Plenary Walsh Keystone Partners

Plenary Walsh Keystone Partners will finance, design, construct and maintain the bridges for 28-year term. Construction will begin in the summer of 2015 and all 558 bridges must be replaced within 36 months. PennDOT will maintain ownership of the bridges throughout the contract. Why is PennDOT focused on SD bridges? Pennsylvania confronts a signifi... cant and somewhat unique challenge among the 50 states: roughly 18 percent of Pennsylvania's bridges are structurally deficient, while the national average is 7.3 percent. Unless replaced, these bridges will ultimately have to be closed, jeopardizing public safety and harming the state's ability to grow economically and create jobs. A SD bridge is not unsafe. The designation means that one or more of its major components is deteriorating. PennDOT has been aggressively addressing this problem, reducing the total number of SD bridges from 6,000 to roughly 4,200. The Rapid Bridge Replacement Project will allow PennDOT to intensify this effort. Why use the P3 approach? The P3 law was enacted by the PA General Assembly and signed by Governor Tom Corbett in 2012, providing PennDOT with another tool to address the state's infrastructure needs, including the challenge of replacing SD bridges. The P3 approach will: Allow PennDOT to replace SD bridges more quickly and minimize impact on the traveling public. Generate savings for Pennsylvania's taxpayers by bundling bridges into one contract and taking advantage of economies of scale. Allow PennDOT to use these savings to address other infrastructure needs. How did PennDOT identify the eligible bridges for this initiative? More than 2,000 SD bridges were screened by PennDOT prior to issuance of the final Request for Proposals. A host of factors were considered, including age, length, number of lanes, and average daily traffic, as well as impact on utilities, railroads, and a wide range of potential environmental impacts. All of the bridges are relatively small - many only single-span, two-lane structures - of similar ...Read More