WASHINGTON COUNTY, Pa. — Residents in Washington County are getting a look at the long-term vision for their communities.
The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission wants to invest in hundreds of transportation and infrastructure projects over the next 25 years.
Long term, the price tag is more than $10 billion.
Monday afternoon in a town hall forum, plans were laid out to the Washington County community to get input that will eventually be included in the final plan.
Domenic D’Andrea is the director of transportation for the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission. The non-profit has been tasked with laying out long and short-term infrastructure plans in each of its counties in its region to get valuable input from residents. That’s in addition to the 500 to 600 active projects paid for with federal and state money.
Ryan Gordon is the transportation program development manager.
“We have a project in an area, we’re looking at these comments and we’re integrating those comments where we can in the design of the project,” said Gordon.
On the docket, investing in roadways and bridges and installing high-speed broadband internet.
“In Washington, we’re focused on the roadways that are the larger roadway networks. So we’re talking about state route 40, 19, 22,” said Gordon. “The Brownsville high-level bridge is an example. PA 88 over Peters Creek, bigger bridges, also Route 18 over Chartiers Creek, and also I-70 over Railroad Street.”
Installing high-speed broadband internet is also a high priority.
“Broadband as we found out during COVID is a form of infrastructure, a form of connectivity so our transportation plan includes connecting people to opportunity,” said D’Andrea.
The good news for Washington County, it’s already done some legwork to find out where the gaps are, so when funding is approved crews can get to work.
The short-range plan is a $1.9 billion dollar proposal. The long-range plan is $10.7 billion.
There is a 30-day public comment period that is open from now until June 9.
You can do so by clicking here. Information on how to submit comments can be found under the “Get Involved!” tab.
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