June 25, 2026 · TRANSPORTATION · 1,226 words · 4 speakers · 11 segments
Good morning, everyone. I call this meeting the House Transportation Meeting to order. The meeting is being broadcast and recorded for the members' information. Evan, can you please take roll?
Chairman Nielsen.
Here.
Bellman. Curry. Designation. Guzman. Designation. Hohenstein. Designation. Isaacson. Madsen. Designation. Mazzacco. McAndrew. Present. Mullins. Here. O'Mara. Designation. Powell. Powell. Zappi. Schusterman. Designation. Chairman Benninghoff. Designation. Bernstein. Designation. Devonzo. Designation. Blood. Designation. Ham. Here. Labs. Brink-Havage. Designation. Schurin. Here. Schaefer. Designation. Smith. Stambaugh. Here. Tomlinson. Designation online, yes. Thanks.
We have a quorum. The chair calls up Senate Bill 1377, printers number 1798, introduced by Senator Judy Ward. Kyle, please give us a description of the bill.
Senate Bill 1377 by Senator Judy Ward. This bill creates a new chapter in the Vehicle Code to authorize the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to use design, build, best value procurement. Currently all contract construction work performed by the commission must be contracted solely by low bid procurement The Commission may only use Design Build Best Value if it is determined that a highway or bridge project would benefit due to project complexity potential for innovation unique equipment specialized systems project risk project schedule and or estimated project value. The commission may advertise no more than 10 one-step procurements per calendar year where the agent where the commission seeks a technical and price proposal. The commission may advertise no more than 10 two-step procurements per calendar year where step one is a statement of qualifications, and step two is a technical and price proposal. An evaluation committee must review and score the proposals. Alternative technical concepts, if any, must be submitted by the offerer to the commission on or before the due date established by the request for proposal. An alternative technical concept is a proposed variance from the contractual requirements or request for proposal that is equal to or better than the requirements in the request for proposal document. Stipends are determined by the commission on a project-by-project basis solely for two-step procurements, the Separations Act, Prevailing Wage Act, and certain provisions of the procurement code are applicable to this new chapter. This design bill best value procurement may not be exercised beginning four years after the effected date of this chapter. This legislation is similar to House Bill 1608 by Chairman Nielsen and Chairman Struzzi, which passed the House 191-12 on October 1st, 2025, with no further action. The only differences are this bill excludes PennDOT, only authorize design bill best value for the Turnpike Commission for four years, prohibits stipends for one-step procurements, and prohibits an unsuccessful offerer from receiving more than one stipend over the lifetime of the bill. This bill passed the Senate 49 to 0. This bill is supported by the Administration, Turnpike Commission, Council of General Contractors, and Aggregates and Concrete Association. There are no amendments filed to the bill. The question is, will the committee report the bill?
I asked the members to support the bill. About eight months ago, the House passed legislation offered by myself and Chairman Jim Scheruzzi to allow design-build best value procurement for road and bridge projects. The bill passed overwhelmingly in a bipartisan majority of 191 to 12. The bill continues to sit in the Senate. The will before us today from the Senate is missing many of the provisions the House approved with a bipartisan majority While I have disagreements with the proposal as it sits today I will be supporting it today and continue to push this important discussion forward. I also hope that we can have soon serious discussions with the Senate about allowing PennDOT to take advantage of this tool so they too can deliver road and bridge projects faster for the communities, not just the turnpike. I want to thank Senator Judy Ward and her staff for their efforts in this issue in the Senate. I ask for an affirmative vote. Any other questions or comments on the Senate bill? Chairman Benninghoff.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I echo a lot of your comments, and I would encourage the Senate when this bill returns, maybe they consider putting your bill in it, and we'd have a good complete package. But at the end of the day, we want to do what's best for our construction, best for our taxpayers who are paying us, and I think these new initiatives are very helpful and purposeful. Thank you.
Thank you, Chairman. Representative Sherwin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Based on your comments that you just made a moment ago, would you be able to clarify? I see that in the notes that ABC, they weren't able to find out. They had originally considered that some of the terminology in this bill was best value was too broad. Was it fixed in your bill? Or in other words, I'm just trying to understand what you were just saying. some of the provisions were addressed. So the provisions in the original bill at a pen dot within it, this is actually a portion of that bill that came out and became a separate bill. The ABC are in support of this bill. We have no written confirmation, but I have verbal confirmation that they are in support, as well as some of the other stakeholders that were questioning the verbiage a little bit and have all worked those differences out last night. and they're ready for it to roll. I got to say because we were on the phone all last night about this trying to make sure the chamber was on board and different stakeholders to make sure everybody on board to actually explain some of the verbiage because it gets confusing for everybody But thank you for your question. Good to know. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Any other comments or questions on Senate Bill 1377? Seeing none, a vote will now be taken. All those in favor will be voting A. Those opposed, nay. Are there any negative votes on Senate Bill 1377? Seeing none. 1377 will be reported as committed. The next item on our agenda, we call up House Bill 22227, printers number 2918, introduced by Representative Frank Burns. Kyle, can you please give us a brief description of the bill?
House Bill 2227 by Representative Frank Burns. This bill designates a bridge carrying Pennsylvania Route 271 over a tributary of Blacklake Creek in Blacklake Township, Cambria County, as the Martin J. Cupchella Memorial Bridge. PennDOT must post signs displaying the name of the bridge to traffic in both directions on the bridge. There are no amendments filed to the bill.
Thank you, Kyle. I ask the members to support the bill. A floor amendment is being developed to add additional road and bridge namers. We are quickly running this out of session days, so we need to position this legislation to make certain that we don't run out of time. I ask all the members to support the bill. Any other questions or comments on House Bill 2227? are there any negative votes on 2227 seeing on house bill 2227 will be reported as committed thank you all for your patience i appreciate you making your way over here and attending today's meeting and all the work you've done throughout this budget season we'll see you over have a great weekend see you monday this meeting is adjourned Thank you.