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The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) oversees transportation issues in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The administrator of PennDOT is the Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation, currently Leslie Richards. Presently, PennDOT supports over of state roads and highways, about 25,000 bridges, as well as new roadway construction, the exception being the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, although they currently follow PennDOT policies and procedures. In addition, other modes of transportation are supervised or supported by PennDOT. These include aviation, rail traffic, mass transit, intrastate highway shipping traffic, motor vehicle safety & licensing, and driver licensing. PennDOT also supports the Ports of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Erie. The current budget is approximately $3.8 billion in federal and state funds. The state budget is supported by the motor vehicle fuels tax which is dedicated solely to transportation issues. In recent years, PennDOT has focused on intermodal transportation. This is a broad attempt to enhance both commerce and public transportation. PennDOT employs approximately 11,000 people. PennDOT has extensive traffic cameras set up throughout various parts of major cities in the state, such as Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Allentown (Lehigh Valley), and Luzerne County. The latter's cameras are actually fed through to a television channel for Service Electric cable customers in Wilkes-Barre. These cameras are primarily installed for ITS purposes, not for law enforcement (as opposed to speed cameras). ==History== The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation was created from the former Department of Highways by Act 120, approved by the legislature on May 6, 1970. The intent of the legislation was to consolidate transportation-related functions formerly performed in the Departments of Commerce, Revenue, Community Affairs, Forests and Waters, Military Affairs and other state agencies. PennDOT is responsible for constructing and maintaining a system of roads at the sole expense of the state. It controls more than of roadway. Townships control approximately of roads and streets; boroughs, and cities . In all, there are more than of public roads, streets and toll roads in the Commonwealth. Greatest growth in the state highway system occurred in 1931 when of rural roads were taken over by the Commonwealth. At that time, the Department of Highways, at the direction of Governor Gifford Pinchot, embarked upon an extensive program of paving rural roadways, well known as the "get the farmer out of the mud" program. The Federal Government in 1916 instituted grants to the states for highway construction. These grants continue today and now comprise the key element in determining the size of the state's roadbuilding programs. State payments to local communities for road maintenance also have continued to expand so that they average approximately $170 million annually. The agency went into well-noted organizational decline. An effort to bring quality management principles to PENNDOT over an extended period--four changes of state governor--accomplished a great deal. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pennsylvania Department of Transportation」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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