In the near future, I plan to introduce legislation to allow municipalities the ability to receive millings obtained by PennDOT within their jurisdiction for free. 
 

Millings are a form of unserviceable road and bridge material that PennDOT obtains when doing road and bridge repair or replacement. Millings are often repurposed for other road and bridge reconstruction projects once they are obtained by PennDOT. The current process for a municipality to obtain millings is costly, time consuming, and places many smaller municipalities at a disadvantage. 
 

Currently, when millings are obtained by PennDOT they are required by law to advertise them for sale in the following order: First, to other Pennsylvania state agencies, second, to municipalities within the PennDOT district, and third to the general public after 15 days of notice given to municipalities. Notably, if there is more than one municipality that is interested in purchasing the millings, PennDOT must make the millings available to the municipality with the highest bid. 
 

The process as it currently exists prevents small municipalities from being able to compete for milling resources with larger entities. This mode of distribution leaves small municipalities struggling to find millings to use in road resurfacing and repair. 
 

To that end, my legislation would simply require that any millings obtained by PennDOT within a municipality must first be offered free of charge to that municipality, provided that the municipality agrees to transport the material from a site determined by PennDOT. If the municipality declines the offer of free millings, they shall be offered for sale as they are currently. 
 

My legislation also requires that if a municipality receives millings offered free of charge and are unable to use them for road, bridge, and other projects within their boundaries, the millings may be sold but all money received from the sale of millings must be remitted to PennDOT. 
 

As construction costs have continued to rise in the past few years, offering any sort of solution to our municipalities can go a long way in allowing them to have well-maintained and repaired roads. 
 

I hope you will consider co-sponsoring this important legislation to aid our municipalities by allowing them to retain their own millings.