Union's sign campaign takes aim at poor bridges
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This is one of the Laborers' International Union's billboards in its campaign to urge federal and state lawmakers to increase spending on transportation. Twelve signs will be placed near structurally deficient bridges in the Pittsburgh area; this one is on Saw Mill Run Boulevard.
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A billboard campaign that starts today will try to spur federal and state lawmakers into increasing funding for transportation and infrastructure projects.
The Laborers' International Union of North America is paying for a dozen billboards, all placed near structurally deficient bridges, advising drivers that they are crossing, or just crossed, a substandard bridge.
The signs urge motorists to call U.S. Sens. Bob Casey and Arlen Specter or a toll-free number for state lawmakers in support of increasing spending on roads and bridges.
"We think the bridges are a really good conversation starter. People can understand the economic and safety issues of an unsafe bridge," union spokesman David Miller said.
"We don't mean to alarm people, but this is a very serious issue that needs a lot more attention," he said.
The union didn't have to scour the landscape for places to post the signs. More than 400 of the 1,566 state and locally owned bridges in Allegheny County -- about 28 percent -- are rated structurally deficient.
Pennsylvania leads the U.S. with about 5,600 structurally deficient bridges -- about a quarter of the bridges in the state.
Long-term transportation funding has been stalled in Washington and Harrisburg.
Congress is more than a year late in enacting a new six-year transportation authorization measure. The state Legislature has done nothing to address a $472 million funding shortfall caused by Pennsylvania's failure to win federal approval to impose tolls on Interstate 80.
In both places, lawmakers have been averse to raising taxes or fees to increase spending on roads and bridges, despite numerous studies that say the nation's infrastructure is falling into deep disrepair.
First Published October 25, 2010 12:00 am
