Residents probably have heard of the greenhouse effect, but there’s a better analogy to explain climate change, Lindsay Byron said Thursday.

“Think of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses as a heat-trapping blanket,” said Byron, environmental group manager for the state Department of Environmental Protection.

“As greenhouse gasses build up, they act like a blanket, trapping heat that would otherwise escape into space.

“This blanket effect is warming the planet’s atmosphere, disrupting the balance that keeps the climate stable.”

State environmental officials on Thursday held the last of five public engagement sessions, four in-person and one virtual, as it works to create a Priority Climate Action Plan, or PCAP, that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions statewide and mitigate further effects of climate change.

With $3 million in federal grants already captured by the commonwealth, and an additional $4.6 billion up for grabs in spring, officials stressed the need for residents to submit their ideas soon in order for projects to be funded.

“We don’t want to leave anyone out if there’s a community that intends to apply for implementation grants for greenhouse gas reduction measures,” Byron said. “So we need to have those measures in the priority Climate Action Plan.

“We are targeting outreach toward communities and residents living near industrial operations, local governments and the industrial sector.”

About 80 people, including residents and community activists, as well as environmental and sustainability officials and organizations from across the state, participated.

‘Practical, innovative path’

The state, as well as three of the commonwealth’s largest metropolitan areas, this year got an infusion of federal funding to fight climate change.

And the Lehigh Valley was among them.

DEP in April announced the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission had been awarded $1 million by opting into the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant program, part of the federal Inflation Reduction Act.

“We have a monumental opportunity to protect and improve our land, water and air,” LVPC Executive Director Becky Bradley said in a news release announcing the funding.

“We must ensure that the quality and availability of these resources is available now and into the future. Addressing our climate crisis is going to require the kind of planning and response that can only be accomplished through a multi-governmental partnership.

“It’s a practical, innovative path to the best possible outcomes.”

In addition to the LVPC, Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission got funding through the program.

At the same time, the state received $3 million for climate planning.

Plans for action

Over the next two years, LVPC must create a PCAP focused on industrial decarbonization, as well as a Comprehensive Climate Action Plan.

Parallel to that effort, the state also must create a PCAP. The priority plan is due March 1 for both agencies.

By participating in the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant program, states also are eligible to apply for a $4.6 billion pool of competitive implementation grants, also established by the Inflation Reduction Act and administered by the Environmental Protection Agency.

“I’ll stress again — only measures included in the Priority Climate Action Plan will be eligible for phase two implementation grants. So, it’s really important that we consider community priorities early.”

“I’ll stress again — only measures included in the Priority Climate Action Plan will be eligible for phase two implementation grants,” Byron said during the public engagement session.

“So it’s really important that we consider community priorities early.”

At least 40% of the benefits from grants “must occur in low-income and disadvantaged communities as defined in the White House’s Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool.”

The Lehigh Valley’s three major cities – Allentown, Easton and Bethlehem – are all considered “disadvantaged,” according to the White House’s Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool, described as “overburdened and underserved.”

The Valley’s three major cities — Allentown, Easton and Bethlehem — are all considered “disadvantaged,” according to the screening tool, described as “overburdened and underserved.”

Applications for implementation grants are due April 1, Byron said. They expect federal officials to notify grantees in July, and award funds in October.

After an introduction and explanation on how the grant process works, participants were organized into virtual break-out rooms, each with about two dozen participants with two DEP staff members to facilitate a discussion.

Officials first asked residents how climate change affects them, and several noted the health impacts of climate change, as well as extreme weather events threatening infrastructure.

“There are two major concerns,” Joseph Murray said. “Air pollution is causing a high rate of asthma in our community, in children especially, in Reading and along the major highways.

“The second is flooding caused by heavy, stalled rainstorms that destroyed Antietam Middle High School in Lower Alsace Township.”

A July storm, which flooded parts of Berks County, also caused more than $7.5 million worth of damage in Northampton County.

A month before, Canadian wildfire smoke inundated the Valley, choking its residents. This year, Allentown was designated the asthma capital of the United States.

Cynthia Paukovitch of Nazareth noted the proliferation of warehouses in the Valley, causing an influx of diesel trucking that can exacerbate emissions as well as health conditions.

“There just doesn’t seem to be enough regulation or ordinances,” Paukovitch said.

“Maybe we haven’t kept up with the influx of the warehouse impact, but there doesn’t seem to be enough protection to say health-wise, this is not healthy for us to be this close and this inundated with diesel trucking.”

“The key thing thinking about this, the CPRG, is that the goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. So any kind of plan is fair game if it helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

Colleen Unroe, a William And Hannah Penn fellow with the DEP who focuses on helping connect clean energy resources to environmental justice communities.
As the meeting progressed, ideas began to flow forward — including municipalities switching from gas to electric lawnmowers.

“That’s actually not an example that we’ve heard thus far,” said Colleen Unroe, a William And Hannah Penn fellow with the DEP who focuses on helping connect clean energy resources to environmental justice communities.

“So if a community wanted to pursue that, that would be great.”

Other ideas included creating more bike trails, improving public transit and increasing education and engagement with residents to make everyday decisions that reduce emissions.

“The key thing thinking about this, the CPRG, is that the goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Unroe said. “So any kind of plan is fair game if it helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

View the full story at lehighvalleynews.com.

Allegheny County and the area around Cranberry can begin planning road safety improvements through study grants announced Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The grants, $520,000 for the county and $244,000 for the Cranberry area, were among 385 implementation and planning grants worth $817 million. The funds were awarded under the Safe Streets and Roads for All program, part of the Biden administration’s economic stimulus plan that earmarked $14 billion over five years to improve road conditions and reduce the sharp spike in traffic deaths that occurred during the first two years of the pandemic.

The department announced 48 grants for project implementation and 337 grants for studies that are expected to lead to future projects.

For Allegheny County, the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission applied for the grant to study ways to reduce accidents, which have averaged more than 12,000 a year since 2002. The $520,000 grant will help pay for a $650,000 study by SPC staff.

SPC spokeswoman Caitlin O’Connor said in an email that Josh Spano, manager of transportation operations and safety, will lead a team that will identify the most dangerous traffic areas in the county and develop plans to address them. The study should take just over a year, and the agency will then apply for another grant to implement the recommendations.

“We will work to identify locations with fatalities and serious injuries and develop proven countermeasures that meet safety goals,” she said. “We’ll focus on developing specific recommendations for infrastructure and policy changes that can be implemented to support the reduction of traffic incidents and fatalities.”

O’Connor said the study will include all roads, not only those owned and maintained by the county. It won’t be limited to one type of road or intersection.

“Overarching regional safety strategies will be developed as well as more specific improvements for specific high-risk areas,” she said.

In Butler County, Cranberry Manager Dan Santoro said the grant will help pay for a $305,000 study for safety improvements in Cranberry, Jackson, Zelienople and Harmony to better protect bikers and pedestrians. It should take four to six months for a consultant to identify dangerous intersections and connections with trails such as the Commodore Perry Trail in the neighboring communities and develop a plan to deal with them, Santoro said.

The study can be done that quickly, once the federal money is released, because the communities have been cooperating on preliminary work the past several years.

“We want to take that to the next level,” Santoro said. “We want to see where we can improve connectivity but also improve safety.”

During a national news briefing Wednesday, White House Infrastructure Improvement Coordinator Mitch Landrieu called the transportation grants “an unprecedented investment” in safety that has included three rounds of funding worth $1.7 billion this year. The implementation grants will fund programs such as $21.8 million in improvements to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Dallas, where there have been six deaths and 25 injuries over the past five years.

“I’m hoping these programs can save more lives and have more people home at the holiday table [in future years],” Polly Trottenberg, deputy transportation secretary, said during the briefing.

View the full article at unionprogress.com

On Monday, several lawmakers announced that Allegheny County is getting a federal grant to make streets safer.

Rep. Summer Lee, Rep. Chris Deluzio, Senator Bob Casey and Senator John Fetterman together announced the $520,000 in funding allocated from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Safe Streets and Roads for All grant. The funds go to the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission.

“The infrastructure law is making our roads safer for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers alike,” Senator Casey said. “I was proud to advocate for funding to help the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission identify Allegheny County’s most dangerous roads in order to make them safer and save lives.”

The funds will be used by the SPC to develop a Vision Zero Safety Action Plan, which identifies areas of critical need.

“By developing a comprehensive Vision Zero Safety Action Plan, we are taking a huge step towards identifying and rectifying the most hazardous areas in our community. This initiative not only promises a safer today but also lays the groundwork for expanding these vital safety measures across Southwestern Pennsylvania, ensuring a more secure tomorrow for all our residents,” Rep. Lee said.

View the full article at wpxi.com

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission has received $520,000 in federal funding to develop a plan to make streets safer in Allegheny County, which is coming off its deadliest traffic year in nearly two decades.

Last year, Allegheny County saw 84 traffic fatalities, the most since 2005, according to PennDOT. After a dip in road fatalities in 2020 when the region was in lockdown for months due to the pandemic, traffic fatalities have been increasing.

The funding will allow the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission to create a plan for Allegheny County that focuses on infrastructure and policy changes to help reduce traffic fatalities.

U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, said the funding is a good first step in making the region safer for all road users, including motorists, pedestrians and cyclists.

“We are taking a huge step towards identifying and rectifying the most hazardous areas in our community,” she said.

Pedestrian safety has become a pressing issue in Pittsburgh. There were 16 pedestrian deaths in Allegheny County in 2022, the highest number since 2017, according to PennDOT.

Along with Lee, U.S. Rep Chris Deluzio, D-Aspinwall, and U.S. Sens. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, and John Fetterman, D-Braddock, advocated for the road safety funding. Fetterman has also introduced a bill to help expedite funding to municipalities that have already planned out road safety projects.

Allegheny County has consistently led all Pennsylvania counties with traffic crashes. In 2022, the county recorded 11,524 crashes, which amounted to about 10% of all crashes in the state. After a dip in 2020, crashes have been increasing in Allegheny County, but have yet to eclipse pre-pandemic figures.

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission covers the entire 10-county Pittsburgh region. Officials said the commission plans to expand road safety planning beyond Allegheny County after completing the county-specific plan first.

View the full article at triblive.com

More than $1.3 million in additional funding has been made available to complete the section of the Sheepskin Trail through the city of Uniontown.

“We’re continuing to add to the trail as quickly as we can and get this thing built,” said Fayette County Commissioner Vince Vicites.

Vicites said $1,300,832 came through his involvement with the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC) as the secretary/treasurer, his fellow commissioners, Uniontown Mayor Bill Gerke and the state Department of Transportation to obtain funds to finish the Uniontown leg.

“After the initial discussion, PennDOT approached us about funding, as we qualified for TIP funds,” Vicites said of Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) funds through the state agency.

Vicites said PennDOT suggested those involved in the project do a wal- through in the city to identify the future project areas and how much money would be needed to complete the Uniontown portion.

“Once we figured it out, we submitted a funding request, and PennDOT awarded the funds,” Vicites said.

The completed section of the trail in Uniontown runs from South Union Township to Beeson Avenue in the city. The remaining portion, which follows the path of an abandoned railroad line, runs just under half a mile from Beeson to North Union Township.

The project is in the final design phase with Gibson Thomas Engineering in Lemont Furnace.

Clayton VanVerth, project manager with Gibson Thomas, said three railroad bridges will be paved and transformed for bicycles and pedestrians to cross.

“The bridges are structurally sound, already inspected, and we’ll look into putting on concrete decks and rails on them,” VanVerth said.

VanVerth added that once the design phase is completed, and after months of reviews and permitting – as the bike trail will cross two state roads – actual construction could begin sometime in 2025.

Gerke said an earlier agreement with the railroad company calls for the city to be responsible for removing the existing railroad tracks through the city belonging to Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad, which provided the city with $220,000 for the track removal.

Gerke is eager for the Uniontown portion to be completed.

“People have asked me about each phase, and then they are asking about the next phase,” Gerke said, adding that even in the colder months, he’s seen people walking on portions of the trail. “That’s our goal, to get the trail in the city and get people into the city. It’s a social and economic boom.”

Gerke said the commissioners have worked diligently on the project, and Vicites said it has been a team effort.

“We’re one step closer in getting it done,” said Commissioner Dave Lohr. “This is another link to get this accomplished and get to the next level.”

“We’re so excited to see this money coming in,” said Commissioner Scott Dunn. “This will be a big plus for the Sheepskin Trail and the city of Uniontown. This satisfies everyone and builds our trail.”

“This is a huge win for the county and the city,” VanVerth said.

Vicites said they’re trying to have multiple sections of the trail being worked on simultaneously, and continue to seek more funding opportunities to finish the trail.

Once completed, the 34-mile Sheepskin Trail will run from Dunbar Township to Point Marion, passing through a number of communities, including Mount Braddock, Lemont Furnace, Uniontown, Hopwood, Fairchance, Smithfield, Outcrop, Gans, Lake Lynn and Point Marion.

The finished trail will link to the Great Allegheny Passage and the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail to the north, and the West Virginia Mon River Rail-Trail System to the south.

For more information on the Sheepskin Trail, visit sheepskintrail.org/.

View the full article at heraldstandard.com.

To say last week was good for the passenger train industry would be a massive understatement.

At the national level, President Joe Biden released $8.2 billion to fund 10 major projects, including the first high-speed rail line in the U.S. and $34 million to study 69 corridors across the country for new or expanded service.

In this region, the Federal Railroad Administration agreed to pay Pennsylvania $143.6 million toward railroad upgrades to allow a second daily Amtrak trip between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg and funded a handful of corridor studies in this area, including a completely new route that would link Pittsburgh; Columbus, Ohio; and Chicago.

In a briefing for news media on Thursday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said last week’s announcements are the first steps in the Biden administration’s effort to rebuild the nation’s passenger rail system. Biden’s economic stimulus program has earmarked $66 billion for rail improvements over five years.

Buttigieg noted that 150 years ago, the U.S. was a world leader in rail development when the Transcontinental Railroad was completed to allow passengers to ride from east to west across the country. Today, he said, Americans who travel to Japan or Europe come home asking why they can’t have the type of rail service here that that they find overseas.

“Despite that history, America has lagged behind for years now,” the secretary said. “We think Americans should have those same opportunities [they find overseas]. That’s what they ought to be able to expect here.”

Biden announced the first 10 projects Friday at a news conference in Las Vegas, where the gambling and entertainment mecca will be linked by a new 218-mile high-speed rail line with Rancho Cucamonga, California, just outside of Los Angeles. That $3 billion project is expected to make the trip in just over two hours, twice as fast as driving.

But that isn’t the fastest project to be funded. That distinction goes to the 171-mile, $3.07 billion project in central California linking Bakersfield and Merced that will reach speeds of up to 220 miles an hour, the fastest in the U.S.

Other projects would link Richmond, Virginia, and Raleigh, North Carolina ($1.1 billion), and replace the Long Bridge over the Potomac River between Washington, D.C., and Richmond to increase capacity ($729 million).

Buttigieg stressed that the passenger rail expansion will provide other benefits as well. For example, the Las Vegas project is expected to create 35,000 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent positions, serve 11 million passengers a year, take thousands of cars off the road, and eliminate 400,000 tons of carbon dioxide pollution by using electric trains.

The corridor studies, which will cost as much as $500,000 each, are key because they will establish blueprints for the future, Buttigieg said.

Regional projects

For the Pennsylvania area, the immediate benefit will be the FRA’s 80% funding for track and station improvements for the second daily trip between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg. The state had reached agreement in September with Norfolk Southern Railroad to allow additional passenger service and had been prepared to pay for the $180 million in track and station improvements itself if the federal funds didn’t come through.

“The people in Johnstown, Altoona and Greensburg have been pushing for more rail service for a long time,” Pennsylvania Transportation Secretary Mike Carroll said in an interview. “Their advocacy had really pushed this forward, and now it’s happening.”

Norfolk Southern is designing the work, which will include side tracks for freight trains to get out of the way for passenger service and more control signals. Service is expected to start in 2026.

But again, Carroll said he is “excited” about the studies to return service eliminated decades ago and establish new corridors.

The proposed corridor to link Scranton with Penn Station in New York City is the most promising, Carroll said, because existing dormant tracks are already publicly owned. There is no need to make arrangements with freight carriers to accommodate passenger service along that line, but some abandoned track would have to be rebuilt.

That proposal includes three daily trips with stops in Stroudsburg and Mount Pocono in Pennsylvania and Blairstown, Dover, Montclair, Morristown and Newark in New Jersey.

The Reading-to-Philadelphia corridor, which would return service that ended in 1983, is a little more complicated because Norfolk Southern owns the tracks and would have to provide room for passenger service. If it could be arranged, that service would include four to eight daily trips with stops at Pottstown, Phoenixville and potentially Norristown, with connections in Philadelphia to New York City.

Although those projects potentially could require the state to pay hundreds of millions of dollars as its 20% share plus some operating costs, Carroll said, “yes, positively yes” the state would find the money to pay for expanded service.

Mark Spada, president of Western Pennsylvanians for Passenger Rail, said he’s encouraged by the possibilities the corridor studies could create.

“That’s all good news for those corridors,” he said. “If nothing else, it puts those corridors on the map for the future.”

Ohio connections

Several projects in Ohio are a focal point of the corridor studies, and Pittsburgh could be a major benefactor of one of those projects.

For more than two decades, the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission based in Columbus has been pushing to reestablish passenger service through what it calls the Midwest Connector. That corridor would link Pittsburgh with Chicago by way of Columbus and Dayton, Ohio, and Fort Wayne, Indiana, returning passenger service to the two Ohio cities for the first time since 1979.

Columbus is one of the fastest growing urban areas of the country, and returning passenger rail has been a top priority for MORPC Executive Director William Murdock. The agency has gone through a series of studies, even studying innovative hyperloop service using pressurized air pods for that corridor before Virgin Hyperloop decided to concentrate on freight service, so plans are much further along than other projects.

“This is really a transformative process from the FRA,” Murdock said of the money for corridor studies. “This is the last step we need to move forward.”

As soon as the federal money arrives, MORPC will be ready to hire consultants to put together specific plans for the corridor over the next 18 to 36 months. Murdock said the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, which oversees transportation planning over a 10-county region that includes Allegheny County, has been “a key partner” to planning the rail corridor.

Murdock said he’s “encouraged” the project will qualify for construction funding because it will be new service and the region already has done most of the preliminary work. Initial plans call for maximum rail speeds of 79 miles an hour in the new corridor but that could be pushed to 110 if there is enough interest, he said.

“We feel really confident this is a great opportunity for Pittsburgh, Columbus and Chicago and the points along the way,” he said.

At least two other corridor studies could have major implications for rail service in Ohio. One will review new service to link the state’s largest cities — Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Dayton — while the other will look at a route from Cleveland to Detroit by way of Toledo.

Future blueprint

The $66 billion set aside for rail expansion may not cover all of the costs for projects that come out of the corridor studies, said Mitch Landrieu, Biden’s special assistant overseeing the economic stimulus program.

“With this investment, we’re creating history,” he said, noting the first American high-speed rail that is among the projects funded last week.

Buttigieg said the goal is to establish longer-term investment in rail projects. He expects the early successes will increase interest in additional projects developed through the corridor studies.

“What we are doing is creating a platform for future investment,” he said. “I think there will be more appetite for funding projects in the future.”

How soon can the public expect to see expanded service?

“Within a few years, you’re going to see some exciting changes,” he said.

View the full article at unionprogress.com.

Outgoing Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald has a new role for the organization leading growth in this region.

Fitzgerald was named recently as the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission’s new executive director by its board.

Fitzgerald will assume this role on Jan. 2 when his tenure as Allegheny County Executive concludes.

The SPC is the federally certified metropolitan planning organization and local development district serving 10 counties in southwestern Pennsylvania, including Lawrence County.

“While I’ve always had a regional focus, I look forward to putting my skills and relationships to work for all 10 of our counties,” Fitzgerald said.

“Together, we will continue to concentrate on infrastructure, communication, economic development, workforce and quality of life issues for our region,” he added.

Fitzgerald served as Allegheny County executive since 2012 and was term-limited. Before that, he was a city councilman for 11 years and was elected council president four times.

He will lead an SPC staff of 50 members across seven departments, including economic and workforce development, transportation planning, strategic initiatives and policy, information and data, finance, human resources and communications and public relations.

“The board is grateful to Vincent Valdes for positioning SPC to be the region’s leading agent of support to local governments for transportation, broadband, and economic development,” said Leslie Osche, SPC’s board chair and Butler County Commissioner.

“He laid the groundwork for Mr. Fitzgerald to carry the commission and our region to the next level. We are excited about the future of our region under Rich’s leadership,” Osche said.

Valdes is retiring at the end of the year.

Before entering public service, Fitzgerald spent many years in the private sector. He grew up in Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield-Garfield neighborhood before attending Carnegie Mellon University, earning degrees in mechanical engineering with a minor in business.

He and his wife live in Squirrel Hill and are the parents of eight adult children.

The SPC board will welcome Fitzgerald at its Tuesday meeting.

View the full article at ncnewsonline.com.

Every two years, the Southwest Pennsylvania Commission, the metropolitan planning organization for the area that includes Butler County, updates its Transportation Improvement Plan, which is in effect for a three-year period. While the plan for 2023-26 is still in effect, the commission is working on putting together the plan for 2025-28, which comes into effect October 2024.

The commission held a public meeting at the Middlesex Township municipal building on Wednesday evening, Dec. 6, to gather feedback from Butler County residents.

Rob Vigue, Valencia Borough Council member, attended because he wanted to know how infrastructure developments around him would affect his neck of the woods.

“All this affects us directly, because Valencia’s right at the bottom, and a lot of people use Valencia to get to (Route) 228,” Vigue said. “So we always have our concerns because these can cause problems with the roads in our area, to back up and stuff like that.”

The Transportation Improvement Plan is a short-term plan for transportation projects in 10 counties and the city of Pittsburgh. Although the commission does help to procure funding through grants, it is up to agencies such as the state Department of Transportation to make sure that the plan is actually fulfilled.

“Our role is to facilitate the process of developing the TIP,” said Ryan Gordon, transportation program development manager for the commission. “And then from that point on, we turn it over to the sponsors of those projects. Most of them are PennDOT. It could be a transit agency, or it could be a local entity.”

“We have a very good relationship,” said Chad Mosco, portfolio engineer for PennDOT. “We’re very open to each other for suggestions. Ryan’s great. He communicates to us very well.”

Many of the “big-ticket” items that are expected to appear on the draft 2025-28 TIP are “carry-over items” — projects included on the current or previous improvement plans that haven’t been finished yet. These include the Three Degree Road intersection, as well as the replacement of the Karns Crossing Bridge.

“They’re already in the pipeline,” Gordon said. “They’ve already been started, ‘cause there’s many phases, many years to do some of these bigger projects.”

Another major item, the Balls Bend Safety Improvement Project, is expected to finish in January 2025 at a cost of $29.7 million. It promises to ease congestion and improve safety along a section of Route 228 by adding new travel lanes, two “jug handles,” and a new signal.

Gordon said some “candidate projects” suggested by the public are under consideration for the plan. However, he admitted the commission isn’t likely to include many of them, due to the high number of carry-over projects from past plans.

“We may not get too far down on this list, because of the carry-over and cost increases,” Gordon said. “But we always are constantly looking at needs. We’re constantly talking about projects. You never know when we’re going to free up some money and we can get one of these in there.”

During the meeting, Gordon touted the commission’s progress toward achieving its goals on the “Gateway 228” improvement plan, a series of improvement projects along Route 228 in the District 10 area. Out of the 11 projects listed, six have been finished, four are currently under construction, and one is in the engineering phase.

“Other counties would just be jealous of this, because this is a lot of investment in a corridor,” Gordon said. “We’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars here in this corridor.”

The 2025-28 TIP is scheduled to enter its formal 30-day comment period in May, before the commission adopts it the following month.

View the full article at butlereagle.com.

Amid a national push to boost (and fund) digital access, the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County are on a mission to close the digital divide by 2030.

To make this hope a reality, city and county leaders tasked the Pittsburgh Digital Equity Coalition, a group of nonprofits and institutional partners, with gathering feedback from residents and devising a plan to ensure all county residents have digital access. Roughly a year after the coalition and its members were introduced to the public, the coalition has settled on a plan.

On Wednesday afternoon, city and county officials explained that the new plan includes expanding access to broadband internet, offering access to digital skills training, and providing technical access to residents in need.

Residents in Allegheny County have both some of the highest internet speeds in the region, and areas with inadequate internet speeds or few service options, according to a 2022 report from the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission. Moving forward, the officials feel the best approach is to focus on narrowing the gaps most prominent in the communities and neighborhoods where many residents have the least digital access.

County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said that addressing the disparity is imperative because in today’s world, without digital access, obtaining equity in areas such as housing and education becomes much more challenging.

“If we were here decades ago or a century ago, we would be talking about people that weren’t connected with electricity,” Fitzgerald said during the Wednesday press conference. “That’s where we are right now. We need to make sure that everybody in the city, everybody in the county and quite frankly, in my next job, everybody in the region is connected digitally.” (Fitzgerald will become executive director of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission when Sara Innamorato takes over as county executive in January.)

The Digital Equity Coalition includes entities such as the Greater Pittsburgh Digital Inclusion Alliance, Computer Reach, University of Pittsburgh and Community Internet Solutions. By combining the government’s influence and these organizations’ understanding of how to get low-cost, reliable broadband internet access to those who need it, coalition members are aiming to eliminate digital inequity by the end of 2030. The original goal was 2027, meant to be completed five years from the coalition’s fall 2022 launch.

After conducting community listening sessions this year — and after some delays — the coalition developed a strategic plan with goals centered on expanding access and building residents’ skills.

The first goal, per the report: accessible and affordable internet. The coalition recommends that to bring greater access, the city and county establish a free, regional Wi-Fi network; invest in publicly owned IT infrastructure; bolster the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center’s work via an open data repository; and “facilitate more open ISP markets.”

The second goal is to boost digital literacy skills by providing county residents of all ages and skill levels with a curriculum that leaves them with the skills they need to use current forms of technology.

Lastly, the coalition aims to increase access to computing devices and technical support.

“This community strategic plan that we’re sharing with you today represents the best ideas of our organizations to take concrete steps in ensuring that no one gets left behind,” Pittsburgh Department of Innovation & Performance Director Heidi Norman said during the press conference. ”All students should be able to get the online education and training that they need without worrying that the cost of their internet connection may be too high to afford next month.”

View the full article at technical.ly.

Every two years, the Southwest Pennsylvania Commission, the metropolitan planning organization for the area that includes Butler County, updates its Transportation Improvement Plan, which is in effect for a three-year period. While the plan for 2023-26 is still in effect, the commission is working on putting together the plan for 2025-28, which comes into effect October 2024.

The commission held a public meeting at the Middlesex Township municipal building on Wednesday evening, Dec. 6, to gather feedback from Butler County residents.

Rob Vigue, Valencia Borough Council member, attended because he wanted to know how infrastructure developments around him would affect his neck of the woods.

“All this affects us directly, because Valencia’s right at the bottom, and a lot of people use Valencia to get to (Route) 228,” Vigue said. “So we always have our concerns because these can cause problems with the roads in our area, to back up and stuff like that.”

The Transportation Improvement Plan is a short-term plan for transportation projects in 10 counties and the city of Pittsburgh. Although the commission does help to procure funding through grants, it is up to agencies such as the state Department of Transportation to make sure that the plan is actually fulfilled.

“Our role is to facilitate the process of developing the TIP,” said Ryan Gordon, transportation program development manager for the commission. “And then from that point on, we turn it over to the sponsors of those projects. Most of them are PennDOT. It could be a transit agency, or it could be a local entity.”

“We have a very good relationship,” said Chad Mosco, portfolio engineer for PennDOT. “We’re very open to each other for suggestions. Ryan’s great. He communicates to us very well.”

Many of the “big-ticket” items that are expected to appear on the draft 2025-28 TIP are “carry-over items” — projects included on the current or previous improvement plans that haven’t been finished yet. These include the Three Degree Road intersection, as well as the replacement of the Karns Crossing Bridge.

“They’re already in the pipeline,” Gordon said. “They’ve already been started, ‘cause there’s many phases, many years to do some of these bigger projects.”

Another major item, the Balls Bend Safety Improvement Project, is expected to finish in January 2025 at a cost of $29.7 million. It promises to ease congestion and improve safety along a section of Route 228 by adding new travel lanes, two “jug handles,” and a new signal.

Gordon said some “candidate projects” suggested by the public are under consideration for the plan. However, he admitted the commission isn’t likely to include many of them, due to the high number of carry-over projects from past plans.

“We may not get too far down on this list, because of the carry-over and cost increases,” Gordon said. “But we always are constantly looking at needs. We’re constantly talking about projects. You never know when we’re going to free up some money and we can get one of these in there.”

During the meeting, Gordon touted the commission’s progress toward achieving its goals on the “Gateway 228” improvement plan, a series of improvement projects along Route 228 in the District 10 area. Out of the 11 projects listed, six have been finished, four are currently under construction, and one is in the engineering phase.

“Other counties would just be jealous of this, because this is a lot of investment in a corridor,” Gordon said. “We’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars here in this corridor.”

The 2025-28 TIP is scheduled to enter its formal 30-day comment period in May, before the commission adopts it the following month.

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