PennDOT Head: New Bridges Have ‘Steep’ Price

Transportation secretary speaks to Mon-Yough chamber luncheon

By Tom Leturgey
The Tube City Almanac
April 09, 2025
Posted in: State & Region

Michael B. Carroll, state secretary of transportation, delivered the keynote address at the annual legislative luncheon sponsored by the Mon Yough Area Chamber of Commerce. (Tom Leturgey photo for Tube City Almanac)

Pennsylvania is serious about the need to replace, repair and upgrade the commonwealth’s many bridges, the state’s transportation secretary told Mon-Yough area business leaders last week.

But Secretary Michael B. Carroll cautioned: “The price tag is pretty steep.”

Carroll delivered the keynote address at the Mon Yough Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual legislative luncheon, held at the Georgetown Centre banquet hall in Pleasant Hills.

Guests at the luncheon included members of local borough and city councils as well as state Sen. Jay Costa.

Several candidates for Allegheny County Council also attended. At the conclusion of the meeting, the Chamber presented lifetime achievement awards to McKeesport real estate executive Robert “Bob” Baum and retiring District 9 Allegheny County Councilman Bob Macey.

Carroll, a former state representative from northeastern Pennsylvania, was introduced by State Sen. Nick Pisciottano, West Mifflin Democrat. Pisciottano mentioned the new book “Abundance” by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, which includes a chapter on the collapse of the Interstate 95 bridge in Philadelphia, and the battle by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Carroll to reopen a temporary span in less than two weeks.

Carroll noted that PennDOT’s mandate includes more than roads and bridges — it also includes railroads, public transit and airports.

But many of the 115 people in attendance wanted to hear about roads, including Pennsylvania Route 43, also known as the Mon-Fayette Expressway. The toll road is a project of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

Carroll said he did not have any updates but that he was confident that the turnpike commission would continue to make progress — although he noted the progress would be measured in “months and years.”

Attendees also wanted to know about the state’s fuel taxes, and why gasoline prices are higher in Pennsylvania than most other surrounding states.

Carroll said PennDOT’s 11,000 employees are challenged with maintaining 44,000 miles of roads in 67 counties throughout the Commonwealth, which includes what he called “half-time” and “dead-end” roads that would be county or municipal highways in other states.

PennDOT maintains more highway mileage than all of the New England states combined, he said.

“Pennsylvania has the second or third highest gasoline prices in the nation,” he said. The state “should be swimming in money, there shouldn’t be any problems financially,” but $500 million in revenue from fuel taxes is used to fund the Pennsylvania State Police instead of contributing to road maintenance.

That’s the equivalent of eight cents per gallon, Carroll said. Another eight cents per gallon is allocated to local municipalities through the liquid fuels fund, he said.

Those burdens, combined with the number of miles under state maintenance, leaves PennDOT in “a perpetual financial challenge,” he said.

Carroll said that Shapiro is working on ways of “decoupling” the money that is currently diverted from the gas tax to the state’s overall budget and keeping it focused on road maintenance, “where it should have been all along.”

State Sen. Nick Pisciottano, PennDOT Secretary Michael B. Carroll, and state Rep. John Inglis. (Tom Leturgey photo for Tube City Almanac)

Funding for public transportation is also an ongoing area of concern, Carroll said. He noted that all of Pennsylvania’s counties have their own public transportation agencies, but the need is not evenly distributed, because transit riders are concentrated in the state’s largest cities, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

An area of future concern is the rise of electric vehicles. Carroll said that because electric vehicles don’t buy gasoline or diesel fuel, they don’t pay liquid fuels taxes, and yet they are growing in number.

As a result, registration fees for electric vehicles will be increasing compared to conventional vehicles, to $200 this year and $250 next year. Conventional passenger vehicles currently pay $45.

The difference represents the amount spent annually by the average motorist on fuel taxes, he said.

Later in the luncheon, Carroll and Pisciottano joined state Rep. John Inglis of West Mifflin in a question-and-answer session. Inglis answered questions about education spending, including funding for in-school meals.

Following the event, Pisciottano took Carroll on a tour of the 45th Senate District, including Union Railroad lines in Turtle Creek. In a social media post following the luncheon, Pisciottano wrote, “shortline railroads like these move goods made in our backyard all across the the world and power our local economy.”

Originally published April 09, 2025.

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