSEY: Good morning,
15 Stephen Kinsey, Philadelphia County.
16 REPRESENTATIVE VEREB: Good morning.
17 Mike Vereb, Montgomery County. Yes, we’re proud of
18 you but would even be more proud if you could find
19 Josh Shapiro a job up here.
20 REPRESENTATIVE QUINN: Good morning.
21 Marguerite Quinn, 143rd District, in Bucks County,
22 Tyrone County, County Tyrone.
23 MR. DONLEY: Hi. Dave Donley,
24 Republican staff executive director of the
25 committee. 7
1 MR. SCHRODER: Curt Schroder, chief
2 counsel.
3 REPRESENTATIVE TAYLOR: Representative
4 John Taylor, from Philadelphia, and the Republican
5 chairman of the House Transportation Committee and
6 the guest of our Appropriations chairmen.
7 REPRESENTATIVE GRELL: Good morning,
8 Glen O ’Grell, Cumberland County, 87 District.
9 REPRESENTATIVE MUSTIO: Good morning.
10 Mark Mustio, Allegheny County.
11 REPRESENTATIVE BOBACK: Good morning.
12 Karen Boback, House District 117, Luzerne,
13 Lackawanna, and Wyoming counties. Good morning.
14 REPRESENTATIVE MARSHALL: Good
15 morning. Jim Marshall, 14th District, part of
16 Beaver and parts of Butler County.
17 REPRESENTATIVE PYLE: Good morning,
18 Madam Secretary. Jeff Pyle, 60th Legislative,
19 Armstrong, Butler, and Indiana counties.
20 REPRESENTATIVE KILLION: Good morning.
21 Tom Killion, Delaware County.
22 REPRESENTATIVE SONNEY: Good morning.
23 Curt Sonney, 4th Legislative District, Erie County.
24 REPRESENTATIVE FRED KELLER: Good
25 morning. Fred Keller, 85th District, Union and 8
1 Snyder counties.
2 REPRESENTATIVE GROVE: Good morning.
3 Seth Grove, 196th District, York County. Welcome.
4 REPRESENTATIVE MILLARD: Good morning.
5 David Millard, Columbia County.
6 REPRESENTATIVE MASSER: Good morning.
7 Kurt Masser, Northumberland, Montour, and Columbia
8 counties.
9 REPRESENTATIVE MILNE: Hi. Good
10 morning. Duane Milne, from Chester County.
11 REPRESENTATIVE GREINER: Good morning.
12 Keith Greiner, 43rd District, Lancaster County.
13 REPRESENTATIVE DUNBAR: Good morning.
14 George Dunbar, Westmoreland County.
15 REPRESENTATIVE KAMPF: Good morning.
16 Warren Kampf, Chester and Montgomery counties.
17 REPRESENTATIVE CHRISTIANA: Good
18 morning, Madam Secretary. Jim Christiana, Beaver
19 and Washington county.
20 REPRESENTATIVE EVERETT: Good morning.
21 Garth Everett, Lycoming, Union counties.
22 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you.
23 Madam Secretary, as you can tell, we
24 have a very diverse committee, all parts of the
25 commonwealth. And I’m sure they're going to have 9
1 some very interesting questions for you.
2 Welcome. And without further ado, you
3 can make some opening remarks, and then we will get
4 right into questions.
5 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Sounds
6 good.
7 Good morning, Chairman Adolph, Chairman
8 Markosek, Appropriations Committee, Chairman
9 Taylor, chairman from the Transportation
10 Committee. It's nice to see everybody from
11 Transportation as well as Appropriations and of
12 course from my home county as well.
13 I'm very pleased to be here. I'm
14 honored to be here. I'm honored to be Governor
15 Wolf's nominee for PennDOT Secretary. I have
16 worked in the transportation field in the private
17 sector for twenty years -- over twenty years.
18 And —
19 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: If you would
20 just take a second, and you have to pick that mic
21 up and pull it towards you. And -- happens every
22 morning.
23 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Is that
24 better?
25 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: That's 10
1 perfect.
2 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Great.
3 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you.
4 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: So, I bring
5 some unique experience to this role, having worked
6 in the private sector for over twenty years in
7 major transportation projects, which included
8 bridge rehabs, replacements, major interchanges on
9 turnpikes. I’ve worked on trails. I’ve worked on
10 bus routes, alternative studies. I’ve worked on
11 rail studies.
12 But I also bring local elected
13 government experience as well. I’ve chaired
14 township board in White Marsh Township, Montgomery
15 County, and also, for the last three years, I’ve
16 been a county commissioner in Montgomery County.
17 Both of those roles I’ve gotten the calls of how to
18 fill potholes, how to deal with road repairs. I
19 think it’s interesting. I started at the local
20 level. That was the first question I got. At the
21 county level, that was the first question I got,
22 and now here at the state, that is one of my main
23 roles as well.
24 And while, you know, we all joke about
25 potholes, I take it very seriously on how we are 11
1 responsive to the communities, to the residents, to
2 the bus i nes s es , and to the visitors here in the
3 commonwealth.
4 I’d also like — I would be remiss if I
5 didn’t start off by thanking everybody here who
6 helped pass Act 89. I am fully aware of the
7 position that I’m in, to come in as the new PennDOT
8 acting secretary and have Act 89 as my resource and
9 as a pool tool. This fantastic transportation bill
10 that I know took a lot of work to pass, is allowing
11 Pennsylvania to move forward in ways that we had
12 only hoped for many, many years.
13 Projects that have been on the books
14 for forty years are finally moving forward. We
15 have major reconstruction projects. We have
16 intersections that have been causing issues that
17 are finally getting fixed. We have transit. We
18 finally have a dedicated funding line for
19 multimodal. It’s helping our rails, our airports.
20 It’s helping our waterways and our ports. And it’s
21 helping with bike and pedestrian facilities as
22 well.
23 And so I thank you very much. And
24 please trust me when I say I will make sure that
25 every single dollar that gets paid for 12
1 transportation will go as far as it can. While Act
2 89 is a huge resource, we know that not every wish
3 list, not every transportation project will get
4 done. And we will make sure that we spread that
5 dollar as wisely as possible and make sure we get
6 the bang for the buck.
7 I’d also like to mention, there’s
8 another looming deadline that is coming in front of
9 us, and that is the federal surface transportation
10 reauthorization. That deadline is coming in May.
11 And I am very proud that Pennsylvania is a model
12 for what the federal government needs to do and get
13 bipartisan support for transportation. And I’m
14 very excited to play an active role in that. We
15 know how important federal reauthorization will be.
16 And before I start answering your
17 questions, I’d just like to give you an update on
18 our winter weather preparations and the storms of
19 this winter and where we are with our budget.
20 This winter has not been so kind to
21 us. Nothing like last winter, but it’s been
22 challenging in many -- in different ways. We had
23 many days with below freezing weather, one right
24 after the other. We had many storms, one right
25 after the other, which hit various parts of the 13
1 commonwealth.
2 Right now, we have gone through 1.1
3 million tons of salt. That is over our average.
4 The five-year average is nine hundred thousand tons
5 of salt. So, we are a little bit over on that
6 number. And our budgeted number is two hundred
7 three million dollars for winter maintenance. And
8 right now we’re a little over as well, at two
9 hundred forty-three million dollars.
10 Not to worry, we'll be able -- our
11 counties will be working very hard, doing repairs
12 that are required, of course. As soon as potholes
13 need to be filled, the asphalt companies are going
14 to start turning up their engines. And at the end
15 of March, we'll have the pavement repairs that we
16 need. Of course, all the emergency potholes are
17 already starting to be fixed. We'll start with the
18 interstates. We'll go to major arterials, and
19 we'll work through our road systems.
20 That's where we stand right now. We
21 don't predict it to be a major issue with any
22 projects. The counties will take care of that
23 first, and then they'll start working with their
24 other work. It may delay them maybe a month, month
25 and a half, but besides that, we don't predict any 14
1 concerns there.
2 So, I just wanted to give you that
3 report. And with that, I am happy to answer your
4 questions and look forward to the dialogue we’re
5 about to have.
6 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you,
7 Madam Secretary.
8 Chairman Markosek, for opening
9 comments.
10 MINORITY CHAIRMAN MARKOSEK: Thank you
11 very much, Chairman.
12 And good morning, Madam Secretary.
13 Congratulations on your appointment, and I wish you
14 well on your confirmation.
15 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Thank you
16 very much.
17 MINORITY CHAIRMAN MARKOSEK: I have
18 just one quick -- I guess it’s more of a comment,
19 and you brought it up about what I consider
20 relative to transportation as maybe the big
21 elephant in the room, and that’s the lack of
22 federal -- I can’t say lack of federal funding,
23 because they do give us money, but the lack of
24 increased federal funding. They have just simply
25 not done their job on the federal level relative to 15
1 transportation funding anywhere, not just
2 Pennsylvania. We all suffer from that.
3 And, you know, what folks sometimes
4 don't realize is, you know, we built the interstate
5 system back in the 1950s, and the agreement was
6 that the federal government would build it and the
7 states would maintain it. And I believe that we
8 are spending about eight hundred million dollars a
9 year here in Pennsylvania of your budget
10 maintaining interstate highways, which belong to
11 the federal government.
12 And I -- you don't have to comment on
13 this. I personally think the feds should allow
14 states the option to toll those interstate highways
15 so that that money, in repair and to rebuild them,
16 places likes I-95, that are essentially a sixteen-
17 or seventeen-mile long bridge that has had its
18 problems recently, could be rebuilt, repaired, and
19 maintained. And a lot of that money that you're
20 now spending on interstate highway maintenance
21 could be diverted to all the other things that we
22 need here in Pennsylvania with our own state
23 roads.
24 So, I guess, if anything -- you're
25 brand new on the job, so I would just ask you, as 16
1 you move forward, to be one of the clarion calls
2 here in Pennsylvania relative to the federal
3 government in asking and certainly urging them to
4 do their bit here, do what really they are supposed
5 to do, which we did, which we here in Pennsylvania
6 stepped up to the plate with Act 89. It wasn’t
7 easy. But I think more and more of us need to, you
8 know, be out there kind of yelling from the
9 rooftops that the feds have to do their job as we
10 have done ours.
11 And as you move forward, we’re here to
12 help you. I’m here to support you, certainly. I
13 think all the members are. And we look forward to
14 working with you.
15 Thank you very much.
16 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you,
17 Chairman Markosek.
18 Madam Secretary, I would be remiss if I
19 did not say that it’s a big difference from a year
20 ago when the transportation bill was moving through
21 the House and through the Senate and negotiations
22 were going on. And the former secretary of
23 transportation, I don’t know if we would have been
24 able to do it without his professionalism, his
25 bipartisanship, and his expertise. So, I know he’s 17
1 still with the department in an advisory capacity
2 or whatever, but he was certainly an asset in that
3 capacity.
4 We have a couple guests with us today.
5 Representative Matzie, Barbin, Schlossberg, and
6 Mullery, Representative Hennessey, Dush, Marsico,
7 Watson, and Lawrence have joined us.
8 As is customary, Chairman Markosek and
9 I, we invite the chairmen of the standing House
10 committees. And with us today is the Republican
11 chair, Representative John Taylor, of Philadelphia,
12 and the Democratic chair, Representative Bill
13 Keller, of Philadelphia.
14 And we’re going to start the
15 questionings. I’ll ask that the chairman, we
16 always give a little leeway, but if you could keep
17 your questions and your conversation to about ten
18 minutes each, that would be great. And then the
19 committee members will, which we have many, okay,
20 to about five minutes. And then we’ll have a
21 second round, if that’s possible.
22 Okay. Thank you.
23 Representative John Taylor.
24 REPRESENTATIVE TAYLOR: Thank you,
25 Chairman. 18
1 Secretary Richards, good morning. You
2 and I had a chance to chat a little bit before the
3 meeting, so it's great to hear that your transition
4 is going smoothly. You are in the same boat as
5 Representative Keller and I in that everybody talks
6 about our transition into Transportation and say:
7 All the heavy lifting is done. You won't have
8 anything to do. And we all know that that's not
9 the case.
10 So, our committee is looking forward to
11 working with you.
12 I will ask you, just give you two
13 topics to touch, and then, you know, to help the
14 chairman move it along, I'll just let you answer,
15 and I'm sure other members might have comments as
16 well.
17 We talk a lot about Act 89, but prior
18 to Act 89, we passed Act 88. In the last half
19 year, that's started to get moving.
20 I was wondering what you thought about
21 the current project that's moving forward and how
22 you see the public-private partnerships advancing
23 projects throughout Pennsylvania?
24 Secondly, if you could just -- a lot of
25 members, I think, particularly our colleagues from 19
1 out west, are concerned about Keystone West and the
2 funding for that rail line and how that’s going to
3 move forward. So, if you could comment on that.
4 And then, Mr. Chairman, I’ll let you
5 move on after the secretary comments.
6 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Sure.
7 REPRESENTATIVE TAYLOR: Thanks.
8 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: First, let
9 me talk about Act 88. We are very lucky not only
10 to have Act 89 but to have Act 88 as well as a
11 tool. And the PPP opportunities in transportation
12 are big, and we have yet to really fully understand
13 all the opportunities that are out there.
14 It allows us to receive unsolicited
15 ideas, which I’m always a big advocate for, because
16 we don’t always have all the answers, and the more
17 people who are involved in solving our problems,
18 the more options we have and the more alternatives
19 we have to consider, which is always a good thing.
20 Particularly with the Rapid Bridge
21 Replacement Program, which is allowing us to
22 decrease the number of structurally deficient
23 bridges in a huge way. In Pennsylvania, it’s a
24 huge problem. We’ve gotten that number down to
25 four thousand, which is the lowest it’s been in a 20
1 very long time. But four thousand bridges is a lot
2 of structurally deficient bridges. And we need to
3 reduce that number in significant ways.
4 The Rapid Bridge Replacement Program is
5 allowing us to reduce that number by five hundred
6 fifty-eight bridges in a very short amount of time,
7 within three years. In fact, shovels are going in
8 the ground this spring and summer on those
9 bridges. These bridges normally would have taken,
10 easily, ten years to get done, probably even more.
11 These bridges were chosen because they
12 are -- they'll be able to be done in an efficient
13 and a quick manner. A lot of similar design, not a
14 lot of right-of-way issues, not a lot of utility
15 issues. So, we'll be able to get them fixed.
16 We'll be able to make sure that they function with
17 the weight loads that we need.
18 A special provision of PPP, which is
19 not allowed in a typical transportation project, is
20 the guarantee we're going to get on those bridges.
21 Typically, a contractor comes in, fixes your
22 bridge. They walk away. And if there's a problem,
23 it's on PennDOT. What I love about this program is
24 for twenty-five years, these private companies are
25 on the hook. So, these bridges have to be in good 21
1 shape, nothing can be wrong with them. And if, for
2 twenty-five years, we find that there's a
3 deficiency, they have to come back and fix it.
4 I think that is a huge part of this PPP
5 program which we wouldn't normally get. And so I'm
6 very excited, of course, with any new program.
7 There'll be a lot of lessons learned here. It's
8 our first big PPP program. We'll be very vigilant
9 in managing it and, you know, overseeing it, making
10 sure it hits every milestone and making sure that
11 all the projects and all the deadlines get met.
12 It's a very large project. We know
13 that we have many eyes looking on us across the
14 country.
15 I recently was in D.C., and several
16 other DOT secretaries were asking me about it, and
17 they are very eager to see our success and how it
18 moves forward.
19 I'll just quickly also mention another
20 program that is coming in, and I can answer in more
21 details if any representative would like me to.
22 The CNG program, we recently put an RFP out that is
23 going to build CNG fueling stations for the more
24 than three dozen transit agencies across
25 Pennsylvania, and that is going to be a huge boom 22
1 to getting a lot of our transit agencies using CNG
2 resources. So, we’re very excited about that.
3 You also asked about Keystone West. I
4 know that there’s a lot of interest in the
5 Harrisburg to Pittsburgh line. Right now, a report
6 has been done. We are in public comment period.
7 I’m very eagerly awaiting to see the comments that
8 we get back.
9 There was a very large price tag put on
10 that line. We looked at everything. And I
11 personally had reviewed the report. It’s very
12 interesting. A lot of ideas are on the table. And
13 once we get the public comments back, we’ll see
14 what direction we will be moving on it.
15 As you know, getting from Harrisburg to
16 Pittsburgh, it’s difficult, just with the terrain
17 and with the way to get there. So, that presents a
18 lot of problems and a lot of challenges as well.
19 The cost presents a lot of challenges. The
20 opportunity to increase ridership, we have to make
21 sure that it’s there and see the ridership issues
22 there.
23 So, there’s a lot of elements on the
24 table. And once we get those numbers back, we’ll
25 see whether a portion of it makes sense, whether 23
1 the whole thing makes sense. And we’ll see how we
2 move forward on it. But I know there’s been a lot
3 of interest. I’m often asked. And, of course,
4 we’ll partner with our federal partners in looking
5 at those types of opportunities.
6 REPRESENTATIVE TAYLOR: Secretary, if
7 you said this, I’m sorry, but what do you think the
8 timing is on that in terms of getting that
9 information back?
10 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: I think the
11 comment period is open until the summer. So, then
12 we’ll start compiling that information.
13 We could -- it’s hard to say how many
14 comments we will get, but I would encourage
15 everybody -- it is on our website. I would
16 encourage everybody who would like to comment -- of
17 course, you can call me directly, call my office
18 directly, but please submit your comments so that
19 we’re sure that all of the concerns are looked at
20 and addressed as we look forward and see how we can
21 move that project forward in any way, small or
22 large.
23 REPRESENTATIVE TAYLOR: Thank you.
24 Mr. Chairman, I’ll conclude, and at the
25 end, if there’s questions that other members did 24
1 not ask that I think are pertinent, then I’ll ask
2 them.
3 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you,
4 Chairman.
5 Chairman Bill Keller.
6 REPRESENTATIVE BILL KELLER: Thank you,
7 Mr. Chairman.
8 Madam Secretary, my good friend, John
9 Taylor, will probably be able to give this speech
10 for you, but I’m very interested in the port of
11 Philadelphia or ports in Pennsylvania in general.
12 Been very fortunate. It’s been an issue I’ve been
13 on since I’ve been here, twenty-four years, and
14 I’ve been fortunate that every governor has
15 supported it, no matter what party. Governor
16 Corbett, Governor Rendell, back to Governor Casey,
17 everyone supported what we’ve needed, mostly the
18 channel deepening project.
19 But we’re past that now. And I have to
20 say that I was pleasantly surprised that Governor
21 Wolf has appointed the most professional board to
22 the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority that we’ve
23 ever had. So, I know he’s taking this very
24 seriously.
25 And just to let you know, and I tell 25
1 this to everyone, 40 percent of the cargo that
2 lands on the west coast ports is destined for the
3 east coast. Because of the problems they've had
4 recently in the west coast, and because of the
5 Panama Canal opening, that cargo will go by water
6 and land on the east coast. We have to get
7 prepared to accept that. That's a hundred million
8 containers. A hundred million.
9 If Philadelphia just keeps its market
10 share, that would be five million containers, and
11 we don't have the land to handle that. But that is
12 what the port of New York does today. So, we can
13 grow, realistically, from five hundred thousand
14 containers to three, 3.5 million containers.
15 That's creating thousands and thousands of new
16 jobs.
17 I always compare it to if somebody was
18 coming to the state and saying I'm going to create
19 five thousand new jobs. I'm going to build
20 widgets, we would say, there's the state vault.
21 Here's the key. Go take what you want. Let us
22 know when you're done. Doesn't happen to the
23 port. But that is what is available to us. We
24 will be able to create thousands and thousands of
25 new jobs, but we have to take it seriously. 26
1 The port of New York, right now, is in
2 the process -- they’re in the engineering to raise
3 the Bayonne Bridge. They are out of land. We have
4 land. They are out of land. They’re going to
5 raise the Bayonne Bridge at a cost of three billion
6 dollars, because they know that’s how important new
7 business to the port is to their economies.
8 I’ve been very pleased with what
9 Governor Wolf has done so far. But we have -- now
10 is the time. We have to get ready. If we’re not
11 ready, other ports will take our share, and we will
12 lose all those jobs.
13 So, I know you’re going to start with
14 the feds and try to create how important
15 transportation is. I’m asking you to make sure
16 that the port and all ports in Pennsylvania are
17 part of that, because I don’t think there’s a
18 bigger opportunity, a greater opportunity, for job
19 creation where good things happen in the economy
20 than what we have laying in front of us. And to
21 tell you the truth, it’s just been laying there.
22 We haven’t really been acting on it.
23 So, I would ask your help in making
24 sure that is one of the top priorities of what we
25 do in the next years. 27
1 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Yeah. I
2 can confirm it is one of our top priorities.
3 Thanks to Act 89, we have dedicated funding,
4 multimodal funding that we can use toward the port,
5 but as I'm sure you all heard in Governor Wolf's
6 budget address, he even mentioned the ports. And
7 from my very early discussions with him one-on-one,
8 the ports have always come up into our
9 conversation.
10 He is very interested, and I am very
11 interested in the interconnectedness of the ports,
12 how we can better utilize them. We know we are
13 about to get to the dredging completion, and we
14 want to make sure that we can take advantage. As
15 soon as that channel is ready, as soon as it's
16 ready to take on more capacity, we want to make
17 sure that our ports are ready to take on capacity.
18 I've reviewed personally all of the
19 briefings and all the summaries on all three of our
20 ports. I know the two hundred acres of the south
21 port that are ready to be developed. We want to
22 help in every way possible.
23 The container incentive program, which
24 gives twenty-five dollars extra on top of what they
25 already receive per container, we are already 28
1 seeing the positive work of that program. We hope
2 within five years it's going to create twelve
3 hundred to fourteen hundred new jobs, just that
4 program alone. We hope to increase the number of
5 containers by two hundred thousand in that five-
6 year period.
7 Again, we are excited to see the
8 positive results of this program that is new, and
9 we will be tracking it. We are going to look at
10 everything possible to help incentivize businesses
11 to come to our ports and to make sure that once
12 they come, they get quality work done. They see
13 how efficient we are. And they see how we can
14 immediately get whatever comes to our ports spread
15 out through Pennsylvania as well. And making sure
16 that rail, trucks, our roads connect Erie,
17 Pittsburgh, Philadelphia. That we all work
18 together, making sure that our economy is as robust
19 as possible. And we know that our ports are a key
20 element to that formula.
21 REPRESENTATIVE BILL KELLER: And just
22 to that point, we could be what the west coast
23 does. We could land in the ports in Pennsylvania,
24 and we could ship to the midwest. We could reverse
25 it. And it's nothing but opportunity. 29
1 I thank you for your -- you can tell
2 you have a lot of knowledge on it already. But we
3 cannot pass this opportunity up. We will -- we
4 will be destine to become a backwater port and we
5 will lose all the economics if we don’t get up and
6 get ready for the business headed our way.
7 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: I will
8 agree. And I’ll just finish by saying, our
9 geographic location is perfect. You know, between
10 D.C., between New York, but also between New York
11 and Chicago. I mean, these are major, major routes
12 that are needed for the economy of the country, and
13 we want Pennsylvania to play a major part in that.
14 REPRESENTATIVE BILL KELLER: Somebody
15 did call us the Keystone State for that reason.
16 Thank you very much, Madam Secretary.
17 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: You’re
18 welcome.
19 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you.
20 I’d like to acknowledge the presence of
21 Representative Harhart and Heffley that have joined
22 us.
23 Representative Mark Mustio.
24 REPRESENTATIVE MUSTIO: Good morning.
25 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Good 30
1 morning.
2 REPRESENTATIVE MUSTIO: I would be
3 remiss if I didn’t compliment District 11 and the
4 staff that you have there, particularly Dan Cessna,
5 just an awesome job.
6 My legislative district is near the
7 Pittsburgh airport, and the road infrastructure
8 there has really spurred economic development,
9 particularly with the downsizing of US Airways over
10 the years, so I want to compliment your staff for
11 that as well.
12 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Thank you.
13 I’ll let them know.
14 REPRESENTATIVE MUSTIO: The governor’s
15 budget provides for twenty-five million dollars,
16 which is an increase, I think, of roughly fifteen
17 million dollars, in the Green Light-Go program. I
18 know I’ve had a couple municipalities apply, and
19 they were not successful, so I’m assuming that that
20 program has been very well subscribed.
21 If you could maybe give us an update on
22 that and the justification for the increase.
23 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Sure. As a
24 former local elected official, I love the Green
25 Light-Go program. It’s so needed, and it allows 31
1 municipalities to be proactive. And they know
2 best, better than PennDOT, of which intersections
3 and which routes throughout their townships and
4 boroughs and municipalities are troubling. So, it
5 allows them to apply and then work on the
6 of those intersections so that
7 can best flow through those areas.
8 So far, there’s been two rounds of
9 Green Light-Go. The first one last year, I believe
10 1.8 million dollars worth of grants were given, and
11 this is a 50/50 match. The local municipality has
12 to give 50 percent and their buy-in, obviously, on
13 this program.
14 We just closed the second round, which
15 will be up to twenty-five million. I’m happy to
16 report we had over a hundred fifty applicants for
17 that program. So, over the next several months,
18 we’ll be going through each application,
19 prioritizing projects.
20 But the good news is, there is going to
21 be a third round, and the third round will be up to
22 forty million dollars. And that is going to
23 start -- at the end of this year, we’ll be
24 receiving applications. We’ll review those
25 applications. And they’ll be awarded in mid 2016. 32
1 It's a hugely popular program, and it
2 should be. And, again, I thank everybody here who
3 voted for Act 89, to allow this program to move
4 forward. I strongly believe in helping our
5 municipalities in many ways, and this is one way in
6 which we are helping them in very big ways.
7 REPRESENTATIVE MUSTIO: A similar
8 program is the Traffic Signal Assets Management
9 System that's used to collect data.
10 Could you give us an update on that as
11 well?
12 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Sure. You
13 know, traffic reports and looking at, again, how
14 traffic moves through our local roadways, and how
15 PennDOT can help make sure that the local roads as
16 well as, you know, our state roads and our
17 interstate are going along. I have yet to review
18 all the final reports on that, but we are looking
19 at it closely and, of course, interested in making
20 sure that the flow of traffic is best as possible.
21 But I'd be happy to have my staff
22 follow up with you as soon as all those reports are
23 finalized.
24 REPRESENTATIVE MUSTIO: And I would
25 like to invite you to tour the district with myself 33
1 and Senator Smith when you’re out west.
2 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: I would
3 love to. Just to let you know, I have been out
4 west and I have seen parts of District 10, 11, and
5 12. D.E. Cessna, Dan Cessna, gave me my tour, and
6 took me through many places of District 11. I was
7 very happy to see them and the work as well as the
8 roadways leading up to the airport. But I look
9 forward -- I’m going to have opportunities to be
10 out in District 11 very soon again, and I look
11 forward to the tour.
12 REPRESENTATIVE MUSTIO: Thank you.
13 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you.
14 Representative Cherelle Parker
15 REPRESENTATIVE PARKER: Thank you,
16 Mr. Chair.
17 And welcome, Madam Secretary.
18 Thinking about you and Secretary
19 Manderino and McNulty, I’m happy and congratulate
20 Governor Wolf on the understanding of the value of
21 having estrogen be a part of his team. It’s great
22 to have you here.
23 But I also needed to, just for the
24 record, echo the sentiments of Chairman Adolph
25 about our former secretary Schoch, who just did a 34
1 yeoman's job in working in a bipartisan manner to
2 address the crucial issue of transportation in the
3 commonwealth. So, I wanted to say that.
4 Two issues, Madam Secretary, regarding
5 Amtrak. One, in particular, regarding Amtrak's
6 funding level and the possible service increases as
7 it relates to the number of additional trips and
8 any updates on the efforts to make Amtrak stations
9 more accessible to folks with mobility issues. The
10 ADA issues have been something that I've
11 consistently asked about. So, I wanted to know if
12 you had any update on those issues.
13 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Sure.
14 Particularly on the Philadelphia-to-Harrisburg
15 line, I know PennDOT is helping fund, at the tune
16 of fifteen million dollars -- and working with
17 Amtrak. Many of those dollars are being used to
18 make sure that the stations are ADA accessible. We
19 take that very seriously. We want to make sure
20 that every single resident of Pennsylvania has
21 access to transit. And so, we are working our way
22 through that.
23 And we always are looking toward
24 building our relationships with federal transit as
25 well. And while, in the past, it has been a 35
1 relationship that could use strengthening, I’m very
2 optimistic, with Act 89 funds and with our
3 relationships and with my recent visits to D.C.
4 working on the federal reauthorization bill, that
5 that relationship is only going to get stronger.
6 REPRESENTATIVE PARKER: Thank you for
7 that response, Madam Secretary.
8 I just wanted to note for the record
9 that over half of the twenty-four Amtrak stations
10 in Pennsylvania currently aren’t accessible to
11 individuals in wheelchairs or scooters. So, I
12 appreciate your commitment and working with the
13 feds in ensuring that all parties are working
14 together as closely as we can to address that
15 issue.
16 The final issue that I wanted you to
17 comment on is the value of mass transit.
18 Obviously, during the process, as we were working
19 through making it to the point where we would
20 support Act 89, one of the issues of major concern
21 to me was mass transit throughout the commonwealth,
22 so Allegheny County, Philadelphia, and anywhere
23 elsewhere where we’ve had mass transit systems.
24 And I was pleased when I read an
25 article early in the month which noticed that 36
1 public transit ridership, not just in the
2 commonwealth of Pennsylvania but across the US, has
3 risen to its highest levels in fifty-eight years.
4 I wanted to know if you could just talk
5 about 89's investment in mass transit and are we
6 starting to see a major investment on that return.
7 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS:
8 Absolutely. And Act 89 has been crucial in
9 increasing the funding to mass transit. In year
10 five, we'll be getting a dedicated funding stream
11 of five hundred million dollars that will go toward
12 transit.
13 As a former board member of SEPTA and
14 someone who has advocated for transit, I am very
15 happy to help solve those issues. We are seeing
16 increased ridership and, as you mentioned, it is
17 not just a local or statewide, it's a national
18 trend. People are, when it is available to them,
19 they are using mass transit in increasing numbers.
20 But they only use it as long as it's reliable. And
21 Act 89 is what's helping Pennsylvania have reliable
22 transit.
23 As soon as your scheduling drops a
24 little bit, as soon as they can't rely, they know
25 that they're going to be waiting outside longer, 37
1 they can’t count on it to get them to their jobs on
2 time or to get where they need to go, ridership
3 starts to decrease. And I have to give credit to
4 the transit agencies in Pennsylvania. They took
5 that task very seriously. And I know, because of
6 the extra money in Act 89, not only are we making
7 sure that our sub stations are improved, our rail
8 lines are improved, we’re getting new locomotives.
9 We’re getting new cars. We’re upgrading the system
10 in so many ways, but in many ways we are able to
11 increase frequency on lines that have been well
12 used, and we’re making sure that we can expand in
13 certain areas as well.
14 REPRESENTATIVE PARKER: Thank you,
15 Madam Secretary, for that response.
16 I do believe that mass transit is
17 significantly important to the economic viability
18 of Pennsylvania as a commonwealth, so that we can
19 continue to move towards being the number one, you
20 know, state in this global economy. And I would
21 have -- would be remiss if I didn’t mention the
22 yeoman’s job that Casey and all of those at SEPTA
23 in Philadelphia -- you know, when we get something
24 wrong, you know, it’s hugely magnified, but when
25 we’re doing something right, I want to make sure 38
1 that people are paying attention to that, too.
2 So, thank you.
3 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you.
4 Representative George Dunbar.
5 REPRESENTATIVE DUNBAR: Thank you,
6 Mr. Chairman.
7 Good morning, Secretary. Nice to see
8 you again.
9 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Hi,
10 Representative.
11 REPRESENTATIVE DUNBAR: Act 89 funding,
12 we've been discussing that. It also provided
13 additional moneys for the Turnpike Commission. The
14 2012-2013 funding of ninety million's up to a
15 hundred forty-two million dollars projected this
16 year, fifty-two-million-dollar increase. With
17 those additional funds, that will support a lot of
18 different things for the turnpike.
19 Being from western PA, I really wanted
20 to ask a few questions about some of the projects
21 that have been out there and have been stagnated
22 for years, Mon Valley/Fayette Expressway, the
23 southern beltway, the Findlay connect to 79.
24 Would any of these moneys be utilized
25 to resurrect these projects? 39
1 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS:
2 Absolutely. As mentioned before, I’ve already been
3 out to Districts 10, 11, and 12. And my main
4 reason for going out there was to discuss those
5 very projects that you just mentioned. We know
6 that fifty-one miles of that project have already
7 been built in the southern beltway, and now we’re
8 looking at the final four phases.
9 The good news is the turnpike has
10 figured out a way to fund all four of those phases,
11 and now it’s just -- we can’t build them all at
12 once. It’s just impossible to do so, so we need to
13 pick which ones will go first, which ones go
14 through the environmental process first and then
15 through preliminary and final design so that they
16 can get built. And that was a very purpose of my
17 going out there. Many representatives who are here
18 were part of that meeting as well as state Senators
19 and county commissioners.
20 It was a very productive conversation.
21 There’s still some work that needs to be done. The
22 turnpike felt that they had it -- they had the
23 direction of which projects -- which of those four
24 should be let first and how we should move, but
25 there was definitely discussion in the room that 40
1 proved that that’s not quite decided on just yet.
2 So, we have to go back and figure out the right
3 order. But the good news is that all four of them
4 can be done. We just have to figure out which one
5 goes first.
6 REPRESENTATIVE DUNBAR: And as far as
7 the additional funding to the Turnpike Commission,
8 is there any plans for automated-only interchanges
9 or slip ramp anywhere along the main line?
10 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Yeah.
11 We’re always looking at efficiencies for the
12 turnpike, so that is a discussion that we are
13 having, especially as we look at new interchanges
14 and we look at new ramps, new access onto the
15 turnpike as well as egresses off of the turnpike.
16 Obviously, when all electronic tolling
17 is used, it allows us to decrease our costs of the
18 project because it doesn’t require as much right-
19 of-way, which is a big cost driver in those
20 projects. So, that will be something that we’ll be
21 looking at. But we’re also looking at, with the
22 turnpike, many other efficiencies.
23 We’ve been working together with them
24 when it makes sense on storage facilities. We’ve
25 been sharing inspector costs with them. We’ve been 41
1 looking at design similarities so that we can also
2 figure out ways to reduce redundancies and have
3 PennDOT and the turnpike work very closely
4 together.
5 I'm optimistic that that number is
6 going to amount in the million of dollars over the
7 next few years. As I'm sure you know, I sit on the
8 Turnpike Commission. I've already sat in on many
9 meetings, and not only will we ensure that the
10 building on the western part of the turnpike
11 happens but that all building, moving forward, is
12 done in the most efficient way, and when PennDOT
13 can help to reduce those costs, we're going to do
14 so.
15 REPRESENTATIVE DUNBAR: And from one of
16 those meetings, which we were both at, a discussion
17 came up about enforcement as far as automated
18 tolling. Do you have any comments on the lack of
19 enforcement that the Turnpike Commission has?
20 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: It's been
21 frustrating. I've attended a handful of meetings
22 so far. We meet twice a week. I've been to four
23 meetings. And that has come up at every single
24 meeting, people who do not pay as they go through
25 our system, and what are the tools that we have to 42
1 go after them. And it has been discussed that we
2 want to be more aggressive than we have in the
3 past, so we are consulting right now and figuring
4 out a way to be as aggressive as possible. People
5 who use our roads, you know, that are tolled, need
6 to pay for them.
7 REPRESENTATIVE DUNBAR: Do we know what
8 our revenue loss is there?
9 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: I don't
10 have that exact number, but I can get that back to
11 you. It's significant.
12 REPRESENTATIVE DUNBAR: I appreciate
13 that. Thank you.
14 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Sure.
15 REPRESENTATIVE DUNBAR: Thank you,
16 Mr. Chairman.
17 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you.
18 Madam Secretary, any questions that you
19 may not have the answers for today, if you could
20 get the information back to my office and Chairman
21 Markosek's office and we'll get to all the members.
22 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS:
23 Absolutely. That would be great. Thank you.
24 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH:
25 Representative Kinsey. 43
1 REPRESENTATIVE KINSEY: Thank you,
2 Mr. Chairman.
3 Good morning, Secretary Richards.
4 A little bit earlier you talked
5 about -- and, actually, I was glad to hear this -
6 you talked about the structurally deficient
7 bridges. And if I’m not mistaken, you mentioned
8 that there might be maybe four thousand that are -
9 will be done in three years under a rapid program?
10 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: I wish.
11 Five hundred fifty-eight will be done under the
12 rapid bridge replacement program. We have four
13 thousand. So, we’re chipping away.
14 REPRESENTATIVE KINSEY: Okay. Five
15 hundred fifty-eight will be done within a three-
16 year period.
17 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Correct.
18 REPRESENTATIVE KINSEY: All right. So,
19 I want to take that and then move it to another
20 topic, just very briefly, though. When we talk
21 about the structurally deficient bridges,
22 Philadelphia is expecting a lot of activity in the
23 coming year. I believe we have the Pope coming. I
24 believe -- he’s coming. The Democratic National
25 Convention is scheduled to be taking place in the 44
1 southeast region.
2 So, I think from the perspective of
3 safety and looking at millions of folks expected to
4 descend upon Philadelphia and the southeast region,
5 are there plans in place to expedite maybe some of
6 the work around in those particular counties due to
7 the activities that are expected to take place in
8 the coming years? Or how do you manage and address
9 those types of issues when there’s special events?
10 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Sure.
11 Absolutely. If I could just take a couple minutes
12 to backtrack on the structurally deficient bridges.
13 I didn’t want you to think that we’re only doing
14 five hundred fifty-eight bridges. We also have
15 county bundling programs. We have a lot of other
16 bridges that will be done. So, I just wanted to
17 make sure everyone understood. Hundreds of bridges
18 will be done.
19 About two hundred to two hundred fifty
20 bridges each year are added to the structurally
21 deficient bridge list. So, it’s PennDOT’s goal to
22 do at least three hundred bridges a year just to
23 keep ahead of that curve. So, that is something
24 that we are very well aware of and we’re moving
25 forward on. 45
1 In terms of what you mentioned with the
2 Pope's visit at the end of this year and the DNC in
3 2016, we're very much involved. Our district
4 representatives in District 6, which includes
5 Philadelphia, have attended regular meetings,
6 monthly. I believe they're moving to biweekly
7 now. And I'm sure as the events get closer,
8 they'll be weekly, making sure that all the routes
9 that people will be using, going into Philadelphia,
10 are functioning as they should. Of course, we are
11 going to advocate for people to use transit to get
12 down into Philadelphia for those trips as well.
13 Just an example, the I676 bridges,
14 which are a major project that are starting now,
15 seven bridges there that are being done.
16 Construction is going to halt the week of the
17 Pope's visit, to make sure that there are no
18 diminished lanes, to make sure that everything is
19 available to be used to get in and out of
20 Philadelphia. And we will be looking at every
21 single construction project in that area the same
22 way and making sure that construction halts, to
23 make sure that the number of lanes are at a maximum
24 going in and out of the city.
25 REPRESENTATIVE KINSEY: Great. Along 46
1 that same thought, you have fourteen welcoming
2 centers. Are you looking to increase with the -
3 you know, increase the numbers of staff there with
4 the activities? I notice that, from a budgetary
5 standpoint, it seems to be pretty much stagnant
6 there. I mean, just a small increase, I’m assuming
7 maybe for staff salaries and benefits. But are you
8 looking to increase staffing also with the
9 welcoming centers, or at least from a regional
10 perspective?
11 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Well, we’re
12 working with the two local tourism organizations in
13 Philadelphia, and we’re making sure that we
14 collaborate with them, and we’re supplying -- I
15 don’t have any specifics on what we’ll be doing
16 with those welcome centers in that area. But I’d
17 be happy to have my staff take a look and report
18 back to you on the details.
19 REPRESENTATIVE KINSEY: We can follow
20 up with that.
21 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Yeah. I
22 think it’s a good idea. I mean, we want everybody
23 who is visiting Philadelphia -- it is an amazing,
24 amazing opportunity for this region. I can’t
25 remember the last estimates of how many people, but 47
1 it’s absolutely astounding how many people will be
2 visiting our region. We want it to look the best.
3 We want people to be able to get in and out as easy
4 as possible. It’s a huge opportunity for the
5 region, and PennDOT is going to do everything it
6 can to showcase Pennsylvania during those very
7 special events.
8 REPRESENTATIVE KINSEY: Great. Thank
9 you very much.
10 Mr. Chairman, thank you.
11 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you,
12 Representative.
13 Representative Keith Greiner.
14 REPRESENTATIVE GREINER: Thank you,
15 Mr. Chairman.
16 Secretary, glad to have you today.
17 Switching gears back to Act 89, again.
18 I know it was an important bill here for the
19 commonwealth. I know that I had a lot of
20 constituents reach out that said, if you’re going
21 to support the bill, you know, make sure the costs
22 are controlled and, certainly, I think that their
23 comments were well taken. And I do know that it
24 passed in a bipartisan manner.
25 Speaking of costs, moving forward, the 48
1 governor, in his 2015-'16 budget talks about
2 increasing the personal income tax from 3.07 to
3 3.7. That's a 21 percent increase. And then
4 there's many services that he plans to -- that he's
5 hoping to tax through sales tax revenue. And,
6 effectively, that'd be 40 percent increase, because
7 a lot of items are going to be taxed. Also, too,
8 the effective rate goes from 6 to 6.6.
9 I guess my concern is, how is this
10 going to impact -- and we already have prevailing
11 wage issues. I guess my concern is, how is this
12 going to affect professional services and other
13 projects in transportation as we move forward here
14 in the commonwealth? Do we have any thoughts on
15 that?
16 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: You know,
17 part of the governor's plan as well, everything is
18 connected as well. We want to make sure that we're
19 creating jobs that, you know, pay and create jobs
20 where people can provide for their families. We
21 want to make sure that government operates
22 efficiently. And I can guarantee to you and to
23 your constituents at home that every single dollar
24 being spent by PennDOT will be spent efficiently.
25 We'll be accountable. Up on our 49
1 website, we have still Our Decade of Investment is
2 still up there, and as we complete those jobs and
3 they're moving forward, you'll be able to track
4 that. So, everybody will be able to see how thing
5 are moving forward.
6 How the proponents in the governor's
7 plan impact that, it will -- you know, is yet to be
8 seen how costs of supplies impact our contractors.
9 You know, it's hard to say at this point. But I
10 know that many firms are ready to do the work.
11 We're still getting multiple responses every time
12 we put out an RFP. You know, we're not seeing any
13 decline. I don't expect any of those declines or
14 the competitiveness for the jobs to be impacted in
15 any way but positive.
16 REPRESENTATIVE GREINER: I really
17 appreciate that answer.
18 I also appreciate it because it is
19 true. You know, people always ask me, you know, we
20 passed the transportation bill very bipartisan.
21 They still worry about waste. Are people
22 getting -- you hear it. Executives getting bonuses
23 and things like that. I said, no, that this is
24 very much accounted for, and as a new secretary, I
25 know the prior secretary was very committed to 50
1 that, and it’s great to hear that.
2 And I also did want a follow up. I’m
3 glad you mentioned about the job creation, because
4 this is really a great opportunity to create jobs
5 here in the commonwealth. And that’s why I’m a
6 little bit worried about some of these increases.
7 But, like I said, I just wanted to
8 touch base with you. And I really appreciate your
9 time and appreciate you being here today.
10 And thank you, Mr. Secretary -- or
11 Mr. Chairman.
12 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: I go by many
13 names.
14 I’d like to recognize Representative
15 Mark Keller and his guests.
16 Representative, if your guests would
17 like to come on up here and sit, we have plenty of
18 seats up here.
19 REPRESENTATIVE MARK KELLER: There’s a
20 lot more. We just going to keep filing in.
21 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Okay. Thank
22 you.
23 Representative Gainey.
24 REPRESENTATIVE GAINEY: Good morning,
25 Madam Secretary. How are you? Over here. 51
1 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Oh. Hiding
2 over there.
3 REPRESENTATIVE GAINEY: Thank you for
4 being here today.
5 I just really want a report on
6 Allegheny County and the bridges. How many bridges
7 have you been able to get structurally repaired in
8 regards to what’s out west?
9 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Right. I
10 can get you specific numbers in Allegheny County.
11 I have the overall numbers for the state right now,
12 which I’m happy to share with you. But we do have,
13 on our website, county by county, again, with that
14 Decade of Investment. That information is readily
15 available to you.
16 If anybody wants to be walked through
17 how to easily access that, I’m happy to have our
18 staff speak to you directly or to your staff, so
19 that you can actually track it on a regular basis.
20 But, of course, you can always call us as well.
21 REPRESENTATIVE GAINEY: And is there a
22 way to get a breakdown of MBE, WBE participation on
23 the bridge work?
24 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Sure.
25 We’ll make that available to you as well. 52
1 Since you've brought it up, I would
2 just like to mention that I'm a huge advocate of
3 increasing MBE and DBE participation on all of
4 PennDOT's work. It's something that I've worked
5 all my life on.
6 The civil engineering firm that I
7 worked with was a woman-owned civil engineering
8 firm. The environmental engineering firm I worked
9 on, when I joined, was a woman-owned civil
10 engineering firm. And then it graduated. We did
11 so well, which is what that program is designed to
12 do, that we graduated from that program and now
13 compete -- that firm now competes with firms that
14 do not have that designation. And I'm very proud
15 of that. And to grow out of that and to receive,
16 you know, five million dollars of work each year
17 and to expand and to be recognized for the quality
18 of work that we did is something that I'm extremely
19 proud of through that process.
20 I'm always working on that. At the
21 county we worked on that. We gave special
22 evaluation points in every single job we put out
23 when they included teams that had MBE and DBE
24 designated firms.
25 I'm also working with the UCP 53
1 process within PennDOT to make sure
2 that that is functioning as well and as
3 as possible. And that will have my personal
4 attention. It’s an area that I’m very strongly
5 interested in.
6 REPRESENTATIVE GAINEY: Well, my office
7 would like to work with you on that project right
8 there, just so that we can understand the numbers
9 more better.
10 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Sure. And
11 I welcome that.
12 I will just mention that Act 89 had
13 recommendations but no requirements on those
14 percentages. But I will tell you that we will have
15 a goal, and we will try to achieve it to make sure
16 that certain percentages are met and that there are
17 significant amounts of MBE and DBE firms working
18 for the commonwealth.
19 REPRESENTATIVE GAINEY: Thank you,
20 Madam Secretary.
21 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you.
22 Representative Jim Marshall.
23 REPRESENTATIVE MARSHALL: Thank you,
24 Mr. Chairman.
25 Madam Secretary, I have many questions 54
1 on many modes of transportation. I’ll try to be as
2 quick as possible until the chairman pulls me off
3 the mic.
4 First, I’m concerned about the
5 motorcycle training program that’s operated here in
6 Pennsylvania, and concerned that maybe
7 participation has dropped, and I’m wondering who
8 the current administrator is of that program. And
9 if you can tell me, are stakeholders like
10 A.B.A.T.E. of Pennsylvania involved in decision
11 making with that program? If you can just briefly
12 touch on that.
13 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS:
14 Absolutely. Our deputy secretary of motor
15 vehicles, Kurt Myers, has briefed me on this issue
16 as well. And he’s on top of it. I’m sure many of
17 you have worked with Deputy Secretary Myers, very
18 responsive with motor vehicles.
19 It is a national trend right now that
20 the training of -- motorcycle training is
21 dropping. So, it’s not something that we’re only
22 seeing in Pennsylvania, but it is nationally. The
23 bottom line is the seriousness of accidents and the
24 fatalities regarding motorcycles is continuing to
25 decrease, and that is really what is most important 55
1 here. And we are seeing those in Pennsylvania.
2 Many organizations are involved in
3 providing input for our motorcycle vehicle training
4 programs and how that is run. A.B.A.T.E. is
5 definitely one of those organizations. We have one
6 time a year, and, of course, they are welcome to
7 submit their input and give us their feedback more
8 than once a year.
9 And we just had a meeting in January of
10 this year where A.B.A.T.E. attended as well as
11 other organizations to provide their input. The
12 briefing I got after that meeting, which was held
13 January 15th, 2015, is that that meeting went very
14 well. And so, they had their opportunity then,
15 but, of course, I know they've submitted a letter
16 more recently, and we've addressed every single one
17 of those questions is well.
18 REPRESENTATIVE MARSHALL: Thank you.
19 In Beaver County, Rochester Borough, we
20 have a very efficient traffic circle or a
21 roundabout, and I was wondering if that program is
22 something that PennDOT is going to expand on?
23 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: The
24 roundabout program? Yes. Roundabout programs kind
25 of, you know, send the red flags sometimes to 56
1 municipalities. They don't quite understand them.
2 But the basic facts of roundabouts are that -- I
3 haven't seen when this isn't the case, but I would
4 say, most times, if not -- I know the majority of
5 times, and possibly all the times, they create
6 safer -- they're safer than signaled
7 intersections. And they allow traffic to flow
8 better than signaled intersections. And when
9 presented with that data, I just want to make sure
10 that all municipalities understand that.
11 The good news is, just yesterday, I
12 received a request for a roundabout from a small
13 municipality in Montgomery County, where they were
14 scheduled to get a signaled intersection, and
15 they're requesting that a roundabout be considered
16 now, because they understand that the flow of
17 traffic will improve, that the safely will improve,
18 and that the amount of accidents at that signal
19 that it's currently happening will decrease with
20 the roundabout, and they are correct.
21 So, we're starting to get requests for
22 this. Of course, we're proponents for safer
23 vehicle measures, and that's what a roundabout
24 helps us with. So, we're hoping that that moves
25 forward. But, often, municipalities call us 57
1 because they’re worried. They don’t know what to
2 do with a roundabout. It’s something that they’re
3 not that familiar with, but we’ve been sending out
4 staff, and we’ll be proactive. And we’re happy to
5 inform residents, to inform local elected officials
6 what a roundabout can mean for their communities.
7 And then they can decide whether that is in the
8 best interest of them, moving forward.
9 REPRESENTATIVE MARSHALL: Thank you. I
10 think you can use the roundabout in Rochester as a
11 model. Working very well.
12 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: I
13 definitely will, and I thank you for that comment.
14 REPRESENTATIVE MARSHALL: We briefly
15 touched on the Pennsylvanian and Amtrak in
16 general. I was wondering if you could detail the
17 annual cost to the commonwealth to operate the
18 Pennsylvanian and the Keystone service.
19 I support rail service in Pennsylvania,
20 but, you know, at what cost is that?
21 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Right. The
22 numbers that I’ve been given, I believe I had
23 mentioned prior. I know that we are helping
24 subsidize that service at a cost of fifteen million
25 right now. I do know that that ridership has 58
1 increased, and as ridership increases, our annual
2 subsidy will decrease. And so, I know that we
3 budgeted an amount for this year, and that amount
4 may be decreased because of the increase in
5 ridership.
6 REPRESENTATIVE CHRISTIANA: Thank you.
7 And last, I want to mention, I'm a
8 commissioner with the port of Pittsburgh, so I echo
9 what Chairman Keller says about the value of the
10 port of Philadelphia. And that I hope that
11 enhancing that port is on your near timeline. It's
12 so important for economics.
13 And with that, also remember that the
14 port of Pittsburgh, there's a lot of freight that
15 moves through there, and we need our federal
16 government to help to enhance the locks and dams on
17 that system.
18 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS:
19 Absolutely. I just recently read a report of the
20 potential of both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia to
21 serve as energy hubs for Pennsylvania. I'm very
22 interested in learning more about that. And,
23 absolutely, we will look at the locks and dams
24 issues as well, because I know that will increase
25 the capacity and the amount of goods that come in 59
1 and go out of our ports efficiently.
2 REPRESENTATIVE MARSHALL: Thank you
3 very much, Madam Secretary. Look forward to
4 working with you.
5 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: I do, too.
6 Thanks.
7 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you.
8 Representative Schreiber.
9 REPRESENTATIVE SCHREIBER: Thank you,
10 Mr. Chairman.
11 Thank you, Madam Secretary. Thanks for
12 being with us. And thank you for all your great
13 work.
14 Two very quick questions. One, as it
15 pertains to our formula and how we score road
16 construction. And I know this has a plurality of
17 stakeholders, but is there any ability to give
18 greater consideration to vehicles per mile, not
19 necessarily solely miles of road? For instance, in
20 the city of York, we have our main thoroughfare,
21 which has thirty thousand vehicles a day on it but
22 is only less than two miles long, so we generally
23 do not score well for road improvements to that
24 particular street.
25 And again, I know, you know, that 60
1 touches rural, suburban, and urban areas. That’s
2 one question.
3 And the second question is a little
4 unrelated, but just wanted to hear your thoughts on
5 PennDOT’s relationship with economic development and
6 how it can be best partnered with some of our
7 economic development projects throughout the state,
8 particularly those that rise to the level of the
9 governor’s action team in ensuring that
10 infrastructure is also part and parcel to
11 quintessential government and how we can be a
12 catalyst for economic development.
13 Thank you.
14 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS:
15 Absolutely. Our scoring system, while that is a
16 formula, there is definitely flexibility in that
17 formula. And so, I’ll pay special attention on the
18 amount of miles but, for instance, we just advanced
19 a program, a very large project, it’s thirteen
20 miles long. It’s one of the big projects, the
21 Central Susquehanna Valley Transportation Project,
22 which I’m sure many of you are familiar with.
23 And so, you know, while we look at the
24 full amount of a program as well, other things as
25 far as if it’s shovel ready, how quickly it can get 61
1 done, how quickly it can go through environmental.
2 You know, there’s a lot of thing that go into that
3 process.
4 But I will definitely take a look if
5 the length of the project is impacting in a
6 negative way how those projects get prioritized.
7 I’m not aware of it right now, but we’ll definitely
8 take a look at it with my staff.
9 And as far as economic development, I
10 am a huge believer that transportation is key to
11 economic development. In Montgomery County, I was
12 a big force behind the effort in looking at our
13 different interchanges on the turnpike, noticing
14 that every single interchange has a huge economic
15 impact in that region, in the businesses that are
16 attracted and how it develops and how it helps
17 their co mmunities.
18 I know that there’s twenty-five million
19 dollars set aside for economic development
20 transportation projects. I’ve already been working
21 very closely with Acting Secretary Davin, at
22 Economic Development. We’ve met with several
23 employers around Pennsylvania. And to get back at
24 the questions that I’ve had about our ports, we met
25 personally with GE transportation, as they 62
1 manufacture locomotives out of Erie, seeing how we
2 can help them in those ways. But we know how
3 important it is.
4 And, really, in the Mon-Fayette, that's
5 the whole hope of building that whole section is
6 that we can help invigorate these areas. And we
7 know that a major transportation project has that
8 ability. So, they're tied very tightly,
9 hand-in-hand, economic development and
10 transportation. And that will be part of the
11 valuation process as well as we move forward and
12 prioritize projects.
13 REPRESENTATIVE SCHREIBER: Thank you
14 very much, Madam Secretary.
15 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
16 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you.
17 Representative Dave Millard.
18 REPRESENTATIVE MILLARD: Thank you,
19 Mr. Chairman.
20 Madam Secretary, good morning.
21 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Good
22 morning.
23 REPRESENTATIVE MILLARD: You know, I'd
24 been remiss if I didn't echo some of the comments
25 of previous secretary Schoch and all the dynamics 63
1 that had been gone through with regard to the
2 transportation funding bill that was passed last
3 session. And, you know, I think we see today,
4 through the questions and the concerns, of all the
5 good things that are coming about with regard to
6 that.
7 And I also want to thank, you know, the
8 professionalism of our district staff in Columbia.
9 The ones that serve Columbia County, out of the
10 Williamsport area, you know, very professional,
11 very responsible, very responsive. And I’m not
12 sure if there’s any changes that are anticipated in
13 those areas, but I would certainly hope that we
14 would keep that workable chemistry there, because
15 they’re important in our areas, especially the
16 rural area that I represent and as well as some of
17 my colleagues that they not only share information
18 with our townships with regard to new and creative
19 and innovative ideas, but, you know, they make the
20 process very seamless when it comes to addressing
21 our transportation needs in this commonwealth. And
22 I just want to, you know, comment that I appreciate
23 the set-up the way that it is. I hope that it
24 remains the same.
25 Now, you touched on this very briefly, 64
1 but I just want to ask a little bit more in depth.
2 This question pertains to PennDOT’s recent efforts
3 on the Shared-Ride Programs and Ecolane. There are
4 challenges for people with, you know, disabilities
5 and seniors that use these shared-ride programs,
6 crossing county lines and getting service during
7 nontraditional hours, evenings, weekends, holidays,
8 which actually places a limit on access to
9 employment, health care, and community life.
10 Can you comment on Act 89 Shared-Ride
11 Advisory Committee recommendations, which some of
12 the recommendations included crossing the county
13 lines, and adding hours, and how this program
14 really is working at the current time?
15 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Sure.
16 Shared-ride programs can be very challenging. When
17 I was part of the SEPTA board, I worked personally
18 on working with their shared-ride programs. And we
19 saw huge improvements, and it takes a lot of work,
20 a lot of individual efforts.
21 Many people expect the shared-ride
22 programs to be a taxi service, and they are not.
23 They are not -- you know, they’re not as
24 immediate. People book their times twenty-four
25 hours in advance. But they are life saving to the 65
1 people who need them, particularly persons with
2 disabilities, as you said. This could be the way
3 they get to work. This could be the way they get
4 to their medical appointments, how they do their
5 shopping, how they function on a daily basis. And
6 we want to make sure that they can count on it and
7 that the scheduling software is as efficient as
8 possible. Act 89 is helping us with that, making
9 sure that all the schedules -- again, reliability
10 is so important. You need to be able to count on
11 it.
12 And I know that, while working with
13 SEPTA, one of the issues were people would call and
14 request the service, and then shared-ride operator
15 would go to that dwelling, and the person wouldn't
16 be home or -- and they have to stay there for a
17 certain amount of time, you know, to make sure that
18 that person isn't going to show. So, those are the
19 types of things that they really took a good look
20 at and tried to improve, and they were able to make
21 those improvement.
22 Act 89 and the advisory committee
23 recommendation, we are advertising right now for a
24 pilot program, and we are going to look at every
25 detail of that pilot program, and I think it is 66
1 going to show us where we can see those
2 efficiencies, in working with Ecolane, working with
3 the scheduling software, working with how you
4 reduce the people calling when they don't really
5 need and when the vehicle is needlessly waiting
6 outside of these homes, waiting for someone who
7 isn't there, which only adds to the people who are
8 currently in the vehicle, waiting to get on their
9 stops. So, I think all of that is going to be
10 helpful.
11 Obviously, once the pilot program
12 starts, after it finishes, we'll be looking at
13 those results. But I'm very optimistic and
14 confident that we are going to get specific
15 performance measures, which will allow us to
16 improve the systems throughout the commonwealth.
17 REPRESENTATIVE MILLARD: I appreciate
18 your response. And I've been working with a local
19 group, and you touched on a lot of the aspects of
20 it. Performance response is critical when,
21 obviously, you're getting feedback from a pilot
22 program. But we've been working, trying to do that
23 in rural Columbia County, Montour County, Union,
24 and Snyder, trying to do a type of a shared program
25 there, and, you know, the hardest thing to do is to 67
1 sit at a table, looking at somebody across the
2 table who represents a group of people who really
3 do want to be involved and participate in their
4 community, who really do want to work, because
5 that’s our goal as legislators, to get people to
6 work, and these programs are critical. They’re
7 just absolutely critical.
8 And I would encourage your department
9 to give every consideration to doing a pilot
10 program centered in Columbia, Montour County and
11 the surrounding counties. I think that we could
12 provide some good results for you there, at least,
13 you know, maybe to tweak a program in the future.
14 So, I look forward to working with
15 you. And, again, thank you for your testimony
16 today.
17 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
18 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: And I’d
19 just like to add that the pilot program is being
20 decided now, so I would really encourage, if
21 anybody from your area needs more information so
22 that we can see if they would make sense in being
23 that pilot program as we move forward.
24 REPRESENTATIVE MILLARD: Very good.
25 Thank you. 68
1 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Thanks.
2 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you.
3 Representative Galloway.
4 REPRESENTATIVE GALLOWAY: Thank you,
5 Mr. Chairman.
6 And good morning. Over here.
7 Acting Secretary Richards, it’s good to
8 see you. Good to see you again. Congratulations.
9 First, I do have a question about the
10 motor license funds and the Pennsylvania State
11 Police, but, first, I’d like to talk about Act 89.
12 I mean, it’s been brought up -- and it must feel
13 great. It does, for me, to be honest with you. As
14 someone who actually voted for Act 89, it feels
15 great to hear people on both sides of the aisle,
16 from across the ideological spectrum, to talk about
17 the tremendous success that Act 89 is and has
18 become.
19 I’ve noticed your budget this year has
20 increased almost 12 percent, and if I’m not
21 mistaken, nearly all of that can be attributed to
22 Act 89; is that correct?
23 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: That is -
24 it’s a huge boost. That’s why we’re able to do,
25 you know, 2.4 billion dollars of construction 69
1 projects in this coming year alone. It's huge.
2 And if I haven't said it before, I know
3 a lot of people have given kudos, and well
4 deserved, to the former secretary. I'd just like
5 to be on record, I have known former secretary
6 Schoch for many, many years, worked with him on the
7 consultant side of things. I've worked with him as
8 secretary in getting this passed, the bipartisan
9 efforts. It's been a huge tool. And I know I'm
10 the envy of many other DOT secretaries around the
11 country that I get to step into this role with this
12 resource at my hands. So, again, I just thank
13 everybody. The general assembly did a fantastic
14 job.
15 REPRESENTATIVE GALLOWAY: And it is
16 important because it was a huge vote. You know, in
17 my nine years here, it was probably the biggest
18 vote, you know, that we had to put up. It passed,
19 I believe, by one vote. And, you know, we had
20 heard calls of the sky falling and Pennsylvania's
21 economy coming to a crashing halt. And, you know,
22 I think it's very, very important that we look
23 back, one year later, and talk about the success
24 that Act 8 9 is.
25 Briefly, I'd like to, with the 70
1 indulgence of the chair, I'd like to talk about the
2 funding for the Pennsylvania State Police and it's
3 continued reliance on the motor license fund. Over
4 half the budget for the Pennsylvania State Police
5 comes from the motor license fund, and it has an
6 impact on your department. The budget for the
7 state police has risen from, say, three hundred
8 million almost ten years ago, to about seven
9 hundred million today. And this does have a direct
10 impact on your department.
11 Could you speak to the reliance of
12 funding the Pennsylvania State Police through the
13 motor license fund and its impact on PennDOT?
14 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: It's part
15 of what we budget for. We aren't talking about
16 changing -- you know, that doesn't come from
17 PennDOT, changing the formula. I know it's up to
18 the general assembly of how that gets apportioned.
19 Of course, I acknowledge, as well as I'm assuming
20 everybody here knows, one of the challenges with
21 the state police is the increasing number of
22 municipalities that rely on them for their sole
23 provider of law enforcement. And that's very
24 challenging.
25 The state police do patrol our state 71
1 roads, and they’re very helpful that way. So, I
2 see where the connection is. You know, besides
3 that, it’s not, you know, up to PennDOT to make
4 those decisions. But we will do the best we can,
5 you know, with the budget and pay for the things
6 that the general assembly instructs us to do.
7 REPRESENTATIVE GALLOWAY: And I’m glad
8 you brought that up, which is clearly the reliance
9 on local municipalities that are using the
10 Pennsylvania State Police as their police force.
11 They’re cutting back, and they’re putting more and
12 more pressure on our Pennsylvania State Police.
13 And it was really the main reason for me bringing
14 this up.
15 I bring it up at a couple different
16 committee hearings, and I appreciate your
17 indulgence.
18 And thank you very much. It’s great to
19 see you again. Good luck. And congratulations.
20 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
21 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you.
22 Representative Curt Masser.
23 REPRESENTATIVE MASSER: Madam
24 Secretary, the local fuels -- over here. Sorry
25 about that. 72
1 The local liquid fuels for the
2 municipalities, what are we looking at for this
3 year?
4 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Sure. In
5 state funds alone, the payment to municipalities is
6 over three hundred million dollars. That was made
7 on March 2nd of this year. Again, as a local
8 elected official, I know how much that means when
9 you receive that check, and it allows you to take
10 care of the local roads that you care about. With
11 federal funds, the total amount of that is closer
12 to seven hundred million dollars.
13 PennDOT believes strongly in working
14 with our municipalities and helping them with the
15 local roads. PennDOT's in charge of over forty
16 thousand miles of local roads, but when you add the
17 municipalities, they are in charge of seventy-seven
18 thousand miles. It is a lot of mileage.
19 We also are looking at how we can help
20 them with their winter maintenance. We have
21 agreements with a lot of municipalities. Knowing
22 that we plow interstates and major arterials first,
23 local roads need to be plowed as well, and when we
24 help and work with them, we make sure that all the
25 roads get clear as efficiently as possible. 73
1 REPRESENTATIVE MASSER: I know that was
2 a big part of my vote for the transportation
3 funding package, and they’re thrilled with the
4 extra money coming in.
5 The other thing I wanted to talk about
6 was the Central Susquehanna Valley Throughway, the
7 biggest project, I think, slated for the state and
8 how familiar you are with that project.
9 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Extremely
10 familiar. We advanced the financial plan just, I
11 believe, a week or two weeks ago. And that set the
12 entire program forward. I know it’s been forty
13 years in the making, the CSVT program, and with Act
14 89 funds, we’re able to move that forward.
15 It’s going to be a seven to eight year
16 construction. I know the bridge over the
17 Susquehanna, which amounts to a hundred seventy-
18 five million dollars, will be the first part of
19 that project, which is let. We’re looking at an
20 August 2015 let day. And then as soon as that
21 bridge is built, then the northern part of that
22 thirteen-mile project will start north and south of
23 that bridge. We’ll build on it.
24 As far as everything that’s within
25 PennDOT’s control, we are moving forward to make 74
1 sure that we get to that deadline.
2 I will let you know that we heard there
3 may be a Section 106 issue with that project, and
4 we’re looking into it right now, but, of course,
5 that’s under federal guidelines.
6 REPRESENTATIVE MASSER: Well, thank
7 you. And we have a task force up there that’s been
8 very involved since inception, which was decades
9 ago, and worked very -- former secretary Schoch was
10 up a number of times, and we’d love to have you up
11 and talk to those task force members and show you
12 first-hand what the project’s going to look like.
13 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: I can
14 guarantee you there’s no way I would miss that
15 August shovels in the ground when that bridge gets
16 started. And it’s going to be key in how it
17 separates truck traffic from local traffic. And
18 it’s going to have huge safety improvements as well
19 as just allowing traffic to flow better throughout
20 the area.
21 REPRESENTATIVE MASSER: Absolutely.
22 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: And the
23 other part of it that I love is it’s a three-county
24 project. And, you know, projects -- it’s been
25 mentioned before here, when we can have regional 75
1 projects with regional significance, it’s
2 definitely going to help the economy there as well,
3 which makes it a fantastic regional project for
4 Pennsylvania.
5 REPRESENTATIVE MASSER: Great. Thanks,
6 Madam Secretary.
7 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you,
8 Representative.
9 At this time I’d like to acknowledge
10 the presence of Representative DeLissio and
11 Representative Reese.
12 Next question will be by Representative
13 Dean.
14 REPRESENTATIVE DEAN: Thank you,
15 Mr. Chairman.
16 And good morning, Madam Secretary.
17 Again, congratulations on your important work. And
18 I wish you well in it.
19 Like a lot of other people in the room,
20 we see the extraordinary in Act 89. And I’m very
21 delighted to have been a small part of that vote.
22 And Pennsylvania is a model among the nation, but
23 the opportunity is met by the need. The need is so
24 very great.
25 The American Society of Civil 76
1 Engineers, the 2014 report card, gave us an overall
2 of C-minus, with some really serious poor grades in
3 terms of our bridges, of course, our roadways. Our
4 freight rail was actually a little better than the
5 others.
6 And your opening anecdote about
7 potholes, it's so true. People care at the local
8 level, the county level, the state level across
9 this county about potholes.
10 My question has to do with what I care
11 about for my community, which is to make it a
12 safer, more walkable, liveable, drivable
13 community. And Secretary Schoch and others have
14 helped me try to harness some of those Act 89
15 dollars and bring them to my area -- you know it
16 very well -- to not just patch potholes, but to
17 look to the future and to look for safer roadways,
18 to reduce our fatality rate, to look to safer
19 railways.
20 So, I guess I'd like to know how you
21 think we can use Act 89 to do more than patch and
22 repair, but to really look to the future, to reduce
23 traffic fatalities, to make it more walkable, those
24 kind of things. And the other side of that, it's
25 very big in the news, is rail safety, particularly 77
1 with the movement of crude oil through our state.
2 So, if you could comment on maybe how we can look
3 forward to using 89 dollars in those ways.
4 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS:
5 Absolutely. Well, thanks to Act 89, we have two
6 million dollars now available to us that we didn’t
7 on pedestrian and bicycle trails. I know trails
8 are linked very strongly with our communities and
9 our neighborhoods and with quality of life issues.
10 They’re very important to many communities,
11 particularly out in Abington Township and
12 Cheltenham, in the areas that you live and that
13 your constituents care about.
14 Of course, crossings, when we build
15 though trails, we’ve worked with railways to make
16 sure we have safe, at-grade crossings. Of course,
17 today, in the Philadelphia Inquirer, on the front
18 page, was an article that SEPTA put out about
19 people being killed by trains. And, you know, what
20 is the answer? And the answer is very challenging.
21 I mean, we could require fences to be
22 built around entire transit agencies, but that’s
23 still not going to help. I mean, we do know that
24 half of the people who are killed in rail accidents
25 are suicides. And so we do try to work with 78
1 agencies and emergency agencies in posting suicide
2 hot line numbers around transit agencies and
3 working with local elected officials.
4 At SEPTA, we even educate our train
5 conductors, and they are educated on suicide signs
6 and how they can report and help people if they see
7 people wandering around the stations when they stop
8 who sent up red flags to them.
9 So, we want to make sure that all of
10 our crossings, and, of course, as our children
11 cross, and some of them have to pass, you know,
12 very busy routes as they go to school. So, we want
13 to make sure that all of our crossings are as safe
14 as possible. And, again, the multimodal funds are
15 really key to that. So, I have to thank everybody
16 for Act 89, to have those dedicated funds to be
17 able to do that.
18 You asked about crude oil, that's a
19 huge problem, of course. And I'm very proud to
20 report, as I'm sure you all know, Governor Wolf
21 takes it very seriously. One of the first things
22 he did after being sworn in was writing a letter to
23 our President on this issue, about working with the
24 Federal Rail Association, with FRA, and making sure
25 that we have the resources we need to correctly 79
1 inspect and to know and have all the safety
2 measures in place.
3 What is traveling on our freight rail
4 is very volatile material, and we have to make sure
5 that we are aware of it and that we can react
6 appropriately, and that it is monitored and safe
7 and that those rail lines are maintained in a good
8 way and we have the current number of inspectors to
9 make sure that that happens.
10 I can also tell you that emergency
11 preparedness is something that this administration
12 takes very seriously. My nomination was announced
13 at 2:12 on a Wednesday, not that I was counting
14 down the minutes, but by 12 o'clock the next day, I
15 was in a meeting with the incoming PEMA director,
16 with the state police commissioners, with the
17 governor, with the chief of staff, at PEMA, where
18 we were reviewing all of the emergency precautions,
19 all the communication protocol. We know that
20 communication is the key to dealing with these
21 emergencies. And I can confidently report back to
22 you that many scenarios, including crude oil
23 issues, have been discussed in depth at the cabinet
24 level, and we are being as prepared as possible to
25 be able to respond. And we take it very seriously. 80
1 REPRESENTATIVE DEAN: Well, I thank
2 you, Madam Secretary. And know that my
3 constituents are really eager for us in
4 Pennsylvania to be rethinking how we transport not
5 just ourselves and our families but also the goods
6 that we very much count on across the state. So, I
7 look forward to working with you.
8 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you.
9 Representative Marguerite Quinn.
10 REPRESENTATIVE QUINN: Thank you,
11 Mr. Chairman.
12 Acting Secretary, much has been said
13 about your predecessor. I want to echo that, also
14 put out a shout out for District 6, but also for a
15 face we see in the capital here often, Cindy
16 Cashman, and if I read correctly, today’s her
17 birthday.
18 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: It is. It
19 i s .
20 REPRESENTATIVE QUINN: So, getting
21 younger there, Cindy.
22 My colleague from Montgomery County
23 just set me up perfectly for this question with
24 regard to concerns with rail transit. Recently,
25 there’s been a proposal that was put out, a 81
1 co-sponsor memo, and then follow-up articles in the
2 paper regarding the potential of leasing the right-
3 of-way or allowing pipelines to come through the
4 right-of-way of the turnpike. Is that something
5 that’s actually being considered? Has it funneled
6 up to you or down to you yet?
7 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: It has, as
8 a discussion item. So, it is being discussed.
9 I mean, I think what every
10 organization, including the Turnpike Commission,
11 when an idea comes, you know, give it the attention
12 that it deserves. So, it’s being discussed. No
13 decisions have yet, you know, been made. And I’d
14 be very interested in hearing your input on how you
15 feel about that. As that discussion moves forward,
16 I would be happy to include those comments with
17 that discussion.
18 REPRESENTATIVE QUINN: Thank you. I
19 look forward to that conversation.
20 You’re right, potholes, potholes,
21 potholes. Recently, I had a road director from one
22 of my townships ask if there could be -- and I’m
23 not sure if there is -- but a partnership where the
24 municipality could actually go on the state road,
25 do some of the work, and be reimbursed by PennDOT 82
1 for, you know, getting out there.
2 I’m from a part of the commonwealth
3 where -- typically Bucks County is viewed as having
4 high average daily traffic. Much of my district is
5 pretty rural, and I have to say like, Whoa, you’re
6 just going to have to wait.
7 Is there such a program? And if not,
8 could there be a program like that?
9 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Well, we’ve
10 entered into winter management agreements with many
11 of our municipalities. So, if that’s something
12 that we don’t currently have with the township that
13 you’re mentioning, I’d be happy to provide you with
14 information, and we can contact them proactively as
15 well.
16 And what those winter management
17 agreements do, is PennDOT pays local maintenance
18 crews to go out on the roads and do exactly what
19 you just said, not just pothole repairs but snow
20 removal. There’s also been discussion for truck
21 lending. Where PennDOT could supply a dump truck
22 in many cases or other equipment to the local
23 municipalities. Obviously, municipalities with
24 very tight budgets and not large budgets, that
25 would be huge. If they don’t already have 83
1 equipment that can handle potholes and other
2 maintenance issues. We are looking into that.
3 There are some other issues dealing
4 with how the commonwealth releases oversupply of
5 its equipment. Obviously, we'd have to get DGS
6 involved in those discussions, but it has come up.
7 I think it's a great, new, innovative tool that
8 hasn't been explored before. And, again, as I've
9 said many times, we are very much interested in
10 helping our municipalities, the rural ones as well
11 as the suburban and the urban ones. They each have
12 different needs.
13 REPRESENTATIVE QUINN: Thank you.
14 One more question. With regard to the
15 governor's overall budget and the tax proposal, I
16 understand that, at present, transportation
17 services -- transit and ground, air, truck
18 transportation, other transportation -- are not -
19 they're exempt from a tax. Will that remain the
20 same under this new proposal?
21 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: You know
22 what, I'd have to look in all the details of that.
23 I have not heard about them specifically being
24 taxed, but I would have to look into the weeds of
25 the proposal to give you the definitive answer on 84
1 that. And I'd be happy to have my staff take a
2 look and get back to you.
3 REPRESENTATIVE QUINN: Thank you very
4 much.
5 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
6 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you.
7 Representative Mike Carroll.
8 REPRESENTATIVE CARROLL: Thank you,
9 Mr. Chairman.
10 Madam Secretary, thank you for being
11 here this morning.
12 I appreciate all your comments related
13 to Act 89. The commonwealth really will be, the
14 citizens of this commonwealth, the beneficiaries of
15 that act. And it really is incumbent upon PennDOT
16 and you, Madam Secretary, as the leader, to make
17 sure that we implement Act 89 well. I believe
18 we're off to a good start, and I look forward to
19 your continued leadership with respect to the
20 implementation of Act 89.
21 I'd like to shift, if I can, Madam
22 Secretary, just for a moment. I don't need you to
23 respond, but just echo the comments of
24 Representative Marshall relative to the motorcycle
25 safety training program. I think it's important to 85
1 make sure that you know that we have wonderful
2 partners in our commonwealth that can be helpful in
3 the continuing development of that program and
4 ongoing training that is provided to those folks
5 that have motorcycle licenses or those folks who
6 have acquired a permit. So, I urge you to work
7 with our partner, A.B.A.T.E. and other folks, that
8 have a keen interest in that subject matter.
9 I’d like to shift, Madam Secretary, to
10 two subjects that are unique to northeastern
11 Pennsylvania, in my area in particular, Lackawanna
12 and Luzerne County. We have, as you may know, a
13 serious capacity problem with I-81 as it passes in
14 the area of Wilkes Barre and Scranton. And the
15 department, in conjunction with the turnpike, has
16 begun a study relative to the usage of the
17 northeast extension of the Pennsylvania turnpike,
18 to help alleviate some of the traffic problems that
19 we have on I-81.
20 And I am hopeful that you and the
21 administration will continue the efforts that we’ve
22 started with the last administration relative to a
23 partnership to utilize the turnpike asset that we
24 have in a far more aggressive way to alleviate some
25 of the traffic on I-81, particularly the segment 86
1 between Clarks Summit and the Wyoming Valley
2 interchange on the turnpike, to try to move some of
3 the traffic from I-81 onto the turnpike, which is
4 underutilized at this point.
5 I’m not sure that you’ve had a chance
6 yet to get fully briefed on the unique nature of
7 the turnpike and 81 in Scranton/Wilkes Barre, and
8 if you haven’t, I’d welcome the opportunity to
9 share the possibilities and the prospects there
10 for, you know, a better usage of those assets.
11 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: I look
12 forward to that conversation. I have been briefed
13 on it. I’m very familiar with that area. Our
14 family goes up to Hawley and Honesdale on a regular
15 basis during the summer and winter months. It’s
16 where we like to take a break from southeastern
17 Pennsylvania and Montgomery County. And so I’m
18 very well aware of it, and I have had discussions
19 with my fellow turnpike commissioners about that
20 area, and be happy to share with you what we know
21 and have a one-on-one to make sure that all the
22 concerns you have are included in those
23 discussions.
24 REPRESENTATIVE CARROLL: The essence of
25 the solution, I think, is to try and more 87
1 efficiently move traffic between the interstate and
2 the turnpike. Right now, the movement requires all
3 sorts of gymnastics relative to traffic signals and
4 intersections, and, clearly, there are better ways
5 to move traffic from the interstate to the turnpike
6 and vice versa. So, I look forward to the
7 continued effort to try and improve the usage of
8 those two assets.
9 And, finally, Madam Secretary, I bring
10 to your attention the ongoing discussion in
11 northeastern Pennsylvania relative to the
12 restoration of passenger rail service between
13 Scranton and northern New Jersey. And there has
14 been all sorts of discussions in my corner of the
15 state relative to restoration of that sort of
16 service. It has always surprised me that those
17 sorts of conversations seem to ignore the absence
18 of twenty miles of rail that exists in northern New
19 Jersey that would prevent us from restoring that
20 traffic between Scranton and Hoboken.
21 I'm asking, Madam Secretary, if I
22 wouldn't mind, sometime in the very near future,
23 reaching out to your counterpart in New Jersey,
24 whether it's the secretary of the Jersey DOT or the
25 New Jersey Transit Authority, to try and, once and 88
1 for all, sort out what New Jersey’s plans are with
2 the absent twenty miles of track in the area of
3 Andover, New Jersey.
4 For those of us in Pennsylvania and
5 especially in northeastern Pennsylvania that have
6 an interest in pursuing passenger rail service, it
7 really is hard for us to be able to plan without
8 knowing what New Jersey’s plans are relative to the
9 twenty miles.
10 So, you know, I’m hopeful that you and
11 the administration can, once and for all, help us
12 get an understanding, if you can, of what New
13 Jersey’s plans are with those twenty miles.
14 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Your timing
15 is perfect, because I’m actually having dinner with
16 Secretary Jamie Fox, the New Jersey DOT secretary,
17 next week, and I’ll make sure that I get the plans
18 and who to speak to in regards. We have been put
19 together by common friends who know that we have a
20 lot of common interests in working on together.
21 He also wanted my take on Act 89 and
22 how we got that passed. As you know, New Jersey is
23 not sitting in the position that we are here in
24 Pennsylvania. They have a lot of challenges ahead
25 of them, and so I’m looking to meeting with him in 89
1 the next few days. And I’ll make sure that I ask
2 him regarding that specific question.
3 REPRESENTATIVE CARROLL: I appreciate
4 it. Because if, really, New Jersey has no plans in
5 the immediate future to complete that twenty-mile
6 missing segment, you know, it seems to me that, in
7 northeastern Pennsylvania at least, we ought to be
8 able to figure out other transportation solutions
9 for the movement of traffic from our corner of the
10 state to northern New Jersey and not rely on the
11 prospect of passenger rail that are wholly
12 dependent on the state of New Jersey completing
13 that twenty-mile segment.
14 So, to the extent that we can get an
15 answer with respect to New Jersey’s short-term
16 plans, you know, measured in years. I assume, it
17 really would be helpful for all of us.
18 So, thank you so much.
19 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: No problem.
20 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you.
21 Representative Jeff Pyle.
22 REPRESENTATIVE PYLE: Over here.
23 Good to see you again, Madam
24 Secretary. We have been here for an hour and ten
25 minutes. I am going to go as fast as I can. 90
1 Okay?
2 First of all, I hail from D-10. I've
3 been a member of the Transportation Committee for
4 six years, and I personally voted for HB1060 at
5 least six times under two different chairmen.
6 That's Act 89. And I was prime sponsor. And I'm
7 very proud that so many people think so highly of
8 it. It is producing great results for our
9 commonwealth.
10 You're absolutely right. Our future
11 success depends on our ability to move our goods to
12 market, and without a solid transportation
13 infrastructure, we just can't do that.
14 Love D-10. Those guys are awesome.
15 Next time you come out, please call. I didn't know
16 you were out there.
17 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: I will.
18 REPRESENTATIVE PYLE: Armstrong,
19 Butler, and Indiana kind of are the heart of D-10.
20 I do have a question about future use,
21 stipulations within eminent domain proceedings. We
22 are putting up some safety improvements that have
23 taken some private land. It's affecting a couple
24 of my people, actually emergency service providers
25 at a fire hall, who had most of their front yard 91
1 taken. They want to be able to put a sign up out
2 there that's a good fifty to sixty yards off the
3 roadway, but PennDOT's telling them they are
4 reserving that for future use, and nobody wants to
5 tell me what that future use is. So, I'd like to
6 talk with you about that later.
7 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Sure.
8 REPRESENTATIVE PYLE: Second point, I
9 am the chairman of subcommittee on ports and
10 railroads, and I couldn't agree more with Chairman
11 Keller, Chairman Taylor, the ports of Philly,
12 Pittsburgh, and Erie deserve a much fuller
13 discussion.
14 In fact, we've got something going in
15 Armstrong. As you might know, the Allegheny River
16 bisects us entirely from north to south, and that's
17 one of the rivers that help make up the Ohio, when
18 they meet at Pittsburgh. Whether you're aware of
19 this or not, because of Act 89 and because of
20 enabling language we passed earlier under Public-
21 Private Partnership, there's been a model developed
22 in reopening the river locks on the Allegheny, and
23 it is now being used as a model for three other
24 rivers nationally, working with the Army Corps of
25 Engineers, and we need to talk about that, too. 92
1 Why I’m here really is a question, an
2 integral part of Act 89, and your friend in New
3 Jersey who wants to know how it was passed, is
4 going to know how was that done. Dirt and gravel
5 roads and lesser-volume roads were an integral part
6 of this equation. I have a question about that in
7 that one of my local township supervisors who works
8 for the conservation district is on that board.
9 And he brought this to me. And I think I can solve
10 a discussion that’s going on right now.
11 Whoever this fellow is that’s running
12 this board seems to be making a lot of statements
13 about the legislative intent of that part of the
14 bill. I’d like to state for the record that dirt
15 and gravel roads money is going to rural counties
16 that don’t have big mass transit systems or
17 interstates or highways or any of that. It’s
18 intended to connect our major roadways that are not
19 intended to go into our urban areas, through
20 differentials and point scoring systems about what
21 project deserves what, and I’d really like to talk
22 to you about that later.
23 Finally, fifth point, Chairman
24 Keller -- Madam Secretary, I am envious that you
25 all can dredge the Delaware for increased port 93
1 facilities in Philly. I wish we could do that,
2 because we have a very special circumstance in that
3 where live is the gas field. We live in the middle
4 of it.
5 Our pipelines are not done, and the
6 reservoirs are full. We cannot get our product to
7 market. Part of this equation to get the port of
8 Pittsburgh, which will, undoubtedly, serve as a
9 jumping off point west, much like we did in the
10 colonial times. Pittsburgh was as far west as you
11 could make it. The Allegheny is integral to that
12 plan to be able move our gas to Pittsburgh.
13 And if I could, we'll put this on
14 the — I'll buy you a cup of coffee or something
15 sometime, and —
16 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: I'll buy my
17 own cup of coffee, but I'm happy to meet with you.
18 REPRESENTATIVE PYLE: I'm sorry. Well,
19 you can buy me a cup of coffee.
20 Am I allowed do that, Chairman?
21 We'll make something happen.
22 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: We'll
23 figure it out.
24 REPRESENTATIVE PYLE: Right.
25 But there's -- again, I'd like to 94
1 discuss PPP model that’s being used by Army Corps
2 nationally on four rivers across the country based
3 on what we did as a combination of multimodal
4 funding and PPP language. It’s really good stuff.
5 Dirt and gravel roads versus
6 lesser-volume roads, I think has to be discussed.
7 And if you want legislative intent, I was the prime
8 sponsor. What do you want to know?
9 Ports and railroads, we have to discuss
10 this. I would love to work with all of you.
11 Chairmen Keller and Taylor and I have talked about
12 this already.
13 And, finally, big, big, big tip of the
14 hat to PennDOT District 10. Love those guys. You
15 should, too.
16 And thank you, Madam Secretary and
17 Mr. Chairman.
18 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: I thank
19 you.
20 I just want to let you know that I
21 served on my conservation district for three years,
22 and I’m very familiar with the dirt and gravel
23 roads, low-volume roads, less than five hundred
24 vehicles a day. And they are getting the money
25 they need, not that they couldn’t use more if more 95
1 was available. But it’s a program that I was very
2 happy to see was included in Act 89. So, thank
3 you.
4 REPRESENTATIVE PYLE: What I’m informed
5 is there is a difference in scoring points in what
6 projects are addressed and what are not, and there
7 is a great inequity in how these point values are
8 assigned. That’s pretty much the target of what I
9 want to talk with you about.
10 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: I look
11 forward to it.
12 REPRESENTATIVE PYLE: No coffee.
13 Thank you.
14 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: I’ll bring
15 my water.
16 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you.
17 Representative Daley.
18 REPRESENTATIVE DALEY: Thank you,
19 Mr. Chairman.
20 And welcome, Secretary Richards. It’s
21 always good to see you. I have enjoyed listening
22 to you talk about transportation I think since
23 I met you, so this is a very good hearing today.
24 I wanted to go back to the issue with
25 the transportation of oil on the rail lines, and 96
1 you did provide a lot of information to
2 Representative Dean in her question, but I wanted
3 to just, if you could flesh out a little bit how
4 PennDOT would work with the local municipalities.
5 You know that I represent an area where we have
6 these lines going through. They’re very densely
7 populated areas along the Schuylkill River, so it’s
8 a potential real issue.
9 And I’m just interested in knowing, you
10 know, how the local governments are set up and what
11 the communication is with them directly.
12 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Sure.
13 Well, PennDOT is prepared. Of course, I’m very
14 interested in your district. In all ways of
15 transparency, I live in Representative Daley’s
16 district, and I’m proud to do so.
17 Of course, PennDOT will make itself
18 available to local municipalities as well as
19 counties. In Montgomery County, where your
20 district is located, it allowed us -- we bought our
21 first, you know, foam pumper trucks. And the
22 county bought that. And we know that foam is a
23 tool that’s used to put out fires that are caused
24 by oil and other types of materials that can go up
25 in flames. And we make that available to all of 97
1 your municipalities. It was extremely expensive,
2 of course, and municipalities cannot afford to do
3 that on their own.
4 And that is something that the county
5 worked with PennDOT to figure out. And we'll be as
6 helpful as we can when those grant opportunities
7 are there, but also, in going over emergency plans
8 and communication plans, of course, we would work
9 in your area with District 6, but throughout the
10 commonwealth we would work in the local districts
11 as well, to make sure that everybody knows who to
12 contact.
13 Again, communication will be key. If,
14 God forbid, we ever are faced with an emergency
15 issue involving those freight cars carrying the
16 Bakken crude oil, and we just want to make sure
17 that every municipality knows who to contact, who
18 in their district office they should contact, of
19 course who in their emergency operation center at
20 the county they should contact, which public safety
21 person they should be speaking with. Of course,
22 PennDOT would be involved from central office as
23 well in that coordination. And that is something
24 that every municipality can be proactive with, and
25 PennDOT's happy to help those municipalities get 98
1 that information so that they can feel that they at
2 least know who to contact, and that would be step
3 one.
4 And then, of course, keeping everybody
5 up to date in how we work with the FRA and with the
6 issue of getting the right amount of inspectors
7 around that's needed to make sure that that product
8 moves safely throughout the commonwealth.
9 REPRESENTATIVE DALEY: Great. Thank
10 you. Thank you very much.
11 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you.
12 Representative Mike Vereb.
13 REPRESENTATIVE VEREB: Thank you,
14 Mr. Chairman.
15 Madam Secretary, good morning.
16 You know, we're bragging about
17 Montgomery County, but the one thing I want to
18 bring up is your individual leadership with dealing
19 with, I think, the microcosm of what's going on in
20 the commonwealth with bridges being kicked down the
21 road. And, unfortunately, we learned that in a
22 crash course with Arcola Bridge, and I'm going to
23 talk to the District 6 about the Graterford
24 Bridge. That's my next adopted bridge of my new
25 district. I'm so excited to have another closed 99
1 bridge.
2 But, as you know, one thing with the
3 Arcola Road Bridge were all the agencies and level
4 of government -- it’s a county bridge, but
5 everybody working together, I think, expedited that
6 planning and the ultimate, I think, lead to
7 construction time.
8 With all the bridges that you’re seeing
9 going on, is -- are we getting that cooperation as
10 well? Would you push for that? Because I think
11 you saw there was a lot of months cut out of
12 bureaucracy there to actually have shovels in the
13 ground as opposed to pens on paper.
14 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Yeah. I
15 would say you’re being very kind, because when the
16 Arcola Road Bridge project came to the crisis level
17 that it did, I know you and I had some
18 conversations, and you convinced me that it was
19 going to move faster than I thought it was going to
20 move. And with my private sector experience, I did
21 not see how it was going to move on a tight
22 timeline that you had hoped it would.
23 But you worked with all of your
24 representatives, at the Senate level, at the
25 representative level, state government, local 100
1 government. We all came together. Of course it
2 was my honor, as a county commissioner, to help
3 move that through. And the Arcola Road Bridge
4 needs to be our standard. It doesn’t need to be
5 our exception. And it definitely will be used as a
6 model.
7 I look forward to once it is completed,
8 and I know it is on schedule. I’m asked all the
9 time -- I was out Sunday with dinner with my
10 family, and two people came up to me to say that
11 they’re seeing activity, not only as the Arcola
12 Road Bridge comes down but they’re now seeing
13 activity where the new, beautiful bridge is being
14 placed. And, so we are very excited about that.
15 But, again, I want to look at lessons
16 learned through that process. And a lot of it,
17 while it was a lot of hard work, it’s very simple.
18 It came down to communication with all the
19 different levels of elected officials. And I want
20 to be able to show that, again, as our standard
21 from now on what can happen when everybody around
22 the table comes together and agrees on moving it
23 forward and how months out of that construction
24 schedule were eliminated and how two different
25 townships straddling the river will benefit, both 101
1 in Upper and Lower Providence townships. So, I
2 want to make sure that we use that again and learn
3 from it and move all of our projects at that pace.
4 REPRESENTATIVE VEREB: You know, as you
5 know, that bridge took eighty-eight hundred round
6 trips a day, a little bridge in the back of two
7 communities. And I think all eighty-eight hundred
8 people drive by there each day, taking pictures,
9 whether one steel beam's down or two's down. And I
10 guess we're to the point now where we're hopefully
11 getting excited that it's going to stay on
12 schedule.
13 Just one other thing, as you know, 422,
14 the Betzwood Bridge, the cloverleaf that's being
15 built there -- not the cloverleaf but the full
16 interchange now, all of this work, you know,
17 Graterford Bridge all of these major projects, I
18 think that we, collectively -- as Representative
19 Dean was just talking. You know, Act 89, we have
20 to come up with the marketing of where these
21 projects are being paid for, because as big as that
22 work is on 422, you still have people talking about
23 gas tax and gas prices and comparing us to Jersey
24 and, of course, the illustrious media down our way
25 that gives us no cover, in fact, that we're doing 102
1 these projects.
2 Is there any money or is there any
3 thought process about marketing like a major
4 interchange, like Trooper Road and 422, about who’s
5 paying for it? I mean, I know the people know
6 they’re paying for it, but I think if we either go
7 with Act 89 or whatever we want to label the bill,
8 the act, I think it’s going to help us all out.
9 The same thing with Bill Keller and his
10 incredible work down at the ports. I mean, there’s
11 nowhere that you can go and not run into him that
12 he’s not talking about the ports. And I bought
13 into it right away. We have to get people’s buy-in
14 to what we voted on and what we put on the table.
15 You know, our first concern with Barry
16 was, make sure there’s shovels in the ground and
17 there’s dump trucks everywhere so people know.
18 And, of course, we were approaching election. But
19 I think, now, to market that work that’s being
20 done, we might be missing an opportunity.
21 So, I would look forward to talking
22 with, you know, District 6 or yourself about the
23 major projects where we’re seeing tens of thousands
24 of cars drive through it each day, that we market
25 that we voted for it and what they’re getting, what 103
1 bang they’re getting for their buck.
2 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS:
3 Absolutely. I couldn’t agree with you more. We’re
4 already doing this good work, and we should be
5 giving credit for doing it and letting people know,
6 because people don’t have that tangible connection
7 of the work that’s being done. And so, we want to
8 make sure that they can connect those dots.
9 In fact, I have a meeting tomorrow
10 afternoon with my press staff to deal just with
11 that issue. We’re going to heighten our social
12 media. We’re going to make sure that everybody
13 knows about it. Making sure that everybody
14 understands PennDOT Facebook page, our Twitter
15 account, how we reach out. We want to make sure
16 that we’re in touch with all of the representatives
17 and the senator and how they reach out to their
18 communities.
19 We want to make it as easy as possible
20 to tell those good stories. And we’re going to
21 have so many of them moving forward. And the more
22 we tell that story, the more people are beginning
23 to understand, first of all, how important
24 transportation is to them and how thankful they are
25 that their general assembly was so forward-thinking 104
1 in making sure that everybody can move forward and
2 our economy benefits.
3 REPRESENTATIVE VEREB: Thank you.
4 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
5 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you.
6 Representative Mike O'Brien.
7 REPRESENTATIVE O'BRIEN: Thank you,
8 Mr. Chairman.
9 And good morning, Madam Secretary.
10 I-95 runs through my district. Now, as
11 you know, I-95 could not be built today because of
12 the environmental issues, because of the
13 community-impact issues. As you also know, it's a
14 viaduct all through Philadelphia County. I don't
15 believe it touches the ground any place.
16 So, we are at a place that we need to
17 rebuild the highway. No way around that. But,
18 where it may sound as though I'm getting warm and
19 fuzzy for a second, nonetheless, I think it's of
20 extreme importance to my constituents and the
21 chairmen, Representative Taylor's and
22 Representative Keller's district are north and
23 south of mine, and I think of importance to their
24 constituents is that tucked way in the act is money
25 for streetscape. 105
1 How do you see that playing out?
2 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: There is
3 money for streetscape improvement. I’d like to
4 comment on two things from your question. And
5 thank you for asking it.
6 Number one, it’s allowing me to revisit
7 very briefly the need for federal reauthorization.
8 In the past, we’ve only been able to just do
9 resurfacing projects on I-95, and we know that it
10 requires major reconstruction. We count on 1.6
11 billion dollars in federal funds. And so I’m very,
12 very proud to be working with our counterparts in
13 D.C., not only telling them how we work together
14 with Act 89 but how we need to work together across
15 the country.
16 And I just want to let everybody know
17 in this room, and please let everybody else in the
18 House know this as well, I’ve been contacted by
19 Congressman Shuster to do a tour of Pennsylvania
20 infrastructure. It’s going to occur the week of
21 April 6th.
22 We’re planning exactly where that will
23 happen. Right now it looks like it will start in
24 Pittsburgh and make its way through to Harrisburg.
25 But what we want to do is showcase the importance 106
1 of transportation. Its connections to economic
2 development. Its connections to fixing
3 structurally deficient bridges. Its connection on
4 making sure that our interstates function
5 properly. And I just wanted to make sure that
6 everybody is well aware of it.
7 I've had several one-on-one meetings
8 with Congressman Shuster about I-95 and about other
9 interstates.
10 But to get to your question of
11 streetscape improvements, there is money there.
12 And I know how important streetscape improvements
13 can be to communities and just helping give a fresh
14 look to areas. And as we know, particularly on the
15 I-95 corridor, is that people live very close to
16 that corridor. It's not like, you know, I-95 is
17 several hundred feet or far. People literally live
18 right next to it. They go under it constantly to
19 do their daily shopping, to do their daily trips.
20 And so streetscapes can be huge. And we're going
21 to make sure, again, on how we reach out to
22 municipalities that they're aware of the
23 streetscape money that's available.
24 I also just want to make sure everybody
25 is aware of the CFA funding that's also available 107
1 and the fifty-seven million dollars that can be
2 applied through that authority as well. And that
3 money also can be used for streetscapes as well as
4 other improvement projects.
5 REPRESENTATIVE O ’BRIEN: Being as we
6 got out west for a few minutes on economic
7 development. You know, we have to come back, and
8 certainly we need to realize that the port of
9 Philadelphia -- I’m picking up the slack for you,
10 Representative Keller — that the port of
11 Philadelphia and actually all of Philadelphia’s
12 first-class intermodal facility, with the first-
13 class railroads we have running out of there, the
14 port of Philadelphia, and yet another reason why
15 it’s so important that I-95 be taken care of, be a
16 vital, vital source in the area.
17 And to finish up on I-95, good luck on
18 your work on 95 from now through 2044.
19 Thank you, Madam Secretary.
20 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Thank you.
21 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you,
22 Representative.
23 Representative Warren Kampf.
24 REPRESENTATIVE KAMPF: Acting Secretary
25 Richards, I’m going to ask you a couple of 108
1 questions I've been asking most of the agency
2 heads, and it has to do with personnel.
3 Your office was very kind last evening
4 to give us a breakdown of personnel costs for
5 '14-'15, which, you know, I want to thank you for.
6 My first question is, if you don't have
7 it here, could I have the proposed breakdown for
8 personnel costs for '15-'16?
9 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS:
10 Absolutely. And as you know, those numbers, I'm
11 happy to go over them with you now, but we can go
12 over them with you in detail.
13 REPRESENTATIVE KAMPF: Oh, okay. Maybe
14 we can do that.
15 For '15-'16, what is the total
16 personnel request?
17 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Salaries
18 are about six hundred million, with benefits coming
19 in slightly over four hundred million.
20 As you know, PennDOT, we have -- we
21 employ over eleven thousand employees throughout
22 the commonwealth to help with all of our
23 transportation -- winter is a huge issue -- and all
24 of our districts as well.
25 REPRESENTATIVE KAMPF: Sure. And I'm 109
1 not questioning that your payroll or your benefit
2 costs are in question.
3 So, the numbers I have for ’14-’15 were
4 the same, six hundred two million for payroll, and
5 four hundred thirty million for benefits.
6 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: I
7 apologize. Those are the numbers that I was given
8 as well. So, we’ll work on next year’s.
9 REPRESENTATIVE KAMPF: Okay. Great. I
10 certainly would like to have those.
11 The total personnel costs, adding those
12 two up, payroll and benefits, last year was over a
13 billion dollars: Six hundred million, as I said,
14 for payroll, and four hundred thirty million for
15 benefits. Just to let you know, that ratio is not
16 really in sync with what goes on out in the private
17 sector. The general figure, I’m learning, is about
18 70 percent salary and about 30 percent benefits.
19 So, to the extent, if possible, during
20 your service, if you could work with me or the
21 legislature on trying to get the ratio somewhat
22 consistent with what goes on in the private sector,
23 I certainly would appreciate that. I’m sure our
24 taxpayers would.
25 Last year, the pension contribution in 110
1 the ’14-’15 numbers was actually a hundred million
2 dollars. So, a hundred million of the billion had
3 to go to SERS.
4 First off, any idea what that number’s
5 going to be this year, ’15-’16?
6 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Again, I
7 was given this year’s number, so I’d be happy to
8 talk to you when I have next year’s numbers.
9 REPRESENTATIVE KAMPF: Okay. Okay.
10 The issue with SERS, maybe you’ve
11 thought about this, is that it’s going to go up 5
12 percent each of the next three years.
13 Is that putting any sort of challenge
14 on your personnel budget?
15 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: I know that
16 this is not an issue that is unique to PennDOT, but
17 one thing I would like to bring up is that,
18 particularly at PennDOT, we are competing with the
19 private sector all the time, and it’s very hard for
20 us to keep qualified, good people at PennDOT,
21 particularly in District 6 and district 5, which
22 you know very well, as well. So, you know, we
23 can’t compete sometimes with private firms, and so
24 the ability for them to get some added benefits in
25 working for the commonwealth is a plus for us. 111
1 REPRESENTATIVE KAMPF: Right. But is
2 the increase each year in your pension contribution
3 of 5 percent over the next couple years, do you
4 think that's going to be a challenge for you in
5 budgeting for personnel?
6 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: You know,
7 we'll look at it as it comes. As a county
8 commissioner, we dealt with pension issues as well,
9 and, you know, always looking to see what we can do
10 to bring them in line. They need to be
11 sustainable.
12 REPRESENTATIVE KAMPF: Okay. All
13 right.
14 And just one last set of -- or I have
15 sort of a question, point something out. In your
16 budget book that you gave to us, it looks like the
17 highway maintenance component of your personnel
18 budget is the biggest piece. It's almost seven
19 hundred million dollars in personnel costs. I
20 note, on page thirty-two, it indicates that PennDOT
21 is projecting, in 2015-'16, the benefit rates will
22 be 84 percent for salary employees and 82 percent
23 for wage employees. I submit to you that that is
24 probably unprecedented in even government ratios of
25 payroll to — or salary to benefits. 112
1 I don’t know where that’s headed, if
2 it’s even going to get higher, maybe a hundred
3 percent. But that number is really out of whack.
4 Thank you, Madam Secretary.
5 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you.
6 Representative Briggs.
7 REPRESENTATIVE BRIGGS: Hi, Secretary.
8 Thank you, Chairman.
9 I’m going to be real quick. This has
10 been a terrific discussion on transportation. It
11 definitely has showed your passion and knowledge of
12 the topic. But I wanted to thank you for your
13 years of service in White Marsh and also Montgomery
14 County. Everyone’s inviting you to tour projects
15 in their district. And I had a list of them that I
16 was going to ask you about, but pretty much you
17 gave me the list. So, I know you’re familiar with
18 them.
19 Things I just wanted to touch my
20 interest, and they weren’t questions, is the
21 motorcycle safety program is something that
22 constituents have spoken to me about; the rail safe
23 that you touched on; also, all electronic tolling
24 is something that I think is going to be discussed
25 in the future. So, you’ve given us a great overall 113
1 discussion of the department.
2 And I want to thank you for the
3 service, and thank you for committing to serve the
4 commonwealth as a whole.
5 So, thank you, Chairman.
6 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: You're more
7 than welcome.
8 Representative Fred Keller.
9 REPRESENTATIVE KELLER: Thank you,
10 Mr. Chairman.
11 And thank you, Madam Secretary, for
12 being here today.
13 The question I have goes sort of back
14 to pensions a little bit and just how we do that.
15 In PennDOT, when you're looking at paying for your
16 pensions for your employees that are working or the
17 ones that are, quite frankly, retired, you have one
18 line item for pensions there, SERS, for benefits?
19 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: You know
20 what, I have been briefed on our HR, but I can't
21 say for sure I know exactly how that's budgeted.
22 REPRESENTATIVE KELLER: But your
23 pensions are included in your annual budget.
24 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Correct.
25 REPRESENTATIVE KELLER: They're not 114
1 taken out and put in a special account.
2 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Correct.
3 REPRESENTATIVE KELLER: So, they are
4 part of PennDOT’s budget.
5 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: That is
6 correct. If that’s the question you’re asking,
7 yes. That’s correct.
8 REPRESENTATIVE KELLER: There’s been
9 other departments -- one other department that was
10 here, and for some reason we’ve decided to put
11 theirs into a special account, and I just wanted to
12 see if that’s a common theme or if that’s something
13 special -
14 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Not, not
15 that I’m aware of.
16 REPRESENTATIVE KELLER: So, yours is
17 included in your appropriation.
18 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Correct.
19 REPRESENTATIVE KELLER: Thank you very
20 much.
21 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
22 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: We’re moving
23 along good now.
24 Representative Seth Grove.
25 REPRESENTATIVE GROVE: Thank you, Madam 115
1 Secretary.
2 You know, I've been very impressed with
3 your depth and breadth of knowledge, and the fact
4 that you're sitting there by yourself. And I've
5 not said that at all. So, you're doing a very good
6 job.
7 Act 84 of 2012 passed the House as a
8 nice motorcycle safety, came back with red light
9 enforcement, expansion, and then removed -- or
10 extended the sunset on Philadelphia.
11 Can you just give us a status update of
12 the account for the Harley projects as well as how
13 the expansion has rolled out?
14 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Sure. As
15 you know, the red light enforcement is a new
16 program, and we're still looking at how that plays
17 out. We're definitely looking at Maryland, which
18 has programs ahead of us and has made major
19 decisions on their findings. In Philadelphia and
20 in parts of Abington Township, we've been able to
21 roll this program out.
22 In the beginning, the money was
23 definitely more than self-staining, as the tickets,
24 I guess you call them, were being issued and were
25 being paid. The bottom line here is the 116
1 seriousness of accidents caused by people blowing
2 through red lights has decreased significantly and
3 the of accidents by people going through
4 red lights has decreased significantly. I believe
5 the last numbers I was given was 95 percent
6 decrease. That is huge.
7 REPRESENTATIVE GROVE: Wow.
8 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: And
9 And, of course, we want to keep people
10 safe on our roadways.
11 What comes into question is, can it
12 sustain itself as it keeps moving forward? And
13 Maryland found that the cost of it did not stay at
14 the same level as it kept going forward. And so
15 that’s what we’ll be taking a look at in both
16 Philadelphia and Abington and seeing what the local
17 governments want to do about it and how PennDOT can
18 be helpful.
19 But I’m very pleased with the
20 reduction, again, in serious accidents and
21 that this program has been able to
22 achieve.
23 REPRESENTATIVE GROVE: Yeah. I think
24 it’s been very effective in doing that.
25 We discussed Act 89 a lot. I think it 117
1 was groundbreaking. You definitely walked into
2 a -
3 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: I’m very
4 grateful.
5 REPRESENTATIVE GROVE: -- something I
6 don’t think any other state really, really has the
7 tools available. So, it’s good stuff.
8 Part of that though, I guess, when the
9 gas tax was actually increased back in, I think,
10 1997, there wasn’t any additional money going into
11 local governments. With Act 89, we actually did a
12 nice influx to local governments over the last few
13 years.
14 Part of that, too, was, for the first
15 time, increasing the threshold of prevailing wage,
16 up to a hundred thousand dollars.
17 Have you gotten feedback from locals on
18 those two items, increased funding and reduced
19 costs? Has it been positive for the locals?
20 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: I’ve heard
21 from local governments that they’re very pleased as
22 far as knowing that they can count on even the
23 payments to the municipalities. That got moved up
24 through Act 89, and it means so much for them to
25 have them on the beginning of March, when they want 118
1 to start improving the roads that have been damaged
2 through the winter. So, even that little, that
3 little change of getting their money to them a
4 month than previously is huge.
5 I haven't talked to them or haven't
6 gotten any feedback regarding the second issue that
7 you raised. It's just that they've been happy to
8 be able to count on that check coming, because they
9 get it once a year. Counties get the payment to
10 counties twice a year, but municipalities, they
11 look forward to that March payment, especially
12 after a winter that may have caused them to go a
13 little above what they had budgeted for winter
14 maintenance.
15 REPRESENTATIVE GROVE: That's great.
16 And I read in your testimony, you
17 highlighted York Rabbit Transit. The executive
18 director is actually the president of my HOA. So,
19 I now actually have somebody that I can complain to
20 once in a while.
21 But they're on the forefront of cost
22 savings and mass transit as well as
23 I think they just incorporated
24 another county.
25 How is that working with our mass 119
1 transit agencies and looking at kind of scales of
2 cost reduction?
3 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Sure.
4 Consolidation is something that Act 89, by passing
5 the general assembly, really incentivized local
6 transit authorities to look outside their own
7 boundaries and to have the incentive to work
8 together. And we're seeing huge steps taken that
9 are saving millions and millions of dollars.
10 Again, you mentioned what's happening
11 in York County, and that's expanding and saving
12 more money all the time. Again, in Lancaster and
13 Berks County, they've been able to share
14 administrative fees. Immediately, they've already
15 realized seven hundred thousand dollars in
16 savings. And over the next five years, it's
17 projected that they will save between four and five
18 million dollars alone, just the combination of
19 those two county transit authorities.
20 This type of look is being done at
21 every transit authority throughout the state. And
22 I know that we'll realize even more economics of
23 scale and where they can share costs and, of
24 course, that reduces or even eliminates their local
25 share, which is huge to their budgets, but allows 120
1 them to keep the lines that they need and allows
2 them to work across jurisdictional boundaries,
3 which is huge and helps all of our residents.
4 REPRESENTATIVE GROVE: Yeah. That’s
5 great.
6 Last question, York County, we have
7 Route 30, which is a major corridor, and we have
8 traffic lights from Kenneth Road to North Hills.
9 It goes through about seven different
10 municipalities. Great part of Act 89, we’re
11 looking at a unified management system through
12 there. I’m sure Montgomery County has those same
13 corridors of light signals.
14 Is there something we can do better to
15 start incentivizing those corridors? I don’t know
16 whether the state takes over those corridors or
17 something to make sure that they’re being
18 effectively maintained and coordinated from here on
19 out.
20 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Well,
21 sure. Just the fact that I’m coming into the
22 secretary role here, we are going to highlight
23 planning in a way that has never been done before
24 at PennDOT. We always have been connected to our
25 roadways and our bridges and our construction 121
1 projects, and that's going to continue. And thanks
2 to Act 89, we're on the great trajectory there, and
3 that will only get stronger.
4 But, certain areas, multimodal,
5 planning, and that's exactly what you're getting at
6 in looking at long corridors and seeing where
7 PennDOT can be helpful, that is going to be
8 highlighted, and we're going to be looking at
9 that.
10 Innovations that PennDOT is working on
11 in making our agency more efficient all the time.
12 One of the innovations that we're working on is
13 adaptive signals. I think everyone in this room
14 can feel the frustration when you're at a light and
15 you're stopped for no reason. There's nobody
16 coming in the other directions, and you're just
17 sitting there, and you're thinking, well, you know,
18 I could have used this time a little bit better
19 than sitting here waiting for nothing that's
20 happening. And those adaptive signals, which can
21 read where the traffic is coming and let certain
22 green lights last longer, to get the flow of
23 traffic go through better, is a huge innovation and
24 a huge use of technology. And we're looking for
25 instances to utilize those modern techniques. And 122
1 it sounds like this corridor might be one of them.
2 REPRESENTATIVE GROVE: Absolutely.
3 Thank you.
4 Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
5 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you.
6 Representative Mike Peifer.
7 REPRESENTATIVE PEIFER: Thank you,
8 Mr. Chairman.
9 Welcome, Madam Secretary.
10 I have the good fortune to represent
11 the northeast -- Pike, Wayne -- and my prior
12 district I did have the opportunity to represent
13 Monroe County area. Beautiful areas, very
14 challenging roadway. And I’m sure, when you start
15 looking at some of the numbers for Pike, Wayne, and
16 Monroe, probably your head will spin. But we’re
17 challenged. And Act 89 has been very beneficial to
18 us.
19 Interstate 84, which goes through Pike
20 County, we’re going to have to redo the whole road
21 there. That was built in 1973. There’s a problem
22 with the aggregate not blending with the concrete
23 and the asphalt, so I think eight miles of that
24 road is costing sixty-six million dollars. There’s
25 another -- there’s thirty-some miles through Pike 123
1 County that are going to have to be redone. So,
2 we’ve got that project.
3 Our three digit roads are seeing moneys
4 that we’ve never seen before -- the 402s, 507s,
5 390s, 371s -- because of Act 89. We’re getting
6 some moneys there, and the projects are coming out
7 beautifully. I mean, they’re really done well.
8 We’ve got some great contractors. They’re doing
9 great work.
10 Unfortunately, at a cost of say three-
11 hundred-thousand-dollars per mile, we can only do
12 so much work in a given year, and we’re not even
13 getting into our four-digit roads. So, when we
14 talk about our four digit roads, they’re awful.
15 And, look, this time of year, they’re even worse.
16 You know, the roads are starting to
17 heave. They were never probably built correctly
18 with the correct base in the first place. They
19 never had the size volume of trucks that are on
20 them today. And they still are low-traffic-count
21 roads. And, listen, it’s something that I
22 inherited. It’s something, as you, in your new
23 position, inherited it.
24 And it was the same when I was just old
25 enough to read, in the middle of a maple tree in 124
1 the middle of a road, no one really knows where
2 this sign came from, but I only thought it was
3 fitting that I read it to you today. And I could
4 just start to read, so we’re talking about forty
5 years ago. "Friends and neighbors do not weep, the
6 state’s not dead, just fast asleep." And that sign
7 sat over all these potholes and a road that was
8 just deteriorating. So, it’s a challenge that I
9 face, someway, somehow, to try to improve my
10 four-digit roads.
11 Look, the district office, District 4,
12 District 5, they’ve been terrific. The mill-and-
13 fill machine works out great. They come in and
14 take out -- they reestablish the white side of the
15 road, where the white line is. I know,
16 Mr. Chairman, in Philadelphia, you have white
17 lines. Ours are completely worn away. So, they
18 reestablish that white line. They put a base
19 down. And then they try to put some layer on top
20 and maybe some type of tar and chip. But we’re
21 trying to do something, anything as far as
22 experimental projects.
23 I talked a little bit about 84.
24 They’re accumulating those millings. And since
25 we’re a green county and we want to recycle those 125
1 millings, you know, there's talk of trying to
2 reestablish those millings on roadways that are
3 four digit, that, you know, if we can maybe put
4 them down, roll them, put some type of oil or tar
5 and chip on top, maybe we can do something.
6 But my constituents are begging me
7 right now to try to do something. In all honesty,
8 the traffic count numbers are extremely low, but
9 the roads are almost unpassable at this point.
10 So, I don't know if I've had any, you
11 know, discussions on these roads on what we can do,
12 but we really need some help.
13 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Yeah. I'll
14 comment briefly, and I'm happy to talk to you in
15 more detail.
16 First of all, I know that area very
17 well. I spent over two years of my professional
18 life working on the Milford-Montague Bridge that
19 goes from Pike County into New Jersey. And I lived
20 up there for a while. It's beautiful area. And I
21 know your four-digit roads as well as your three
22 digit roads. And I'm probably, if it's okay with
23 you, going to repeat your story when I speak with
24 Congressman Shuster and the importance of federal
25 reauthorization, because that's exactly what you're 126
1 speaking to.
2 If we get the federal reauthorization
3 and we can plan more into the future, we can take
4 care of our interstates with the federal money, and
5 we can help direct our state money to these
6 lower-volume roads and make sure that they’re
7 fixed.
8 I know that bicycle traffic is very
9 important to you up in your area as well. I’ve met
10 with many bicycle groups up there. They are quite
11 remarkable. And so, we’ll make sure that those
12 roads throughout Pike County and the surrounding
13 areas are taken care of.
14 And the last thing I just want to
15 mention is, recycled pavement materials, that is
16 huge. That’s another innovation and cost saving
17 measure that we are looking into in detail in other
18 areas of Pennsylvania. It has saved huge amounts
19 of money and allowed municipalities to stretch
20 their dollars as far as possible.
21 We’re always looking at materials. We
22 have a lab, if any of you want to come and tour it,
23 right here in Harrisburg, where we’re testing
24 materials and looking for more techniques that
25 allow us to strengthen and to make the durability 127
1 process as long as possible so that these roads
2 last as long as possible and that the mixes, you
3 know, are coordinated and that they do their job
4 and don't cause some issues that require us to go
5 in and resurface all the time.
6 REPRESENTATIVE PEIFER: You know, when
7 the district office calls and says, you know,
8 Where's the pothole? And I'm like, you can't
9 even -- there's no pothole. Literally, the surface
10 is just crumbling. So, you know, any way that we
11 can help you. Like I said, we'll gladly be a
12 guinea pig to any -- and, again, the traffic counts
13 are so low, but I'm getting to the point where we
14 still need to be able to pass a vehicle from -
15 people live there. People have a right — they pay
16 their taxes. They have a right to get to and from
17 their homes.
18 So, if there's some way that I can help
19 you with that -- and, again, I understand the cost
20 of three-hundred-thousand per mile on a three-digit
21 road. I don't know that we need that cost on the
22 low ADT traveled road, but we need to do
23 something. So, if there's something —
24 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Utilizing
25 recycled pavement material -- 128
1 REPRESENTATIVE PEIFER: People love
2 that. We want to reuse that pavement material, and
3 if there's some way that we can do that and there's
4 a company that can do that or there's some type of
5 experimental project, please come up to Pike
6 County, Wayne County, and we'll be the guinea pig.
7 So, thank you so much.
8 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you,
9 Representative.
10 Representative Peifer was the last
11 member of the committee to have a question. Well,
12 now I've been told that Representative Keller and
13 Taylor have some final comments and questions.
14 Representative Taylor.
15 REPRESENTATIVE TAYLOR: Thank you,
16 Mr. Chairman.
17 You know, for all of us, we share what
18 Representative Peifer is going through. We have
19 the pothole problem right now.
20 And one of my members, Chairman
21 Hennessey, wanted me to ask that there's been many
22 news reports on the self-contained hot asphalt
23 repair mechanism. And I don't know if it's
24 primarily being used by local government, and
25 whether or not PennDOT has any interest in that or 129
1 has used that type of mechanism to fill the
2 potholes.
3 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: We have
4 been looking at more mix, you know, pavement
5 materials. And we definitely want to know and find
6 out which pothole materials last the longest,
7 again, durability issues. We don’t want to have go
8 back in and just Band-Aid the problem. We want to
9 actually do the repair that’s required so that the
10 same potholes we’re not seeing over and over
11 again.
12 I can get you, you know, more specific
13 information on the materials that we’ve taken a
14 look at and what’s best. And what’s best may be
15 different, depending on what district it’s being
16 used in, depending on how long the cold weather
17 lasts in certain areas and when the product gets
18 laid down and how it’s set.
19 So, I’d be happy to share those
20 materials, that information with you.
21 REPRESENTATIVE TAYLOR: I appreciate
22 that.
23 And, I think that the members of this
24 committee as well as the guests from our committee
25 would agree with me that we’re very impressed with 130
1 how far you’ve come in —
2 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: I’ve had
3 seven weeks.
4 REPRESENTATIVE TAYLOR: And being able
5 to answer these questions. It’s not easy facing
6 this particular committee or any committee in this
7 House, so we appreciate that.
8 And I do want to mention, as I did to
9 you privately, that in District 6, particularly on
10 the construction side, that crew will come to our
11 neighborhoods and to our offices, is cooperative
12 and is as responsive as they can be. And that’s
13 been going on for decades. So, we appreciate that
14 very much.
15 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
16 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you.
17 Chairman Keller.
18 REPRESENTATIVE BILL KELLER: Thank you,
19 Mr. Chairman.
20 Just a quick comment. When I was
21 chairman of the Labor Committee, you invited us, as
22 you do today. The last two Appropriation meetings
23 hearings I went to, probably our number one issue
24 is keeping the refineries open in southeastern
25 Pennsylvania. One refinery was closed. The second 131
1 one was about to close. We could not find anybody
2 to come to keep those refineries open. It was a
3 miracle. To save the economy of southeastern
4 Pennsylvania, it is dependent on those refineries.
5 How the refineries were able to stay
6 open is because of the Bakken crude. That is the
7 sole reason that kept them open.
8 We're all for railroad safety.
9 Chairman Taylor has already had a number of
10 meetings about railroad safety. We've learned that
11 in populated areas, the trains only travel at five
12 miles an hour. I'm for railroad safety. I think
13 everybody here is for railroad safety.
14 But we have to understand the
15 importance of keeping those refineries open. We
16 were almost in Armageddon when it came to
17 southeastern Pennsylvania, just a year ago, two
18 years ago. The Bakken crude is what helped us keep
19 those refineries open.
20 I'm sure we can work on rail safety and
21 make that all happen, but those refineries, they
22 are the backbone of our economy in southeastern
23 Pennsylvania.
24 I just wanted to make this comment,
25 Mr. Chairman. 132
1 Thank you.
2 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you,
3 Chairman. I couldn’t agree with Representative
4 Keller more regarding that.
5 Madam Secretary, thank you so much for
6 fielding all those questions. I agree with
7 Chairman Taylor, you did an excellent job. Looking
8 forward to working with you.
9 We’re a little backed up here. I had a
10 couple questions, but I will get them to you. I
11 want to find out how the oil franchise tax is
12 doing. Okay? Which is, you know, uncapped.
13 Okay. And I’d like to get an update on that and
14 make sure our projections are correct.
15 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Absolutely.
16 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: I appreciate
17 that.
18 And for the members, we will reconvene
19 with the Department of Labor and Industry in five
20 minutes. Thank you.
21 ACTING SECRETARY RICHARDS: Thank you.
22 (Whereupon, the hearing concluded at
23 11:56 a.m.)
24
25 ~k k k k k 133
1 REPORTER’S CERTIFICATE
2 I HEREBY CERTIFY that I was present
3 upon the hearing of the above-entitled matter and
4 there reported stenographically the proceedings had
5 and the testimony produced; and I further certify
6 that the foregoing is a true and correct transcript
7 of my said stenographic notes.
8
9 BRENDA J. PARDUN, RPR 10 Court Reporter Notary Public 11
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