PennDOT announces liquid fuels fund allotments for 2024

HARRISBURG – PennDOT announced Monday its $467.2 Million statewide liquid fuels payments to help municipalities maintain roads and bridges.

“Our roads and bridges are vital to connecting Pennsylvanians with services and opportunity,” said PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll. “Investments in municipal roads and bridges are a critical component in maintaining safe and connected communities.”

The Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors (PSATS) and the Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs (PSAB) join PennDOT in this announcement on critical funding today. The annual distributions assist with municipalities’ highway and bridge-related expenses, such as snow removal and road repaving.

The allocation formula is based on population and miles of locally owned roads. To be eligible, 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.

There are 120,596 miles of public roads in Pennsylvania. Some 2,559 municipalities manage an estimated 78,000 linear miles of roadway and more than 6,600 bridges longer than 20 feet.

Locally, Sentinel area municipalities in Schuylkill County maintain 259.13 miles of roadway and will receive a combined $1.4 Million in liquid fuels funds.

Shenandoah has just over 15 miles of borough-maintained roads and will receive $124,943.16. In 2019 the paving of a block each of Ferguson and Oak Streets cost a combined $92,954.

“With two-thirds of Pennsylvania’s road miles under township and local government care, we recognize the critical role of liquid fuels funding in maintaining our roadways. We appreciate PennDOT’s recognition of local government as a vital partner in the Commonwealth’s transportation network,” said PSATS Executive Director David Sanko.

“The Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs commends the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation for recognizing borough governments as important partners of the statewide transportation network. These liquid fuels allocations are an essential funding component for preserving this vast network of locally maintained roads, which are so vital to the continued economic viability of this Commonwealth,” said PSAB Executive Director Chris Cap. “Borough communities across Pennsylvania will continue to maintain our portion of the local transportation network and we highly value our exceptional partnership with PennDOT.”

Act 89 of 2013 made more funding available for locally owned roadways. Before Act 89, municipalities received $320.8 million in liquid fuels payments.

In addition to PennDOT’s annual liquid fuels distribution and various grant opportunities, local officials can act on several options available to them to help improve locally owned infrastructure.

Additionally, local governments and other eligible entities may apply for low-interest loans from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Bank which helps fund and accelerate transportation projects as well as spur economic development.

Local allocations are as follows:

Schuylkill County

Northumberland County

Columbia County

Luzerne County

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The Shenandoah Sentinel is northern Schuylkill County’s news source, covering news and sports in and around Shenandoah, Ashland, Mahanoy City, Frackville, Nuremberg, and the surrounding areas.

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