The Southwestern Pennsylvania (SWPA) Connected initiative today announced the launch of the Connectivity Roadmap, a guidance tool, to support the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC), county leadership, and regional stakeholders in the 10-county region and the City of Pittsburgh to develop and prioritize connectivity projects and associated programs to secure funding.

The Connectivity Roadmap was developed in collaboration with representatives of the 10 counties, state and local governments, and industry experts, and through public engagement in the communities most impacted by the lack of reliable or affordable internet. Southwestern Pennsylvania is now positioned to secure federal and state broadband funding through the roadmap’s implementation guide and tools.

“We are incredibly grateful to our partners and residents who helped us in the development of this roadmap,” said SPC Executive Director Vincent Valdes. “We’ll be working in earnest with our partners to identify the projects, programs, and funding needed to help the communities in our region that need it most. Our goal is to support our region in building the infrastructure to connect our residents and businesses to the internet and resources they need to thrive.”

Rather than identify a comprehensive set of future projects that may quickly become obsolete, the Connectivity Roadmap provides several tools to guide the selection of projects as priorities shift, including a Project Identification Decision Tree and Measures of Effectiveness. In addition, the roadmap includes 12 regional goals and over 70 strategies as well as recommendations and next steps for the SPC, county and city leadership, and other partners to improve broadband infrastructure, tools, and skills across southwestern Pennsylvania.

“The Connectivity Roadmap is a wonderful example of what we have been striving for, not only from a regional level but from a statewide perspective”, said State Representative Pam Snyder, D-Greene/Fayette. “Initiatives like this are exactly what the Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority aims to highlight and encourage as collaboration and partnership between government, public and private parties is essential to advancing connectivity in our communities.”

Rep. Snyder serves as one of the 11-members of the PBDA board of directors, which is tasked with administering federal and state funds to support broadband expansion in unserved and underserved areas of the state.

“During this project, we had the opportunity to meet with residents through community conversations across the region to incorporate the real challenges faced in daily lives as part of the roadmap solution,” stated Jamie Baxter, executive director at Allies for Children. “Many of the personal stories we heard reinforced the mission of this initiative – that the internet is essential for our communities to connect and learn, it’s expensive and unreliable for many residents, and rural communities feel left behind.” The Allies for Children Community Conversation Report is also available online.

The Connectivity Roadmap was developed through public engagement including a public survey and internet speed test data that was received from more than 3,400 respondents, a series of five virtual stakeholder workshops, 17 in-person community conversations, and more than 25 phone interviews with industry leaders, internet service providers, and county planning directors. Data dashboards visualizing the access, adoption, and affordability across the region were used to create the Connectivity Opportunities Areas in each of the 10 counties.

“The Connectivity Roadmap provides us the tools we need to truly work together to prioritize projects to improve broadband and to reframe it as a public necessity,” said CMU’s Karen Lightman, director of Metro21: Smart Cities Institute. “It also provides the information and resources our communities need to better understand what the internet can offer.”

As part of the Connectivity Roadmap, materials have been developed to help residents educate themselves on internet terminology and find digital literacy courses to enhance their comfort. In addition, community meeting materials are available to assist local governments or communities in project planning and outreach.

To learn more about the SWPA Connected initiative and the Connectivity Roadmap, visit www.spcregion.org/connected/.

CommuteInfo is hosting a “Commuter Challenge” to encourage people to try transit, vanpool, carpool, biking, walking and telework for their commuting trips during the week of May 16 – 22, 2022.

Overview of the CommuteInfo Commuter Challenge 2022

• The CommuteInfo Commuter Challenge is a friendly competition for anyone 18 years old or older, who live, work or go to school in one of these 10 counties: Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Greene, Fayette, Indiana, Lawrence, Washington, and Westmoreland.
• The CommuteInfo Commuter Challenge will be held May 16-22, 2022.
• Commuters can try transit, vanpooling, carpooling, biking or walking to their jobsite or school or telework.

Rewards will be given by a random drawing for those who participate, such as public transit, vanpooling, carpooling, biking, walking or telework and submit their activity log by Noon on May 23, 2022.

Visit commuteinfo.org to learn more!

SPC is excited to announce our Regional Data Center web presence has received a complete overhaul and re-design!

Data-driven and casual users alike will now find a wealth of on-demand and fully customizable options to access a variety of data from the U.S. Census Bureau and other sources for information focused on the Southwestern Pennsylvania Region.

Auto-generated PDF, excel, csv, and html file export options offer complete flexibility on how our users want their data delivered.

Regional data is presented in detailed, interactive Census profiles, a series of prebuilt tables, and a Data Navigator tool that allows the user to build customized data tables.

Visualizations are also included in the form of Tableau dashboards and Data Tidbits content that highlight key data for the SPC region.

View the new RDC at: www.spcregion.org/resources-tools/regional-data-center/

The
Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission has developed a corridor plan for Brodhead
Road (State Route 3007/State Route 18) between Old Brodhead Road and the
Allegheny County/Beaver County border. The corridor plan includes short,
medium, and long term recommendations that will improve the transportation
operations and safety for all users and serve as an investment plan that will
guide the planning and programming of transportation projects in the study
area.

The study makes recommendations that improve regional mobility and accessibility for all, enhance the quality of life and livability of the community, and advance economic and community development goals.

Learn more about Operations and Safety at SPC.

Washington County has begun a three-year, $30 million project to expand internet access in the rural county, which is located about 35 miles south of Pittsburgh. The first baby steps in the project will bring service to about 50 homes in Avella, home to fewer than 1,000 people, and also to the nearby Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village. Meadowcroft, a National Historic Landmark operated by the Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, was a campsite used 19,000 years ago by hunters and gatherers who left behind traces of ice age fire pits, stone and bone tools and pottery fragments.

Getting every home and business in Washington County online will depend on funding, which the Southwest Pennsylvania Commission is exploring in a 10-county connectivity plan being developed with Carnegie Mellon University and Allies for Children, a North Side-based advocacy group. The plan is expected to launch by March.

Money that Washington County Commissioners earmarked for broadband expansion is separate from the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which contains $65 billion for erecting towers and installing the fiber-optic cable needed to upgrade internet service. Pennsylvania and other states will receive broadband funding payments of $100 million — and potentially much more, depending on need — over several years under the new law.

Read the full article at www.govtech.com

Author: Steve Meredith, Manager, Business Finance.

On several occasions throughout the year, I will have a
promising opportunity come across my desk, only to fall apart because the
timeline for my organization’s economic development loans does not fit with
what the client needs. While I can certainly understand the need to be flexible
and work with clients, their sellers, and other financial institutions, there
are a few aspects of economic development lending that can delay closing on
publicly funded loans. This results in a tricky “dance,” in which
economic development lenders, their borrowers, sellers, and often private
lending institutions must participate to ensure the best interest rates and
terms for small business clients.

Economic development lenders generally do not have loan review committee meetings as often as private banks. This means that there will likely be some lag time between when you submit your loan application, and when the loan is presented for review and approval. In the interim, economic development lenders will be reviewing your application, performing underwriting, and asking questions about your business in order to add clarifying information to your loan package for their respective loan review committees.

Even after your loan is reviewed and approved by the
appropriate committee(s), your economic development lender may not have
in-house counsel on call, meaning that they need to send your loan package out
to a third-party law firm to draw up the closing documents. This can take time
since the firm drafting the closing documents likely has many other clients to
handle.

In addition to drawing up the closing documents, your
economic development lender may have additional requirements, such as the
assignment of a key person life insurance policy, which will need to be taken
care of before closing. Small business owners will want to pay attention to any
communication from their economic development lenders following their loan’s
approval. Your lender may ask for additional information from you after the
loan is approved, but before the closing documents are signed.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, the issue
of buyers’ and sellers’ timelines not matching that of my organization is a
common occurrence and fortunately, there is a work-around for those
entrepreneurs who may be experiencing exponential growth in a short period. In
your initial conversation with your economic development lender, ask if it is
possible to partner with a private lender, and for that private lender to
“bridge” the economic development lender’s portion of the project
proceeds. Chances are that most economic development lenders already have a
leveraged private capital requirement, and they will have likely made loans in
the past that have featured this type of financing.

When a private lender bridges an economic development
lender’s portion of the project proceeds, the borrower receives 100% of the
proceeds when they close on the private lender’s loan. Then, whenever the
economic development lender completes their loan approval and closure
processes, the borrower takes the proceeds from the economic development loan
and pays off the bridged portion of proceeds from the private lender. This
results in a more desirable two loan structure, featuring a private lender, and
an economic development lender that disburses public funds at a low-interest
rate.

Economic development lenders exist to offer low-cost
financing to small businesses looking to fund startup or expansion costs. At
the end of the day, it is in everyone’s best interest to work together and try
to close economic development loans following a timeline that both buyers and
sellers deem acceptable. That being said, when you are dealing with economic
development lenders who provide publicly funded loans, it is important to
understand that additional due diligence is often required by the government before
the disbursement of taxpayer-backed funds. This additional due diligence is
meant to ensure that public funds are used in a manner that is going to
strengthen the economic prosperity of a given county or region, which is in the
best interest of the small business owner, and their customers.

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission provides government-backed financing for small business start-ups and expansion activities. If your business is located in the Southwestern Pennsylvania region, and you’d like to learn more about how you can apply for financing through the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, please feel free to reach out to me via email at smeredith@spcregion.org. I’d be happy to help you out!

Visit the SPC Business Assistance page to learn more!

Pennsylvania will pay $23.5 million to replace the collapsed Fern Hollow Bridge, officials at the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission announced Monday afternoon. Even as they welcomed the news, many noted that the process to fund needed infrastructure repairs has historically taken much longer, and shouldn’t.

“The state has really stepped up in helping out the region and financing the cost for the new bridge,” said Andy Waple, SPC’s director of transportation.

The SPC is a metropolitan planning organization, which helps to coordinate the use of federal, state, and local funds to improve transportation and economic development in the 10-county region. All of the money to replace the Fern Hollow Bridge is federal, and will not require a match from local sources; that means the region won’t have to pull funding from other key projects.

Waple said the collapse has reinforced the need for sustainable transportation funding at state and federal levels.

“Had we had this boost in federal funding years ago, you know, that bridge might have been one of the ones that — it may still be standing today.”

In the last decade,the SPC has spent nearly half of its annual transportation improvement funding to fix bridges, and has reduced the number of bridges in poor condition from 1,917 in 2010 to 968 in 2020. However, Waple said there’s a long way to go.

PennDOT can fund the project in part because of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, said Deputy Secretary Larry Shifflety. For 2022, the federal law allocated an additional $31 million to the secretary’s discretionary reserve fund at the agency — known as Spike — which allowed PennDOT to make this commitment.

“Not necessarily the way we’d like to have it received,” he said, referring to the collapse hastening the decision, “but certainly happy that we’re able to have that money coming our way and be able to help the region out.”

Read the full story at WESA.fm

A grant from the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission will provide $450,492 in funding for a sidewalk and dedicated bike path along Saltsburg Avenue, White Township officials announced at a meeting Wednesday.

Communication specialist Chauncey Ross said the township will be responsible for $60,000 in engineering costs for design fees.

The grant will fund a project that will be developed this year, with ground likely being broken in 2023, Ross said.

It will provide a continuation of bike lanes that run down Rose Street beginning near Hoss’s restaurant and ending at Saltsburg Avenue. The bike lane would be extended to Rustic Lodge Road, and a sidewalk would also be constructed along Saltsburg Avenue.

The project promotes safe walking and the use of alternative transportation, Ross said.

Read the full story at www.indianagazette.com

The U.S. Department of Transportation will announce a five-step program Thursday to reduce an unexpected spike in traffic deaths during the pandemic with a goal of eliminating them in the future.

The program, called the National Roadway Safety Strategy, marks a major shift in the department’s approach by recognizing that drivers make mistakes and will supplement educational efforts with safer roadway designs, vehicle technology improvements and better care for accident victims. Department officials briefed the news media Wednesday on the strategy that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is scheduled to announce in Washington, D.C., at 9:30 a.m. Thursday.

Mr. Buttigieg announced in October his department would spend the rest of the year developing a strategy to reduce traffic deaths after estimates through the second quarter of 2021 showed the highest percentage increase since the Fatality Analysis Reporting System began in 1975. An estimated 20,160 died in the first half of 2021, an 18.4% increase over the previous year, and the fatality rate increased to 1.34 fatalities per 100 million miles driven from 1.28.

That continued a trend that began with the start of the pandemic in early 2020 when reduced traffic apparently led some drivers to increase their speed substantially, resulting in more accidents. As the pandemic has worn on, officials say there also has been an increase in dangerous behavior such as impaired and distracted driving and reduced use of seat belts.

The higher speeds have resulted in more deaths and more serious injuries from unbelted drivers being thrown from vehicles.

The department said the 42-page strategy takes what it calls a “safe system approach” that tries to improve driver performance but builds in design and other safety improvements when drivers come up short.

Read the full story at https://www.post-gazette.com/

Pennsylvania is preparing for an influx of broadband funding expected from the federal infrastructure bill.

The new funding follows a pandemic that pushed many people online and revealed widespread challenges with broadband access. Federal legislators answered the call with $65 billion in the infrastructure bill, in addition to some broadband funding in pandemic relief packages. But this isn’t the first time large amounts of money have been pumped into broadband.

For many years, Federal Communications Commission programs have offered funding for broadband expansion. But many places still lack access, or affordable access, and in some cases, it’s not entirely clear where the money went. This time, states are hoping to make sure the dollars translate into access.

The key to getting that access out there is outreach and accurate data, according to the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission. The commission, which is a regional organization that focuses on metropolitan planning for Pittsburgh and the surrounding counties, launched its Connected Initiative with several other partners in the region during the pandemic.

“It was a natural evolution for us,” said Vincent Valdes, executive director of the commission. “Really, if you think about it, connectivity and virtual access is the new transportation mode, so why not treat it and plan for it as you would any other?”

And, Valdes told Farm and Dairy, it makes sense for the commission to take that on in the region — it has a lot of experience with long-range planning and managing infrastructure funding.

The commission already has a long-range transportation plan, in addition to a shorter-range, five-year transportation improvement program. It decided to mirror that by developing a connectivity improvement plan that will include details on the region’s current connectivity situation and recommendations for projects to prioritize.

Broadband came up as an issue organically, through conversations with communities in the region. Communities know they need access, but getting funding and making projects happen can be a challenge. That’s what the commission is addressing with its connectivity improvement plan.

Read the full article at www.farmanddairy.com