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Infrastructure Interview with PA Sec. of Transportation

In other State Headlines, Infrastructure has been in the spotlight this year. Samantha York sat down in an exclusive one-on-one interview with the Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation to discuss what developments we saw this year and a look ahead.

Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Yassmin Gramian saying: “The infrastructure of the state and many states is old we had many many challenges specifically in Pennsylvania with our bridges”

Samantha York asking: What grade would you give the states roads and bridges at this point?

Gramian saying: “I think we are not doing any better than see some areas C, C minus we are having Challenges with the resiliency the climate change has caused us a lot of money to repair to replace our infrastructure because they were not built for the current climate we got all kinds of severe storms in an unexpected time of the year it leaves us with a lot of money that we have to spend we have to take it from our maintenance funds and spend to fix those assets”

York: How much have labor shortages in supply chain shortage is impacted the projects that you’re working on the timelines?

Gramian saying: “Timeline remains to be seen We are probably going to see it in the next year because right now the active projects are the ones that were bit before and the materials are in place spending has gone up but it’s not proportional to the number of the projects the cost of material are going up we have to be competitive with the free market we have to be competitive with the private sector we are actually functioning with 1000 employees less than previous years so you can imagine and we are doing more work and we’re putting out more construction projects and we are managing more projects”

York: How have you seen the infrastructure across the state change and grow in the last 10, 20, 30 years?

Gramian saying: “One aspect of transportation that we are putting a lot of emphasis over the past I would say eight years to build communities access is big part of it but bringing businesses into those communities is another big part creating a prosperous economy through investment into transportation”

Looking ahead to next year, the State’s Secretary of Transportation wants to see more Tech come into play to reduce costs. She says the Department has shifted toward using Augmented Reality and drones to present projects.

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