The Southwestern Pennsylvania Corporation, a 501(c)(3) corporation, on behalf of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC), is requesting Technical Proposals for the Development of a Connectivity Roadmap for Southwestern Pennsylvania. SPC is requesting that responding firms or teams also submit a Statement of Qualifications for Southwestern Pennsylvania Connectivity Roadmap Support Services. The intent is to award one contract to a qualified firm or team of firms for completion of the combined Scope of Work.

The Request for Proposals (RFP) / Request for Qualifications (RFQ) will be released by SPC on May 5, 2021. Copies may be downloaded from the SPC Website (www.spcregion.org) or may be obtained by e-mail request to Kristin Baum at kbaum@spcregion.org.

Electronic submissions will be required via SPC’s SharePoint site. Full submission details are provided in the RFP/RFQ document. Proposal packages are due on June 4, 2021.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) is hosting an on-demand virtual public meeting and comment period for a Planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) study exploring sustainable transportation funding options. The public meeting is accessible online at all hours of the day through June 1, 2021, at www.penndot.gov/funding. The PEL study, in support of the PennDOT Pathways program, is being conducted to identify near- and long-term alternative funding solutions and establish a methodology for their evaluation.

In February, PennDOT announced candidate bridge projects being considered as a part of the Major Bridge Public-Private Partnership (P3) Initiative. This initiative, the first of the PennDOT Pathways Program, was formed in response to one of the early findings of the PEL study – that tolling of major bridges in need of replacement or rehabilitation is a potentially viable near-term funding solution. The draft PEL study report is currently available for review and comment and identifies additional medium- to long-term funding alternatives that could be considered for implementation.

PennDOT encourages the public to review the materials presented in the virtual meeting and to provide comments, which will be accepted throughout the duration of the meeting. Online comments can be submitted directly from the meeting website or via other comment submission methods, including:

• Email: PennDOTPathways@pa.gov
• Hotline: 717-325-6129

For more information about the PennDOT Pathways program, visit www.penndot.gov/funding.

The Transportation Revenue Options Commission (TROC), which was established by Governor Tom Wolf’s Executive Order on March 12, today received a briefing on the draft PEL study. When completed, the final PEL study will be provided to the TROC.

PennDOT will make all reasonable modifications to policies, programs, and documents to ensure that people with disabilities and those with limited English proficiency have an equal opportunity to enjoy all of its programs, services, and activities. In accordance with Governor Tom Wolf’s COVID-19 mitigation efforts, the Virtual Public Meeting will be held online only.

To request assistance to participate in the virtual public meeting or review the PEL study, please contact PennDOT’s Communications Office by emailing dotcomm@pa.gov or calling 717-783-8800 from 8:30 AM – 4:00 PM. PennDOT will not place a surcharge on an individual with a disability or those with limited English proficiency to cover the costs of providing auxiliary aids/services or reasonable modifications of policy. If you have other questions or challenges, please contact PennDOT’s Bureau of Equal Opportunity to request help by emailing RA-penndoteoreports@pa.gov or calling 1-800-468-4201; TTY (711).

Subscribe to statewide PennDOT news and traffic alerts at www.penndot.gov/news or choose a region under “Regional Offices.” Information about the state’s infrastructure and results the department is delivering for Pennsylvanians can be found at www.penndot.gov/results. Find PennDOT’s planned and active construction projects at www.projects.penndot.gov.

Follow PennDOT on Twitter at www.twitter.com/PennDOTNews and like the department on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PennsylvaniaDepartmentofTransportation and Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/pennsylvaniadot/.

Virtual public meeting available until June 1

Greene County commissioners recently said funding for 25 different local businesses has been approved through two separate initiatives geared to assist businesses impacted by COVID-19.

Commissioner Mike Belding said Monday the businesses applied earlier this year for the Forgivable Advance for Small Business Assistance (FASBA) program or the COVID-19 Hospitality Industry Recovery Program (CHIRP).

“FASBA and CHIRP are programs for small businesses to recover some COVID-related financial impacts,” Belding said.

Commissioners also announced nine area businesses were awarded grant funding through CHIRP, with seven of the businesses receiving $50,000 and two receiving $5,000.

In February, commissioners voted to allocate funds for the CHIRP program, which has allocated $145 million in funding assistance to the hospitality industry businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The program requires counties to establish grant programs for eligible businesses.

Applications for CHIRP funding were made available for businesses in early March, through the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission.

Belding said funding is still available for businesses to apply for CHIRP and FASBA funding. For more information, contact the Greene County Department of Economic Development.

Read the full article at Observer-Reporter

Regional Roundabout Screening Study Consultant Services RFP

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Corporation, a 501(c)(3) corporation, on behalf of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC), is requesting Technical Proposals and Price Proposals (together, the Proposal package) for the preparation of a Regional Roundabout Screening Study. The selected firm or team of firms will assist SPC with completing a study that will identify potential roundabout locations in the region that will enhance safety.

The Request for Proposals (RFP) was released by SPC on March 24, 2021. Copies may be downloaded below, via the SPC RFP page, or may be obtained by e-mail request to Domenic D’Andrea at ddandrea@spcregion.org.

Electronic submissions will be required via SPC’s SharePoint site. Full submission details are provided in the RFP document. Proposal packages are due on April 23, 2021.

The celebration of National Agriculture Week is organized each year by the Agriculture Council of America (ACA), a nonprofit organization comprised of leaders in the agriculture, food and fiber communities dedicated to increasing public awareness of agriculture’s vital role in modern society. Agriculture provides almost everything we eat, use and wear on a daily basis, and is increasingly contributing to fuel and other bio-products. National Agriculture Day is celebrated on March 23, 2021. On this day, producers, agricultural associations, corporations, universities, government agencies and countless others across America gather to recognize and celebrate the abundance provided by American agriculture.

The Census of Agriculture is conducted once every five years by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture. The Census of Agriculture is a complete count of
U.S. farms and ranches and the people who operate them. Data is collected
regarding land use and ownership, operator characteristics, production
practices, income and expenditures. The next Census of Agriculture will be
conducted in 2022.

To
recognize the essential contributions of agriculture to the 10-county region,
SPC developed county-level infographics to showcase key agricultural statistics
derived from the 2017 Census of Agriculture. The infographics highlight
farmland acreage, the number of farms and workers, the percent of farmland
consisting of crops, the percent of farms by size and by value of sales, the
percent of farm producers by age, the top five farm animals, and the five most
prevalent harvested crops for each county in the SPC region.

These infographics have been posted as Data Tidbits content to SPC’s Regional Data Center. Please check them out!

County Level Infographics

SPC
salutes the men and women who contribute daily to our regional prosperity!

#AgWeek

Pennsylvanians can view ratings of the state’s efforts in transportation safety, mobility, system preservation, and accountability in the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) 2021 Transportation Performance Report (TPR), viewable at TalkPATransportation.com.

The TPR is a biennial report and is developed in a combined effort between the State Transportation Commission (STC), the State Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC), and PennDOT. The report is the first step in the state’s transportation program planning process and helps to evaluate the system’s performance and opportunities for progress.

“The Transportation Performance Report highlights PennDOT’s progress across major aspects of our system including safety, mobility, preservation, accountability, and funding,” PennDOT Secretary and State Transportation Commission (STC) Chair Yassmin Gramian said. “We will use this to help develop our next 12-Year program, as well as inform our Statewide Long-Range Transportation Plan and the Freight Movement Plan.

The release of the 2021 TPR also signals the start of the STC’s and PennDOT’s 2023 12-Year Program Update Public Comment Period. PennDOT conducts a statewide 45-day Public Comment Period every two years to collect public comment on multimodal transportation needs, issues, and concerns. The public feedback collected during the Public Comment Period is used to inform the 12-Year Program and other state and regional transportation plans and programs such as Pennsylvania’s Long Range Transportation Plan and the Freight Movement Plan.

The Public Comment Period will be open from Monday, March 1, through Wednesday, April 14. During this time the public will be able to submit feedback by taking a Transportation Survey, emailing comments to RA-PennDOTSTC@pa.gov, or calling 717-783-2262 from 7:30 AM – 4:00 PM to request a printed copy of the survey, or to complete the survey by telephone.

PennDOT’s Online Public Forum is set for Tuesday, March 23, from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM. The Public Forum will be broadcast statewide via Zoom and Facebook Live and features PennDOT Transportation Secretary Yassmin Gramian.

The public will be able to submit transportation-related questions to PennDOT during the Public Forum. Questions may also be submitted in advance of the Public Forum by filling out the online registration form or by emailing RA-PennDOTSTC@pa.gov. The public may also call PennDOT and share their questions to be answered at the Public Forum at 717-783-2262 from 7:30 AM – 4:00 PM.

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission has a new tool to encourage communities in the 10-county region to develop multimodal transit centers.

The computerized storymap uses relatively new technology to identify more than three dozen locations where centers could be set up to provide services for people who use trails, bikes, cars, buses and trains to move throughout the region. Dave Totten, an SPC transportation planner, unveiled the tool at an advisory committee meeting last week.

“There are clusters where we can develop multimodel operations in every county,” Mr. Totten said. “Every place has locations that could use a multimodal center.”

The tool, which identifies what elements each site could develop for its multimodal center, is an outgrowth of 18 months of work on a report titled “SmartMoves Connections: A Regional Vision for Public Transit.” The commission is expected to adopt the $230,000 report, funded partially with a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, later this year.

Mr. Totten said the agency decided there was no reason to keep officials from using the tool immediately. The ultimate goal is to develop a coordinated system to get people from, say, Kittanning to Pittsburgh with easy transfers and perhaps paying only one fare.

For now, the tool is available for planners to identify potential locations for multimodal centers. The next step will be for SPC to work directly with officials to help develop those sites and identify sources of additional funding.

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

SPC is hosting a virtual Small Business Discussion and Forum on March 16th 2021 at 1:00pm. We want to hear from Southwestern PA businesses.

Soon we will mark one year since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here at Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC), we wanted to take this opportunity to hear from our region’s small business owners and find out where your business stands, one year after COVID. We and other regional entities want to hear your feedback on current needs and expected future needs.

This event and your feedback will help SPC determine the types of business assistance programs needed moving forward.

Please visit https://spcsmallbusiness2021.eventbrite.com/ and Register.

We hope to see you on March 16, 2021 at 1:00pm.

We are also gathering information in advance for this meeting from our regional businesses via a brief Survey.

The Southwestern Pennsylvania
Commission (SPC), in partnership with regional partner, today announced the
completion of the Route 28 Corridor Study, outlining forty multimodal
improvements between Kittanning and Interstate 80 (I-80). 

SPC, in partnership with the Northwest Pennsylvania Commission; North Central Pennsylvania Regional Planning and Development Commission; Armstrong, Clarion and Jefferson Counties; the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Engineering District 10-0 and its consultant team, recently concluded the study of the approximately 40-mile corridor with the release of the study’s Final Report.

The study of the
approximately 40-mile corridor was initiated in December 2019.  The purpose of the study was to explore
transportation improvement concepts that could be implemented to achieve local
and regional goals. To do so, the consultant team worked closely with the
study’s Steering Committee and employed an extensive data collection
effort.  The work included examining
previous studies; engaging the public and local stakeholders; gathering
existing roadway, traffic, and safety data; and an analysis of future growth
and traffic information.

As a result, forty corridor
improvement concepts were developed to address identified areas of concern. Those
concepts include a variety of improvement types, including:

• Intersection
  realignments
• Roadway
  reconstruction
• Flattening
  of horizontal and vertical curves
• Trail
  safety enhancements
• Improved
  signage and delineation
• Corridor-wide
  systematic uniform improvements consisting of advanced curve and intersection
  treatments, high friction pavement surfaces, and lane departure warnings using
  center and edgeline rumble strips

Read the full story at The Courier Express.

Amtrak’s proposal to add another Pittsburgh-to-Harrisburg daily round-trip train in about three years is good news to Sharon Calloway of Uniontown, a frequent traveler on the Pennsylvanian train from Greensburg to New York City, where she works.

“It would be nice to have more than one option,” said Calloway, who often travels back home to Uniontown, where she still maintains her residence.

“If you don’t get this train, you don’t get to New York,” said Calloway, as she waited one recent morning to board the Pennsylvanian at 8 a.m. in Greensburg.

The proposal for another daily round-trip train between Pittsburgh and New York City is projected for the fiscal year from October 2023 through September 2024, in the Pennsylvania State Rail Plan 2020. That plan was developed by PennDOT from fall 2019 through fall 2020 with input from state and local officials, freight carriers, commuter rail providers, Amtrak and rail passenger organizations.

Virtual public hearings on the rail plan, detailed in a 338-page report, will be held from 4 to 5 p.m. Monday and 6 to 7 p.m. Tuesday. The hearings will include one-hour sessions that present an overview of the updated draft state rail plan developed from fall 2019 through fall 2020 which reflects conditions before the covid-19 pandemic, said Ashley Schoch, a PennDOT spokeswoman.

In addition to providing much better access for people traveling to Pittsburgh and from Harrisburg and points east along the Pennsylvanian, increasing efficient, multimodal options for travelers would have a positive impact on connectivity, mobility and economic vitality, as well as decreasing highway congestion and improving air quality in the Southwestern Pennsylvania region and across the state, said Andrew Waple, director of transportation planning for the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, the Pittsburgh regional organization that offered input on the plan.

Read the full article at TribeLive.com