CHARLESTON — The Senate Transportation and Infrastructure gave its thumbs-up on Tuesday to a resolution calling on Congress to raise interstate highway weight limits in the state, and a bill to create a grant fund for local water and sewer pipeline projects.
Division of Highways Deputy Highway Engineer Greg Bailey told the committee that DOH has already informed federal authorities about the weight limit request.
The resolution, SCR 7, would call on Congress to align the interstate highway weight limit with the U.S. highway weight limit.
Bailey explained that the limit for both is 80,000 pounds. But the U.S. highway limit includes a 10 percent tolerance allowance that raises the limit to 88,000 pounds, with specifications for axle alignments. DOH would like that same tolerance for the interstates, he said.
Bailey said interstate bridges and U.S. highway bridges are designed the same and can bear the same weights and axle configurations.
Because the feds have to approve any weight limit changes, Bailey said, DOH and the Senators who sponsored the resolution believed this would be a more effective means of gaining approval.
This way, he said, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration can send all its questions to DOH up front and get them answered. This would be more efficient than changing trying to change state code and then waiting to see what the feds do.
The resolution passed in a voice vote and goes to the full Senate. Because it’s a concurrent resolution, it will also go to the House.
Infrastructure fund
SB 500 is called the Sewer and Water Infrastructure Replacement and Rehabilitation Act (SWIRRA) and proposes a Sewer and Water Infrastructure Replacement and Rehabilitation Fund.
Money for the SWIRRA fund would come from surplus revenues at the end of each fiscal year. Now, 50 percent of every surplus goes into the Rainy Day Fund and the remainder goes back into the General Fund for appropriation — typically for one-time expenditures.
The SWIRRA fund would take half of that remainder — in other words, 25 percent of any end-of-year surplus. The West Virginia Investment Management Board must invest the first $100 million deposited into the SWIRRA fund; no grant money can be offered until the fund reaches that level.
Once grant money is available, any qualifying governmental agency may apply for money for eligible projects. An agency may include a water or sewer association, a public service district or a regional authority such as Morgantown Utility Board.
An eligible project is to replace or rehabilitate pipelines for systems built more than 30 years before the time of the grant application.
The bill goes into lengthy detail on the grant process.
Deputy Revenue Secretary Mark Muchow told the members it could take a long time to build the fund. Las fiscal year’s surplus would have put only $9 million into it.
Sen. Robert Plymale, D-Wayne, is a co-sponsor of the introduced bill but is worried that some of the changes in the committee substitute make it impractical. For instance, the original bill sent any excess surplus when the Rainy Day Fund exceeds 17 percent of General Revenue to the SWIRRA fund.
“I can’t see this will ever generate enough money to do anything,” he said.
He also was concerned about some of the procedural details. For instance, it splits grants equally among the three Congressional districts although the greatest problems are in the south.
“I just think this is very cumbersome, the way it is set up,” he said.
He proposed a failed amendment to allot grant money according to need.
Wayne Morgan, executive director of the Infrastructure and Jobs Development Council, expressed confidence that the bill will help repair some deteriorating, outdated systems.
Despite his concerns, Plymale joined the other members to vote for the bill. It goes next to the full Senate.
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