PA: PRT will have about $85 million in capital projects over the next two years

Pittsburgh Regional Transit shifted $106.7 million in capital funds to cover operating expenses the next two years, but the agency will still spend about $85 million on service-related capital projects.

The agency is delaying other projects that don’t directly affect service, but by allocating costs to future years when work will be performed and counting money not spent on completed projects, it still has funds for projects that involve service and safety.

Non-service projects such as computer upgrades will be deferred.

Amy Silbermann, PRT’s chief development officer, told the board’s Planning & Stakeholder Relations Committee last week that the agency expects to spend about $23 million on capital items this year.

That will include projects to replace the track in the Mt. Lebanon Transit Tunnel, rehabilitating the Centre Avenue Bridge on the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway and the second year of work to grind the track on sections of the light rail system in the South Hillsto provide a smoother ride.

The agency also will advertise for bids to upgrade light rail stations at Dormont Junction and Station Square in the next couple of months, but that work may not start until 2027.

Also for 2027, about $62 million worth of projects will include beginning the $95 million rehabilitation of the Panhandle Bridge that carries light rail vehicles across the Monongahela River between Pittsburgh’s South Side and Downtown area.

Work to upgrade the Berry Street Tunnel along the Parkway West, an $11.7 million project expected to be awarded when the PRT board meets Friday, won’t start until early next year.

Continuing to grind different sections of light rail tracks the first two months of the year will continue and could finish in 2027.

Gov. Josh Shapiro approved shifting two years of state capital funds to cover operating expenses last year after the Legislature refused to approve additional state funds to subsidize public transit.

PRT and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, among other transit agencies across the state, faced hundreds of millions in budget deficits and would have made drastic service changes without the ability to use capital money for operating costs.

The hope is that the General Assembly will agree to increase the state subsidy before deficits resurface in two years.

Despite shifting funds away from capital work, Ms. Silbermann said the total for service-related work the next two years is more than the $78 million spent in 2024 ($43 million) and 2025 ($35 million).

The good news about the upcoming capital projects is that they will cause minimal delays for riders, Ms. Silbermann said. That’s starkly different from work last year on the Mount Washington Transit Tunnel, which shifted normal light rail and bus traffic to the Red Line through Allentown, and track work in Downtown that caused months of detours using shuttle buses.

Overall, Ms. Silbermann said the agency has about $2 billion worth of projects needed to keep the transit system in a “state of good repair,” and $1.8 billion of them are unfunded.

The agency has averaged spending about $100 million a year for capital projects, but the need grows about $80 million a year, so it’s very difficult to catch up on needed work.

Donminika Brown, PRT’s chief financial officer, detailed for the committee how the agency accounted for the $106.7 million shifted out of capital projects: $36.6 million not spent this year; $34.9 million in deferred work; $27.3 million in work that was canceled; and $7.9 million in unspent money from completed projects.

Part of the change involved accounting for the spending the year it occurs, rather than listing the full amount of a multiyear project in the first year. Additionally, future projects aren’t budgeted until the year the money is needed, Ms. Brown said.

Among the canceled projects were the purchase of 30 60-foot diesel buses; light rail station improvements in the South Hills; expansion of a park-and-ride lot in Ross, where demand has decreased since the pandemic; and a public address system at the Ross maintenance garage.

Deferred projects include preventive maintenance on bridges on the light rail system and East and West busways; work at the Hamnett and Wilkinsburg stations, as well as the Penn Avenue Bridge and Kelly Avenue and Race Street arch on the East Busway; and charging stations for electric buses.

Ms. Silbermann stressed that deferring or canceling projects is not a good approach for the agency to take because costs only get higher.

For example, when the agency started plans to upgrade the Panhandle Bridge more than five years ago, the expected cost was about $55 million. Now it’s about $95 million.

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