On Monday, November 25, 2013, Governor Tom Corbett signed into law a bill that will provide $2.3 billion a year for improvements to Pennsylvania’s highways, bridges and mass-transit systems. The plan is the most comprehensive piece of state transportation legislation in decades.

Once the additional money starts flowing in, one of the biggest transportation priorities will be to address the thousands of structurally deficient bridges in Pennsylvania. This past summer, about a thousand bridges had new or additional weight restrictions placed on them to extend their lives. PennDOT Secretary Barry Schoch said it will take time for those restrictions to be relaxed.

By the fifth year of the plan, this legislation invests an additional:

  • $1.3 billion annually for state roads and bridges.
  • $480 million – $495 million annually for public transportation.
  • $237 million annually for local roads and bridges.
  • $144 million annually in a multi-modal fund.
  • $30 million annually for dirt, gravel and low-volume roadways.
  • $86 million annually for Pennsylvania Turnpike expansion projects.

The financing will be phased in over a five-year period. The plan does not include an immediate increase of 28 cents per gallon, as has been reported. Such an estimate is based on the wholesale price of fuel in 2018.

The plan eliminates the 12 cents-per-gallon liquid fuels tax. Under this proposal, all gas tax revenues are generated at the wholesale level.

Competitive situations and the cost of crude oil have the largest impact on the price per gallon. Even with this revenue enhancement in place, the governor said the average driver would only pay about $2.50 more a week in the fifth year of the plan, less than the cost of one gallon of gas. In return, the Commonwealth will be able to support $2.3 to $2.4 billion in transportation improvements.

Many states use other funding sources to pay for highways and bridges, so they keep their rates artificially low. In Pennsylvania, fuel taxes are used only for highway and bridge-related purposes and state police patrol functions. Income and sales taxes are not used to pay for state-maintained highways and bridges in Pennsylvania. The fuel taxes in Pennsylvania amount to a true users’ fee, based on the amount of gasoline consumed and use of the highway and bridge system.

Also included in the bill is language that makes a 70 mile per hour speed limit possible in Pennsylvania. But before any changes are made, a study will have to be done for each stretch of the road for which the new maximum speed limit is proposed. The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission will determine which of any parts of that system qualify for the 70 mile an hour limit.

Further, currently if an individual is caught driving without insurance, it’s a $300 fine and a 90-day registration suspension. But the new bill makes it possible to forgo the suspension in favor of paying an additional $500. That part of the bill is expected to bring in about $7 million dollars a year for mass transit.