Agriculture Highlights Improvements to Pennsylvania’s Dirt and Gravel Roads 

Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding toured three Dirt, Gravel, and Low Volume Roads (DGLVR) projects yesterday that improve Pennsylvania’s rural roads while reducing their environmental impacts. The stops were in Barree and Jackson townships in Huntingdon County. Click here to read about the road projects. Click here for pictures of the projects. 

“We’re celebrating a partnership of the Departments of Agriculture and Conservation and Natural Resources and Penn State, conservation districts, and townships that has made our rural roads better and our streams cleaner,” said Redding. “Gov. Wolf increased funding from $5 million annually to $35 million annually in 2015, which was a critical turning point for this program and meeting both Pennsylvania’s infrastructure and climate goals.” 

Pennsylvania has approximately 23,000 miles of dirt and gravel public roads, many of which are close to streams and are potential sources of sediment runoff pollution. The DGLVR Program provides local road-owning entities with grant funding for road and environmental improvements on unpaved and low-volume (500 or fewer cars per day) paved roads. 

The DGLVR Program is celebrating its 25th anniversary. In that time, nearly 65% of Pennsylvania townships have completed a project, for a total of 1,546 completed projects in 1,007 townships over the 25 years.