Seven Municipal Bridges to be Replaced with Funding Under Dauphin County Bundling Program

Bridge

Seven municipal-owned bridges in Dauphin County are up for replacement construction to begin this year under Dauphin County’s comprehensive multi-year bridge bundling program.

The county will fund 60 percent of the costs for municipal-owned bridges and the municipalities are responsible for the remaining 40 percent.

In all, 16 bridges have or will be repaired under the bundling program, which includes nine county-owned bridges.

The $13 million program is a unique use of funding sources and bundling multiple projects into contracts to keep bridges safe while saving municipalities and taxpayers money.

“In Dauphin County, we are leading the state in making sure our roads and bridges remain safe,’’ County Commissioner Chair Jeff Haste said.

The bridge projects are:

- Bastian Road over Armstrong Creek in Jackson Township

- Lauffer Road over Iron Run in Londonderry Township

- Camp Kiwanis T over Manada Creek in East Hanover Township

- Martindale Road over a Hoffer Creek tributary in Conewago Township

- Edward Street over Rattling Creek in Lykens Borough

- Rummel Road over Powell Creek in Wayne Township

- Mcintosh Road over tributary to Paxton Creek in Lower Paxton Township

Costs for work on the seven bridges is around $4.9 million. The bundling program offers participating municipalities financing for their 40-percent cost shares through the Dauphin County Infrastructure Bank (DCIB).

At a recent meeting, commissioners approved four municipalities – Conewago, East Hanover, Jackson, and Londonderry townships – to use the DCIB for financing of their 40 percent shares.

Construction is expected to start later this year.

When the bundling program is done in 2022, none of Dauphin County’s 50 total bridges will be structurally deficient.

The Infrastructure Bank has helped numerous municipalities since inception in 2013.

“We are still seeing the fruits of that labor paying out today,” Commissioner Mike Pries said.

Now in the 16th straight year without a tax increase, Dauphin County continues to help municipalities with infasturucture needs while not raising taxes.

“Fixing or replacing a bridge involves huge costs for a municipality,” Commissioner George P. Hartwick III said. “We are working to ease those financial strains.”

Dauphin County is using Act 13, Act 44, Act 89 dedicated to bridge projects and Local Use Fee funds enabled by Act 89 ($5 registration fee). Dauphin County adopted the Local Use Fee in 2016 which annually generates approximately $1.2 million to support county transportation programs. In addition, the program received $2 million in federal funds only made available to counties who adopted the Local Use Fee funds.

MEDIA CONTACT: Brett Hambright, Press Secretary, 717-780-6311; bhambright@dauphinc.org.