The roads and bridges in PennDOT District 9 are generally in good condition, especially along major corridors like I-99 and Route 22, but there are long-term concerns.

Those concerns center on “everywhere else” beyond the major corridors and also on a handful of major bridges, according to District 9 Executive Vince Greenland, speaking at the district’s annual Blair County Community Outreach on Monday.

Statewide, 22% of roads are in poor shape, but only 17% are poor in the six-county district — and only 6% are poor in Blair County; while statewide, 8% of bridges are in poor shape, but only 5% districtwide and only about 1% in Blair, according to Greenland.

The problem is the age of the infrastructure: the average road in the district was built in 1952, while the average bridge was built 50 years ago, according to Greenland.

The age of the infrastructure is problematic due to budget limitations.

This year, the district will spend $403 million — a 2% increase from the year before.

But construction cost inflation is 3.23% and the PennBid costs for materials like structural steel, concrete and asphalt have risen an annualized 6.45% since 2015, Greenland said

For small bridges that are PennDOT’s “bread and butter,” average total cost for replacement is about $1 million, with 65% of those costs in pre-constructions work — “to get (them) shovel-ready,” Greenland said.

“That’s a huge number,” he said.

Then there’s the cost of oil, which, due to the Iran War, is now over $100 a barrel.

That inflates the cost of asphalt and gasoline.

The last time the cost of oil was that high was in 2022, which led to District 9 having to pay a $3.6 million bump to contractors, due to bituminous and fuel price adjustment clauses that take out the bid risk for contractors.

The current expectation is that the bump this year will be between $1 million and $2 million, to account for the difference of the price of oil between when the jobs were bid last fall and the costs when construction occurs, Greenland said.

There’s also the huge cost of maintaining the district’s major assets.

Those are I-99, Route 22, I-70, Route 30 and Route 219.

The district has or will soon be investing a total of about $100 million in I-99 and $70 million on Route 22, for example, he said.

Because of the money devoted to these major assets, there’s not enough left over for paving the rest of the district’s highways.

Though those highways are generally in good shape, a third of the 4,000 miles are nevertheless on the “bubble” — between 20 and 25 years old, Greenland said.

The concern is what happens with them as they approach 30, he said.

Twenty-six years ago, the district paved 355 miles of highway.

Now, it struggles to approach 100 miles a year.

Ideally, to maintain a 20-year paving cycle, it would need to pave 258 miles.

The make-do strategy is a rigorous attention to seal-coating, officials said.

It costs $20,000 a mile to seal coat, but $175,000 a mile to pave, according to Blair County Maintenance Manager Jake Decker.

The district has increased its annual seal-coating mileage to 400 and is trying to do it every seven years, to extend road life as much as possible.

It generates complaints from people who don’t like stones hitting the underside of their vehicles immediately after seal coating projects.

But not doing it would be worse, Greenland implied.

In addition, there are several major bridges — 20,000 square feet of decking or more — that are in decent shape, but with age-related problems, including two of them in Blair County.

Repairing or replacing these bridges are far too expensive to do with one year’s bridge budget — Blair gets about $8 million annually for bridges — and so require planning over several years and perhaps supplementary grants.

One of them is the state-owned Eighth Street Bridge over the mainline tracks near UPMC Altoona.

It will cost $20 million to $25 million to replace, including costs for right-of-way acquisition, obtaining railroad easements, moving of utilities and plans for traffic control.

A study has begun to get a better idea of the costs and how to pay for them.

The other is the North Eighth Street Bridge in Juniata, also over the mainline tracks.

Beam ends on the bridge have severely deteriorated.

Replacing them might have meant a $6 million project.

But Norfolk Southern regulations for clearance between the top of the rails and the bottom of the beams have changed.

The rules now call for 22 feet — three feet more than under the current bridge.

That means raising the roadway three feet, and in turn, changes to industrial ground immediately to the west, on the Juniata side, and probably replacement of nearby bridges that carry North Eight Street over the former rail yard lines and the Little Juniata River, both of which parallel the mainline tracks.

The entire project could cost as much as $60 million.

There’s a study underway, with a report expected by the end of the year on the probable cost, methods of funding and possible grant opportunities.

As with seal coating to extend the life of roadways, the district is diligent with bridge maintenance.

Assistant District Executive for Design Jim Pruss outlined the district’s bridge maintenance program for municipal officials present at the meeting, encouraging them to adopt a similar protocol for their own locally owned bridges.

Preventive maintenance is preferable and less expensive than “reactive” maintenance, according to Pruss.

Budgets are tight and replacements and major rehabs are far costlier than cleaning drainage systems of salt and debris every spring to protect concrete and steel and sealing joints on a regular schedule to protect beams, he said.

“Keep good bridges good,” he said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.

PennDOT Project Highlights

Overall highlights in the 2026 construction season for District 9 (Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Fulton, and Huntingdon counties) include:

— Approximately 105 miles of paving.

— Approximately 89 bridges will be repaired or replaced.

— Approximately 396 miles of roadway will be seal coated.

Notable projects that will continue this year include:

Blair County

— Route 3013 (Dunnings Highway) over Dry Run and Blair Gap Run bridge replacements in Blair and Allegheny townships, $5.4 million.

Fulton County

— Interstate 70 eastbound resurfacing, Amaranth to Bedford in Bethel, Brush Creek, and Union townships, $19 million.

Notable projects that are expected to begin this year include:

Bedford County

— U.S. 30, Breezewood to Everett resurfacing in Everett Borough, East Providence Township, and West Providence Township, $14.2 million.

— U.S. 30, Scenic Road to Pitt Street resurfacing in Bedford Borough, $6.1 million.

— Route 4009 (William Penn Road), Quaker Valley Road to Brumbaugh Road resurfacing in Bedford and Saint Clair townships, $2.3 million.

Blair County

— Interstate 99, Sproul/Claysburg to Newry Pulloff resurfacing and bridge rehabilitations in Blair, Freedom, and Greenfield townships, $24 million.

— Route 453 (Jaynesville Pike), Interstate 99 to Beastons Road resurfacing and slope stabilization in Tyrone Borough and Snyder Township, $8.4 million.

— Route 36 (Logan Boulevard), U.S. 22 to Plank Road resurfacing in the City of Altoona, Hollidaysburg Borough, Allegheny Township, Logan Township, and Frankstown Township, $5.5 million.

— Route 866 (High Street & Piney Creek Road), Williamsburg Resurfacing in Woodbury Township and Williamsburg Borough, $2.6 million.

Cambria County

— U.S. 22, Route 164 to Blair County Line resurfacing in Cresson and Munster Townships, $11.6 million.

— Route 756, Alvin Street to Industrial Park Road resurfacing in Geistown Borough and Richland Township, $9.5 million.

— Route 3104 (Mount Airy Drive) over U.S. 219 bridge replacement in Richland Township, $2.3 million.

— Route 160 over Otto Run and South Fork Branch bridge replacements in Wilmore Borough and Adams, Croyle, and Summerhill townships, $3.5 million

Huntingdon County

— Route 655 (Big Valley Pike) over Tributary to Mill Creek culvert replacement in Brady Township, $1.4 million.

— Route 994 (Old Plank Road) over Tributary to Great Trough Creek culvert replacement in Todd Township, $800,000.