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Josephs applauds PennDOT secretary for agreeing to release bridge safety records to public

HARRISBURG, Aug. 8 – As many Pennsylvania drivers question the safety of the state's bridges, state Rep. Babette Josephs said she was very pleased that the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation plans to make the state's bridge inspection records available to the public.

Josephs, D-Phila., also commended Transportation Secretary Allen Biehler for his decision to attend the House State Government Committee's hearing on open records Tuesday.

Biehler originally said that he could not attend the hearing due to scheduling problems, which drew criticism from Josephs, who chairs the State Government Committee. She said that having open records is especially important when public safety is involved, adding that the question of bridge safety has come to the forefront after the Minnesota bridge collapse.

"This is exactly the kind of situation in which the public should have quick and easy access to the information that affects them day in and day out," Josephs said. "There is no reason for PennDOT to keep this information locked up. Millions of Pennsylvanians cross our bridges every day with the assumption and expectation that they are safe.

"Secretary Biehler made two good decisions," she said. "He made the right choice to come to the hearing, and he made the right choice to open those records to the public."

At the hearing, Biehler said that structural-safety ratings for the 25,000 state-owned bridges will be released to the public once the data is arranged in an easier-to-understand format. It will then be posted on PennDOT's Web site, www.dot.state.pa.us. Bridges will be rated on a scale from 9 to 0, with 9 being the best and 0 being the worst.

"I am a firm believer that every citizen has a right to know what the government is doing, and bridge inspection records certainly should be public knowledge," Josephs said.

Josephs, who has long been an advocate for open records and legislative reform, said House Democrats have made reforming the state's open-records law a priority for the fall legislative session.