In the near future, I plan to introduce legislation to create a camera program for weight restricted and low bridges in Pennsylvania.

As the bridge infrastructure in Pennsylvania continues to age and deteriorate and many bridges become incapable of holding the weight of certain types of motor vehicles, there will certainly be a greater number of bridge-related accidents and infrastructure damage in the future, which we simply cannot afford for financial and safety reasons. Currently, there is not an effective way to properly prevent overweight and oversize vehicles from using weight and size restricted bridges in Pennsylvania. To that end, my legislation would create an automated enforcement camera program to enforce weight and size restrictions on bridges that have been designated as weight restricted or size restricted.

My legislation would provide the ability for a municipality, upon the passage of an ordinance to install and operate an automated enforcement camera program to properly enforce weight and size restricted bridges in Pennsylvania, for which the automated enforcement system must be approved by PennDOT. It is crucial that we allow municipalities the ability to deter overweight and oversize vehicles from damaging the infrastructure in our communities. This camera program offers a unique solution to a problem that will only continue to grow as our bridge infrastructure continues to age.

There are more than 25,400 state-owned bridges in Pennsylvania, which constitute the third-largest number of bridges in the nation. The average age of a bridge in Pennsylvania is over 50 years old. According to PennDOT, there are approximately 2,100 state bridges in poor condition, and 1,544 local bridges in poor condition. In addition to poor condition bridges, there are approximately 1,705 posted bridges in Pennsylvania. These numbers will continue to increase as our infrastructure ages.

I hope you will consider co-sponsoring this important legislation to allow our municipalities to protect our infrastructure and properly enforce weight and size restrictions on bridges.