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5 Road Projects Recommended for Centre County Liquid Fuels Funding

Centre County’s Board of Commissioners will vote next week on approving funding for five recommended road safety projects in 2022.

The county’s planning and development office recommended the projects in Howard, Marion, Patton and Spring townships and Unionville Borough for funding from the county’s Liquid Fuels Fund program, which is comprised of allocations from the state’s liquid fuel tax awarded by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

Anne Messner, senior transportation planner, told the commissioners at their meeting on Tuesday that 21 municipalities submitted 23 applications for liquid fuels funding totaling more than $940,000. With its two semiannual allocations and interest, Centre County has $164,427.83 available for 2022.

“That just speaks to the challenge of reviewing these projects and evaluating them and how do we use these funds,” Messner said.

Last year, with people driving less amid the COVID-19 pandemic and lower fuels tax collection, the county’s funding program was about $150,000.

“This year people are driving more so that helps us a little, so we have a little bit more to work with,” Messner said.

In evaluating projects for liquid fuels funding, Messner said, county staff consider the need, whether it improves safety, past county contributions to the municipality and the amount the municipality or another source is contributing to the proposed project.

“They all are safety projects,” Messner said. “Each application indicated that they had some safety issue that they were trying to resolve and many of them are roadway deterioration, so they need to put some significant work into these roadways to make them better and safer.

The planning office recommended allocations totaling $164,286.50 for the five projects.

Here’s a look at each.

Howard Township

Project: Rehabilitation of deteriorating roadway on Mount Eagle Road.

Recommended allocation: $55,000

Municipal/other source contribution: $25,620

Project total: $80,620

Last Liquid Fuels Fund allocation: 2016

Marion Township

Project: Slaughter House Road/Jacksonville Road intersection improvement.

Recommended allocation: $18,680

Municipal/other source contribution: $18,000

Project total: $36,680

Last Liquid Fuels Fund allocation: 2014

Patton Township

Project: Purdue Mountain Road roadway rehabilitation and guiderail replacement.

Recommended allocation: $47,000

Municipal/other source contribution: $114,070

Project total: $161,070

Last Liquid Fuels Fund allocation: 2013

Spring Township

Project: Rehabilitation of deteriorating roadway on Locust Street.

Recommended allocation: $24,000

Municipal/other source contribution: $15,088

Project total: $39,088

Last Liquid Fuels Fund allocation: 2017

Unionville Borough

Project: Rehabilitation of deteriorating roadway on High Street.

Recommended allocation: $19,606.50

Municipal/other source contribution: $15,088

Project total: $2,178.50

Last Liquid Fuels Fund allocation: 2019

Commissioners voted to move the Liquid Fuels Fund allocations to the consent agenda for their meeting on Dec. 7.

“Obviously a lot of work has been put into that and a lot of thought and I think it’s very, very satisfactory,” Commissioner Steve Dershem said.

PennDOT District 2 must sign off on Liquid Fuels Fund awards

The Liquid Fuels Fund is part of the county’s Local Transportation Funding Program, established in 2017 to have flexibility among a variety of funds for transportation projects.

It also includes funds from the Fee for Local Use (the $5 added on to vehicle registrations in the county since 2017) and Act 13 allocations from PennDOT for at-risk bridges.

“We have been very good at distributing the funds and it has created some interesting flexibility for municipalities to get some of these projects completed that otherwise would not have been completed,” Messner said.

She expects to present recommendations for Fee for Local Use allocations to be presented at the Dec. 14 commissioners meeting.

“More than likely we’re going to be funding some of the projects not on the recommended [Liquid Fuels] list with Fee for Local Use,” Commissioner Michael Pipe said.