[PRCo] Oklahoma Senator is no fan of PTM

[Dennis F Cramer]

Federal transportation funding dispute boils over in giant coffeepot
By Tom Fontaine, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, December 10, 2011 
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/leadertimes/news/s_771356.html



A giant coffeepot about 100 miles east of Pittsburgh has taken center stage in a percolating debate over federal transportation dollars.

While states struggle to find money to maintain decaying roads and bridges, they must spend a portion of their federal transportation funding on projects such as bicycle and pedestrian trails, beautification efforts and roadside museums.

Pennsylvania's Lincoln Highway 200-Mile Roadside Museum benefited from what is known as "transportation enhancement funding." An 18-foot-tall building in Bedford shaped like a coffeepot is one of its main attractions. This fall, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., called a $300,000 allocation to the museum the nation's most wasteful example of the grant program.

After he did, "our phones started ringing off the hook," said Olga Herbert, executive director of the Latrobe-based Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor. "We're not wasting money," she said, adding that the group spent no federal dollars on the coffeepot.

The government set aside $927.6 million for enhancements during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, or roughly 2 percent of the nation's transportation budget, Federal Highway Administration data show. The government committed $548.9 million to projects, including $18.1 million in Pennsylvania, but states cannot spend the money to repair roads and bridges.

"With nearly 25 percent of our nation's bridges deemed either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, we need to make their reconstruction a priority over errant beautification projects," Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a Pittsburgh native, said last month after his amendment to remove enhancement funding from this year's highway budget failed.

"These aren't wasteful bridges-to-nowhere-type projects," said Scott Bricker, executive director of the advocacy group Bike Pittsburgh. "This funding is helping to improve the quality of life for people and making people safer."

Enhancement funding is part of Congress' ongoing debate on the next long-term transportation bill, which outlines spending priorities for up to six years. The current plan was to expire years ago, but Congress extended it eight times -- most recently through March 2012.

In October, the progressive advocacy group Transportation for America said transportation agencies would need more than $70 billion to fix their backlog of structurally deficient bridges, almost 10 times the amount of federal money they spend on bridge repair annually. In Pennsylvania, a state advisory commission said last year that the state would need $3.5 billion on top of the $4.5 billion it spends annually to adequately meet state transportation needs.

Some have proposed eliminating mandatory funding for enhancement-type projects, such as developing bicycle and pedestrian trails, highway welcome centers and transportation museums; improving pedestrian safety; easing water runoff along highways; landscaping; and historic preservation.

This fall, Coburn listed 39 enhancement projects he considers wasteful. The Lincoln Highway grant awarded in 2004 topped the list, accompanied by a photo of the coffeepot. The senator questioned that grant, saying, "Pennsylvania ranks first out of all states for bridge deficiency levels, with an astounding 46 percent of bridges being either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete."

Herbert said private donors covered the $120,000 restoration of the coffeepot, once a roadside coffee shop. She estimates the kitschy landmark averages five visitors a day.

The grant Coburn cited paid for vintage gas pumps, signs and murals depicting the history of the nation's first cross-country highway, Herbert said. A $350,000 enhancement grant will help restore the former Serro's Diner, which will become the centerpiece of the Lincoln Highway Experience Museum in Unity.

"Yes, Lord knows, Pennsylvania has a lot of structurally deficient bridges. But this enhancement funding was created by Congress 20 years ago. It's not like we had any say in that," Herbert said.

Coburn ranked a $400,000 grant to the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Washington County as the sixth-most-wasteful example of enhancement spending, saying it might "help to preserve Pittsburgh's historical mode of transportation, while its current mode continues to wither due to missed priorities and federal mandates."

Executive Director Scott Decker said the museum used federal money and mostly private dollars to help build a $2 million facility that houses and protects 30 historic streetcars that used to sit outside under tarps year-round. The enhancement program awarded $350,000 to restore a streetcar that will operate as a moving exhibit.

"Some people have ideas that federal funding is just handed out, but this grant program is very competitive and has very strict guidelines," Decker said. The federal awards helped spur local foundations to support the projects and preserve an important piece of the region's history, he added.

Bricker of Bike Pittsburgh said a project that included $6.5 million in enhancement money to create designated space for pedestrians and bicyclists on the Hot Metal Bridge between the South Side and Oakland, along with connections from the bridge to trails on both sides of the Monongahela River, was not just for recreation.

"Today it serves as an important transportation corridor for many people," Bricker said.

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, a planning agency for the region's 10 counties, touts other projects. They include restoring or replacing 80 obelisk mile markers along the historic National Road, which runs mostly along Route 40; developing the Montour Trail along a former rail corridor; landscaping the George C. Marshall Memorial Plaza in Uniontown; and installing bicycle racks on Port Authority of Allegheny County buses.

PennDOT spokesman Erin Waters agreed the state needs money for road and bridge work and the agency could use more federal dollars.

"At the same time, we are fully supportive of enhancement program," Waters said.          


Dennis F. Cramer
http://home.windstream.net/dfc1