BRADY TWP — The state Department of Transportation will use an increase in funding from Act 89 this year to make numerous repairs to roads in Butler County.

PennDOT announced its construction plans through 2017 on Thursday at its annual outreach meeting at the Jennings Environmental Education Center.

A main focus of the department will continue to be structurally deficient bridges in the state.

Joseph Dubovi, the district executive for District 10, said there are 76 deficient state bridges in Butler County, roughly 21 percent of its state bridges in the county.

Bridge replacement has been perhaps the key goal of the state since 2006, when more regulations greatly increased the number of deficient bridges statewide.

District 10 had 574 deficient bridges that year. It is down to 368 this year.

District 10 also includes Armstrong, Clarion, Indiana and Jefferson counties.

“Hopefully we can continue to reduce that number,” Dubovi said. “The problem is, on top of the work we’ve done, all of our other bridges are still aging.”

The average age of bridges in the state is 51 years.

While bridge replacement has been the center of attention for years, where the state has been lacking is in road repaving.

“We’ve been putting band aids over the last few years with our roads as we focused on our bridges,” Dubovi said.

But PennDOT received $600 million statewide in additional funding this year as a result of Act 89, which increases fuel taxes and various motorist fines and fees.

Dubovi said the extra money will allow the state to focus on fixing its bumpy roads.

Most of the roads in need are secondary roads that have fewer than 2,000 vehicles per day.

The county had a little more than 200 miles of poor roads in 2012, with more than 150 of them being secondary roads.

“We tend to focus on the roads that have the most traffic,” Dubovi said. “So it’s our secondary system that’s really suffering.”

Butler will have 18 miles of paving through four projects this year. All four of its resurfacing projects were a result of Act 89 funds. The county will have 13 total PennDOT projects completed this year.

Dubovi said one of the key improvements from Act 89 is the ability to keep state roads on cycle.

“Typically roads are repaved every 10 years,” he said. “Recently we’ve been stretching that out to 14 or 15 years.”

The particularly cold winter has made the extra money for repaving timely for the state.

While crews worked extensively, the roads still fell victim to the harsh cold and are riddled with potholes.

“We used about 815 ton of patching material last year,” said Bob Skrak, the county maintenance manager for PennDOT. “We’ll probably use twice as much this year.”

Skrak said the winter was tough on his crews.

“My father always told me winters get tougher when you get old,” he joked. “They’re certainly getting tougher.”

2014 projects

Here is what PennDOT will do this year in the county:

The $14.1 million project to replace the two Interstate 79 bridges over Route 422 in Muddy Creek Township will conclude in October.

Work on the project began last year.

The project also includes reconstruction of ramps and roads at the interchange, new overhead sign structures, and other improvements. The contractor is the Trumbull Corp. of Pittsburgh.

Replacement of the Route 228 bridge over CSX/B&O Railroad and Breakneck Creek in Adams Township will be completed by early August.

Work on the nearly $12.9 million project began in 2012. The project is being done by the Joseph B. Fay Co. of Tarentum.

Nearly $14.8 million worth of improvements to the interchange ramps at Route 228 and Interstate 79 in Cranberry Township will be finished by the end of October.

The Swank Construction Co. of New Kensington began work on the interchange in 2012.

The Kittanning Street Bridge in Butler will close in June to be replaced this summer. It will reopen in October.

The Mekis Construction Corp. of Fenelton will construct the $2.3 million project.

Mekis Construction also will replace two bridges along Mars Evans City Road and Myoma Road over Breakneck Creek in Adams Township.

The $1.2 million project will be finished by the end of October.

Intersection improvements will be completed at the Route 19, Freedom Road, Route 228 Intersection in Cranberry Township.

This included the addition of dual left turn, through, and right turn lanes in all four directions, allowing signal timing to be optimized.

S.E.T. will construct the $3.6 million project.

It is expected to be finished by mid-November.

A 3.5-mile section of Route 228 will be resurfaced between Saxonburg Boulevard and Route 356 in Clinton and Buffalo townships.

The $2.2 million project will be completed by the Derry Construction Co. of Latrobe.

A 3.6-mile stretch of Route 422 between Route 528 and the Mt. Chestnut Bridge in Franklin Township will be resurfaced this summer by the end of August. Glenn O. Hawbaker of Harrisville will complete the $2.1 million project.

A Route 8 bridge over Butcher Run in Butler Township will have deck resurfacing done. The $411,000 project will be completed by C.H. & D. Enterprises of New Stanton.

A 3.9 mile section of Route 356 between Green Manor Drive and Route 8 in Summit and Butler Township will be resurfaced by August. The project is expected to cost $1.8 million.

Little Creek Road in Lancaster Township will be resurfaced.

The project is estimated to cost about $4 million. Paving will span 3.4 miles.

Interstate 79 will have various joint repairs done in different townships.

There will be three traffic signal upgrades in the county, including at Route 19 and Route 228 in Cranberry Township; Route 8 and Route 68 in Butler; and along Route 356 in Buffalo Township.

The projects will cost $780,000.

Bronder Technical Services of Prospect will complete the work by the end of the year.