 This bridge affects me and my three neighbors. It's posted 10 ton and has a primary access in from the valley. The milk truck can't cross the bridge with any load at all and be legal. So for me, this means a detour of 10 miles, 20 miles round trip. At a cost of $1.10 a mile, that 20 miles really adds up and I have to pay for it. It's a cost I can't directly pass on so there goes a big chunk of my profit on each load. Ultimately that cost is passed on to the consumer somewhere along the line. How did this agri-access study begin? We started by defining a priority commercial network. Our governor, Dick Thornburg, has established economic development and community conservation as Pennsylvania's top priorities. We in the Department of Transportation responded by working with local officials to identify that network of highways that serves the greatest volumes of commercial and industrial traffic. We next identified the deficient bridges on this priority commercial network, those bridges that won't carry fully loaded trucks. In developing the priority commercial network, we discovered that the feeder roads to agricultural activity areas as well as to individual farms had been overlooked. Our initial effort did not completely address the basic transportation needs of agribusiness. We had missed a key element in the farm to market trip, namely access between agricultural activity areas and the priority commercial network. The Federal Highway Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture expressed an interest in developing a method to identify this missing element in the farm to market trip. We felt that the need was real not only in Pennsylvania but in other states. We're all aware of the importance of agriculture and agribusiness in our economy and our need for information from all sectors of the economy to develop and prioritize programs that will encourage economic development in rural Pennsylvania. Agriculture and agribusiness represent one of the largest single industries in the state of Pennsylvania as well as in other states across the nation. In Pennsylvania there are 61,000 family farms which harvest and market nearly $3 billion worth of crops and livestock. One out of every five jobs in Pennsylvania is involved in some segment of agribusiness. Agriculture and agribusiness are vital to the economic welfare of the state. The network of roadways and bridges that form the extensive transportation system in the state has significant impact on the growth and development of agriculture and the state's economy. Much of Pennsylvania is mountainous with many rivers and streams. There are approximately 56,000 bridges, half are owned by the state, the other half by counties, municipalities and railroads. Many rural roads and bridges were constructed at a time when the demands in terms of weight and size of vehicles were much less than they are today. Insufficient roadways and structurally deficient or weight restricted bridges divert the transportation of produce, products and services. This in turn hinders economic growth and development, adding costs that ultimately must be paid by the consumer. In December of 1982 an agriculture transportation task force was formed, composed of participants from federal, state and local governments, various farm organizations from across the state and the Pennsylvania State University Extension Service. On the state level both the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Transportation were aware of the many problems concerning rural access. Primarily I'm talking about narrow or weight restricted bridges that hindered the movement of farm to market products and services. But this is the first time such a large and diverse group was pulled together to study the problem in depth. We had 16 people on the task force representing many governmental and private agencies. There were participants from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, the Federal Highway Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Pennsylvania State University Extension Service, the Economic Development Committee of the Governor's Office, the Pennsylvania Farmers Union, the Pennsylvania Farmers Association, the Pennsylvania State Grange, the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors and the Pennsylvania Forest Products Industry. What was the next step? I guess what I'm asking is how did you arrive at a method for the study? We had to develop a system for the study. First we had to establish what information we needed. Second, what criteria we needed to identify that information. And third, how to get the information from the field. As a work base we had the advantage of a previous statewide study, the Priority Commercial Network or PCN. It's a detailed network identification of the highways carrying 500 or more trucks per day or serving as connectors for specific regional industries like coal. Highlighting this network of highways used frequently by commercial truck traffic helps the department to pinpoint deficiencies which deter commerce. This network is generally composed of the Federal-aid primary system. In Pennsylvania, 75% of the PCN falls into this category. The PCN helped us map the agri-access pilot study because the people responding did not have to identify an entire commercial access network. Most of the system was already identified and marked for them. Actually there were two tests to identify which roads were most important in providing access between the farm areas and the PCN and to identify the obstructions that most affect the rural economy. You referred to this as a pilot study. Why did you begin with a pilot study? Rather than attempt something statewide, the task force decided to study two counties. Both have agricultural economies. One county is populated and prosperous. The other is remote. The economy is more fragile. This approach gave us the two extremes as a test not only for the data we needed but also for the process we designed for obtaining and evaluating the data. How did you identify and locate the people you wanted to respond to the study? Well, we decided the most effective way to identify major agricultural activity and essential farm roads and obstructions was to draw upon the knowledge of the local farm and planning organizations. Pennsylvania, like most states, has cooperative extension agency offices and contacts with local people in each county. We asked them to coordinate the agricultural leadership in order to reach the local farmers and businesses directly. They are the ones who know best which roads and bridges affect the economy of their areas. This is a shortcut between Route 6 and Route 15 in this area and it's traveled an awful lot by all types of vehicles. And there's three bridges in there that just aren't up to standard to the rest of the road. And in a couple cases in here that there's farmers, I believe you'll find that lay right between these bridges. And legally, all milk trucks can't even go in there empty and get their products out. Do you think this is an effective way for us to get the type of input from the farmer that we need on roads and bridges in the area? Well, I sure do. I would think that's the best approach because I don't think that anyone would know better what bridges are giving the farmers problem, especially the farmer problem, because we're the ones that use them and I appreciate this approach to ask our opinion on this. Roads and bridges are essential. And if you don't come out and ask the farmers and the rural businessmen which bridges need to be fixed, you'll never know where all of them are. Here are the two counties we studied, Tioga to the north and Lancaster in the south. Tioga County is beautiful country, remote and mountainous, with lots of dairy farming and some lumbering. Lancaster County in the south is flat, generously populated with rich soil and a lot of diversified agriculture. Most people know it for its picturesque Amish farms. Here is the priority commercial network in Yellow and this is what we call the Agra Access Network, highlighted in green. And here are the bridge obstructions that were identified in the study. The bridges were already identified and coded in the state's bridge inventory. There are over 100 data items for each bridge. What we gained from this study is knowledge of which bridge obstructions have the greatest effect upon the agricultural economy. Here is Tioga County. Notice the sparse roadway network. A detour can be a real problem up here. We found one detour caused by a poster bridge which took truckers off an important route for a total of 56 miles. Here is the priority commercial network, the Agra Access Network and the bridge obstructions. When you do a study like this, you learn a lot of things you don't expect to learn. I already mentioned the 56 mile detour in Tioga County, but we also learned a lot more about service and emergency traffic in rural areas. We started in here about 30 years ago and got into the farm agricultural line of stuff. Started out with the weld and shop, then we got into barn cleaners and farm supplies. Then that got us into the cement business. So it just kept increasing in size until we take more concrete and stuff. So we kept getting bigger trucks and trying to work along with it. There used to be a little farm of 20 cows starting out. Now they're talking about the average 70 to 100 cows dairy. The bridges and things back when we started was heavy enough. But now the trucks and everything is getting to where you got a haul of big loads in your bridges and things are all too small. But a lot of those bridges we can't even cross are the empty trucks, let alone loaded ones. The biggest problem we have with the posted roads and bridges and the effect that we cannot be very efficient in a way that we're handling ag products to the farm. Since that is 90% of our business we have to detour because of these bridges. We have added cost to the product that we're delivering to the farm. And in such we're raising the price of the goods to the farmer which also would be rising the price of the goods to the ultimate consumer. You get into a timely business like lime or fertilizer spreading in the spring where the ground is fit, the whole farming community is ready to plant corn. We've got to get lime and fertilizer on those fields and then we're faced with a bridge problem. We can't get to that man's farm so rather than taking one load out to that man's farm we have to go with two. So we're getting farther behind what do we do to offset this inefficiency that we're forced with is added cost. Added cost to everybody that's ultimately going to be using that milk or those grain products. That's the biggest problem we have is efficiency. We had no fire protection for the people on the lower end of the garden branch. The bridge is posted for 10 tons and their equipment weighs more than that. It's a county bridge that's between Lake Humming County and Tiled County. We've got a low drawer by the name of Sam Cousier that lives down the road here about a quarter of a mile. He's got a rotary that weighs at least 22 tons. He can't get that in and out of his shop. Most of his work is for the farmers, probably 70 to 80 percent of it. It's down to this bridge, he's got other problems with other bridges too, the weight of it. The single axle delivery truck is almost a thing of the past, although there's plenty on the road yet. But by volume most of it is delivered either on a tandem or triple axle straight truck or a semi truck hauling 22 tons, grossing 70,000, 70,000, whatever they're allowed, I'm not sure. Near the maximum limit. Yeah, maximum limit. And the roads that they have to use to get here, of course, are big consideration in their part. From the point of view of the rural resident or the farmer, how is this study different from other studies that have been done to improve bridges and roads? I believe that probably for the first time the farmer out there, the rural resident who has to live with great problems and bridges in the roads, had an opportunity to be directly involved in the process in the study. And as a task force member, I could see a positive change in attitude occurring as what was happening in the task force work was being transmitted to the farmer. We saw these people actually feeling that what they could contribute was going to have a direct positive effect. And we saw an improvement in attitude towards the state, towards the Department of Transportation, towards the Department of Agriculture, because they've been asked to point out the problems that they have to live with with a real expectation that they're going to get improvements from that. What are the most significant aspects of the study? First, of course, has to be the task force. The diversity of the participants in the spirit of cooperation throughout the study was really exceptional. In many cases, when we sent out the preliminary base maps, we got responses within days. We refined, correlated, and sent it out for a second time for verification. This whole process, from the initial task force meeting to the publication of the pilot study results, took only six months. Another important aspect is the fact that this study was done within existing resources. We received no special budget appropriation and added no people to our especially lean planning staff. By careful management, we were able to defer some lower priority work and reassign two people to this effort. Much of the work was voluntary, with numerous organizations and individuals contributing simply because they felt the work was important. I think another very important aspect of this study, and the way it was shaped and conducted, was the fact that the PennDOT and Department of Agriculture folks involved the general farm organizations directly. There are real benefits, I think, in that not only do you get the direct participation of these organizations in the project itself, but those departments in the state generally will have gained enhanced appreciation of what they do from these organizations. After all, general farm organizations like many other similar organizations, they are lobbying entities, they are politically oriented entities. They are out there in the community in those ways having an impact. I think that PennDOT and the Department of Agriculture are going to see beneficial ripple effects beyond this study as a result of having flattered, if you will, these organizations, but in the best sense, having asked them to participate in an important project, they're going to get continued support. Through this study, we were able to develop criteria for identifying major agricultural activity areas, defining the basic transportation network serving these areas, and locating critical obstructions to the efficient movement of associated agricultural supplies and products. Analysis of the required database provided the kind of information decision makers needed to make informed decisions. We were confident that the projects selected for immediate action were truly the highest priority as far as the agricultural community was concerned. Before PennDOT, it was a little maybe hard to get to consider rural areas because it seemed like they put the money where the people were and the people living in the cities are near the suburban areas. And to get some more money into the agricultural area, I think it has helped and I think PennDOT has been very realistic and has been making some effort to communicate with the agricultural segment because after all, agricultural is the number one business in Pennsylvania now. When you get down to the interconnected network in the rural areas, it's difficult for us setting at a district office level, almost impossible for those setting at our central office level, to really establish priorities based on which roads are most important to the people that they serve. And through establishment of this network, those routes that are most critical will be defined. And this will be a tremendous tool to me in prioritizing bridge improvement and replacement projects. Perhaps most important of all, we now have in Pennsylvania a responsive communication network. We can continuously monitor the condition of our highways and bridges. We can update our available database and we can evaluate our progress in carrying out Pennsylvania's Agra Access Improvement Program. I believe the establishment of a network was really just the first step, getting to know the locals and them getting to know us. And I'm very certain that it'll have long-range benefits and increased communications between the various Agra business organizations and indeed individuals. I think it has made us more comfortable knowing that there is someone up there that we can contact and we have learned to know you and several others personally and this gives us a very good feeling about what is happening in Harrisburg. We feel that the government is out there trying to do some good for the farmers. A large part of the success of this study rests with support from all levels of government. At the federal level, the Federal Highway Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. At the state level, the Secretary of Transportation and the Secretary of Agriculture. And at the local level, county commissioners and township supervisors. Here are the highlights of the Pennsylvania Agra Access Study. A task force was formed, composed of various federal, state and local representatives of agencies concerned with transportation and agricultural issues. Their first priorities were to select an advisory steering committee and to develop a method for the study. The pilot study of two counties was a collective effort utilizing existing resources. In a product sense, the results were a more complete database for decision making, the establishment of a continuing communication network and a commitment to follow up. In the fall of 1983, the pilot study results were presented to the Pennsylvania Secretaries of Transportation and Agriculture and to the various governmental and private agencies involved. Within nine months from the initiation of the pilot study, the decision was made to implement the study on a county by county statewide basis. Within 18 months from the initiation of the pilot study, deficiencies identified by this study and the subsequent statewide study will have been addressed in the Transportation Department's annual improvement program. As a result of the pilot study, 27 deficient bridges in Tioga County and 25 deficient bridges in Lancaster County have already been identified and are being considered for improvement in the current program update. This cooperative and dedicated effort will have direct and long-lasting impact upon the economy of the state of Pennsylvania. If you'd like more information on the Pennsylvania Agra Access Network Study, please contact Harvey Hack, Deputy Secretary for Transportation Planning, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, 1200 Transportation and Safety Building, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 17120.