More Benefits from New Transportation Plan as Pennsylvania Municipalities Prepare to Receive $345 Million in Liquid Fuels Payments, Eight Percent Increase from Previous Year

HARRISBURG, Pa., Feb. 6, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Governor Tom Corbett announced today that Pennsylvania's new transportation plan will allow PennDOT to distribute $345 million in liquid fuels payments to certified municipalities on March 3 to help them maintain their roads and bridges.

The allocation is $25.1 million more than the 2013 figure, roughly an 8 percent increase.

"This investment helps our towns meet the tough challenge of maintaining municipality-owned roads and bridges," Corbett said. "Because of the new transportation plan that I signed into law, Pennsylvania will be able to increase these resources in coming years which could provide some relief to local taxpayers from these costs."

Liquid fuels allocations are annual payments to municipalities to help pay for highway and bridge-related expenses such as snow removal and road repaving. There are 121,770 miles of municipality-owned roads in Pennsylvania and 72,599 miles of those roads qualify for liquid fuels. The formula for payments is based on a municipality's population and miles of locally-owned roads.

To be counted as eligible for liquid fuels, a roadway must be formally adopted as a public street by the municipality, meet certain dimension requirements and be able to safely accommodate vehicles driving at least 15 mph.

Under Act 89, the new transportation plan Corbett signed in November, liquid fuels reimbursements will increase by roughly $220 million over the next five years.

For the complete list of local payments, visit the "Comprehensive Transportation Funding Plan" page at www.dot.state.pa.us.

Media contacts:
Steve Chizmar, Governor's Office; 717-783-1116
Rich Kirkpatrick, PennDOT; 717-783-8800

SOURCE Pennsylvania Office of the Governor