Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding Monday toured three Dirt, Gravel, and Low Volume Roads (DGLVR) projects that are part of the Wolf Administration's $280 million investment in improving Pennsylvania's rural roads while simultaneously reducing their environmental impacts.
"We're celebrating a partnership of the Departments of Agriculture and Conservation and Natural Resources and Penn State, Conservation Districts, and townships that has made our rural roads better and our streams cleaner," said Redding. "Governor Wolf increased funding from $5 million annually to $35 million annually in 2015, which was a critical turning point for this program and meeting both Pennsylvania's infrastructure and climate goals."
Pennsylvania has approximately 23,000 miles of dirt and gravel public roads, many of which are close to streams and are potential sources of sediment runoff pollution. The DGLVR Program provides local road-owning entities with grant funding for road and environmental improvements on unpaved and low-volume (500 or fewer cars per day) paved roads.
"Reducing pollution in our water is a top goal of the Wolf Administration and I am proud to celebrate 25 years of making positive strides in addressing sediment runoff," Pennsylvania Department of Conversation and Natural Resources (DCNR) Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn said. "The collaborative conservation work that this anniversary honors is yet another example of how important it is that we work together to protect our planet in every way we can to ensure positive stewardship of our natural resources."
Since Wolf took office in 2015:
- The program has seen a funding increase from $5 million annually from 1997-2014 to $35 million annually beginning in 2015, leading to a $280 million investment in rural road conservation projects
- $20 million annually has been dedicated to unpaved public roads
- $8 million annually has been dedicated to paved public roads with 500 cars per day or less
- $7 million annually has been dedicated to DCNR for state park and forest roads
- 3,287 projects have been completed across the commonwealth since 2015 and 427 are currently contracted to be completed
The DGLVR Program is celebrating its 25th anniversary. In that time, nearly 65% of Pennsylvania townships have completed a project, for a total of 1,546 completed projects in 1,007 townships over the 25 years. In the 17 years prior to the Wolf Administration, the program invested $85 million in improvements to Pennsylvania dirt and gravel rural roads.
Redding's DGLVR Program tour Monday included three stops in northern Huntingdon County:
1. Red Rose Road, Barree Township: Red Rose Road was a severely entrenched roadway. The road elevation had been lowered over time by traffic, erosion, and maintenance activities. More than 1,200 feet of road was acting like a stream channel, collecting water from the surrounding land, and funneling it to the small stream below.
The best permanent solution was to restore a more natural drainage pattern by raising the road elevation. Several other environmentally conscious maintenance practices were also implemented.
2. Red Rose Road, Jackson Township: Red Rose Road was entrenched with one cross pipe that was often bypassed or clogged. Much of the drainage was trapped on the road and entered a nearby stream.
Seven new shallow cross pipes and one replacement were installed to disperse drainage.
3. Camp Road, Jackson Township: The twin 24-inch pipes in this stream were significantly undersized. They were prone to plugging in this 100% forested watershed, causing the stream wash out the road.
This stream crossing replacement project resulted in a 10-feet wide by 5-feet high plate arch buried into the stream channel, allowing for stream continuity, which means that fish, aquatic organisms, sediment, and even debris such as floating trees, are able to move naturally through the system. Providing stream continuity also greatly increases flow capacity and reduces the potential for catastrophic road damage as storms get more intense in the changing climate.
The State Conservation Commission and DCNR administer the DGLVR Program, with the Penn State Center for Dirt and Gravel Road Studies supporting the program's implementation.
Categories: Pennsylvania, General