How Do We Calculate These Numbers?

Each quarter, PennDOT reports miles improved and paved, and bridges improved.

For pavements, miles improved includes seal coats, micro-surfacing, thin lift paving, and regular paving conducted both by department force and contractors. Paved miles are only those receiving a new resurfacing. Once the projects are completed, they are closed and entered in our databases. However, oftentimes improvements and paving projects have additional work items that need to be completed, and all payments and accounting must be finalized before the projects are closed. Therefore, the reported improved miles or paving may be well after the paving or improvement portion of the project has been completed.

For bridge improvement, PennDOT reports projects that are “let,” which means that they were made available for bid. Bridge projects sometimes span many years, so the most reliable means of measuring the progress of our program is reporting how many bridges are let in a given period.