NACo news briefs AAC
F A M I L Y & F R I E N D S » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » Continued From Page 53 <<<
Pilot program produces free bridges for counties
Tree Pennsylvania counties are serving as guinea pigs in a “bridge bundling” pilot that could be expanded statewide. And for stepping up, they’re getting the work done for free. As a result, Blair, Luzerne and Washington counties will have 38 bridg-
es repaired, refurbished or replaced this year and next. Te Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) is coordinating the effort and paying the full freight, and is looking to expand the concept to its state- owned bridges and other county bridges. Typically, the costs of bridge work are shared in Pennsylvania, with the state paying 80 percent and the county 20 percent. Scott Christie, PennDOT’s deputy secretary for highway administration, said offer- ing to pick up the tab was a way to “incentivize” counties to partici- pate in the pilot. “What we said was anybody who opts into this on a pilot basis, we will
waive that 20 percent,” he said, “because our belief is we will save more than 20 percent of the cost, so in reality by us waiving their 20 percent cost, we actually pay less money.” Te way that works, he said, is by bundling similar projects. “We have
a lot of structurally deficient bridges,” Christie explained; “let’s take a bunch of them that have realistically the same characteristics or can be described in the same way — have the same span length, the same open- ing, things like that.” Because of those similarities standard designs and construction meth- ods can be used rather than counties taking a piecemeal approach and engineering each project individually. PennDOT is focusing on bridge re- placements in Luzerne, superstructure rehabilitation in Washington and redecking projects in Blair at a total cost of about $11 million. “Basically we’re cutting back the big design effort, and then on the
construction side, because it’s the same design, it ends up being a precast cookie cutter-type operation,” he said. “You can use the same formwork to make all the beams, and a lot of the steel and reinforcing steel in the deck is all the same.” Eighteen structures were selected for rehabilitation in Washington
County in Pennsylvania, according to Lisa Cessna, executive director, Washington County Planning Commission. Te supporting abutments will be left in place and the superstructures refurbished. She said if the county did the work, it could cost approximately $500,000 to rehabilitate a bridge or $800,000 to replace one. “Tat saves us a tremendous amount of money and helps us focus our attention and our limited dollars in other locations,” she said. “So it’s a big deal to us, not only to have those [bridges improved] but also a big deal to us hopefully in lessons learned — that there’s a different way of going about doing business.” In Luzerne County, seven bridges are scheduled to be replaced on a
“fast track” and three, deemed obsolete or redundant, to be demolished. Design work is being done this year with construction to be completed in 2014 — years earlier than the county could normally accomplish. Bridge replacements normally take from four to six years on average due to “stringent environmental, utility, right-of-way and cultural re- source regulations,” according to a report to the County Council from Luzerne’s Road and Bridge Department. “Te county could choose not to participate in the program,” the Dec. 11, 2012 report stated. “However, replacing the structures using the nor- mal federal aid process would require at least 20–30 years and at least $25 million in funding.” After the pilot is evaluated, PennDOT officials said they’ll look at
providing other kinds of incentives for counties to participate in bridge bundling, so this “freshman class” will be the only one to get a free ride. Christie said his agency is looking for other ways to provide cost-saving incentives to counties going forward. “Let’s say PennDOT knows this year we’re going to do a bunch of 60-foot-long bridges, eight of them,” he cited as an example. “We’ll then we go to the locals in that area and say do you have any that are 60 feet that you want to opt in, and then we can incentivize what your share would be. So we’re trying to marry it up to our own program.” In Washington County, two bridge refurbishments have been com- pleted, Cessna said. “I hope the pilot project across all three counties… helps develop some new guidelines and specifications that deal with local structures because a lot of these are in remote locations...”
Advertiser Resource Index
AAC Risk Management ....................................................................... 4 AAC Workers’ Compensation Trust .......................................................... 57 a.c.t. Geospatial ............................................................. . Inside Front Cover Apprentice Information Systems, Inc. .......................................................... 17 Crews and Associates ............................................................... Back Cover Ergon Asphalt & Paving ...................................................................... 22 Financial Intelligence ........................................................................ 31 Nationwide Insurance ....................................................................... 25 Rainwater Holt & Sexton, PA .................................................................. 3 Southern Tire Mart ......................................................................... 59 Tax Pro ................................................................................... 34 Time Striping, Inc. .......................................................................... 26
This publication was made possible with the support of these advertising
partners who have helped to underwrite the cost of
County Lines. They deserve your consideration and
patronage when making your purchasing decisions. For
more information on how to partner with County Lines, please call Scott Perkins at (501) 372-7550.
58
COUNTY LINES, FALL 2013
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60