In the near future, I plan to introduce legislation to require priority to be given to projects utilizing recycled asphalt and materials when PennDOT awards Multimodal Fund grants.

Some municipalities across the Commonwealth are limiting the amount of recycled materials that they purchase or hire contractors to lay when repairing roads and bridges. These municipalities are hesitant to use recycled materials for road and bridge repair. However, the higher the percentage of recycled materials in a product, the lower the cost of laying the material, as the amount of new stone required is reduced. These cost-saving measures do not sacrifice the integrity of a project, and the cost-saving measures that municipalities could employ by taking advantage of recycled materials would be irresponsible to ignore. Therefore, it is important to give incentives for municipalities to prioritize the use of recycled materials in road and bridge repair, or trail and walkway connections, etc.

To that end, I plan to introduce legislation that would require PennDOT, when awarding Multimodal Fund grants, to give priority to projects that utilize recycled materials, which includes recycled asphalt, reclaimed asphalt pavement, and recycled asphalt shingles as examples. This would not punish municipalities for not using recycled materials, but would incentivize municipalities to take advantage of recycled materials by giving priority to Multimodal Grant projects which use them.

I hope you will co-sponsor this important legislation to allow municipalities to take better advantage of recycled materials in road and bridge repair.