User Rating: / 1
PoorBest 

Thursday, 09 February 2012 13:44

Written by Jon Schmitz

Let's deal with a couple FAQs.

Q: Why did the reopening date for Route 65 at Marshall Avenue get pushed back to Labor Day? When PennDOT announced that the detour there would stay in place this winter, it said it would reopen by early summer.

A: This was a misunderstanding. Project managers told the PennDOT press office that keeping the detour in place for the winter would save two months at the end of the project, allowing it to reopen around August. The press office misinterpreted the information to mean the original completion date was in August, and that the work would be done two months before that -- hence early summer. The actual completion deadline is early November; subtract two months and you get the correct reopening time around Labor Day. The project is actually a bit ahead of schedule because of the mild winter. Spokesman Jim Struzzi, a stand-up guy, says it's his fault.

Q: Why didn't the drink tax solve Port Authority's financial problems?

A: Because the Port Authority got almost no new revenue from it. The beneficiary of the tax is Allegheny County, which uses the tax to pay the local match of the authority's state funding. It formerly used property taxes to pay the match. The Port Authority is getting essentially the same level of funding -- it's just coming out of a different county pocket. Read this for a fuller explanation.

Receipt image: douglasderda.com

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

@pgtraffic on Twitter

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed