U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg visited Pittsburgh Thursday to tour some of the cities bridges and promote President Biden's American Jobs Plan.
"It was a great opportunity for us to talk about the bridges in Pennsylvania," Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation Yassmin Gramian said during the KDKA Radio Morning Show Friday.
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There are almost 1200 bridges in the Pittsburgh area, and many of them are in need of upgrades.
"30% of them are in deficient condition, or poor condition, and it really needs to be addressed. It's one of the highest in the nation," Gramian explains.
There were other discussions that took place, as well. One being how the renovations would be funded.
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"Really the point we were trying to make in our conversations was the value of our infrastructure, the need of our infrastructure and we also talked about the revenue that's being generated to address the needs of the infrastructure," Gramian said.
Pennsylvania's transportation leader said she is counting on the federal government to come up with funding to address the transportation needs, and generating new sources of revenue within Pennsylvania.
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"You either have to increase the fees that your currently charging, tolling is another way, taxing is another way. People like to have reliable transportation, but unfortunately they're not comfortable about paying more than what they're paying," Gramian adds.
Listen to the conversation to learn more.