Pete Buttigieg Talks Philly Shipyard, SEPTA and Local Bridge Repairs in CBS Philadelphia Interview

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg arrived in Philadelphia on Monday for the christening of the Patriot State, a new training ship built at the Philadelphia Shipyard.

In 2021 the shipyard received a contract worth $1.5 billion to build four Maritime Academy ships. Now another one is ready to sail out to sea.

On Tuesday, Buttigieg stopped by CBS News Philadelphia to talk more about the event and answer questions from host Jim Donovan about other issues impacting Philadelphians and Pennsylvanians.

Jim: Patriot State was founded right here in Philadelphia. Why is that so significant?

Buttigieg: Well, we’re really proud of these ships. They’re called NSMVs, national security multi-mission ships. Their day-to-day mission is training.

This is a part of our department that maybe not everyone knows about, but we have the Merchant Marine Academy, and then we have a number of academies around the country that are educating the next generation of merchant mariners.

This ship is something they will use every day to qualify to be part of this incredibly important engine of the American economy, which is our maritime trade. But they also have a second purpose: they have been equipped with an onboard clinic and other facilities so that in an emergency they can be sent to provide humanitarian aid or disaster relief.

These updated classes of ships, not even a class, a collection of ships that we had, some of them are over half a century old, and this project to replace them has generated so many jobs here in Philadelphia. Really proud to see the shipyard in Philadelphia come back, about 1,400 jobs just related to the production of these ships, and something that I think Philadelphia is rightly very proud of.

Jim: Let’s move on to infrastructure. Pennsylvania is one of the leading bridge-deficient states. What is the federal government doing to address this situation?

Buttigieg: When the Biden-Harris administration came in, we knew right away that we needed a new level of funding for American infrastructure, especially when it came to the condition of our roads and bridges. And Pennsylvania’s real ground zero when it comes to the need for bridge modernization is some of the largest, most iconic bridges in the country to rural bridges that most people have never heard of.

But when they go out of service, if there’s a load limit because they’re in poor condition, that could mean someone has to drive a half hour or more off the road, that affects our supply chains, and it affects our daily commutes. So we changed all that with the president’s bipartisan infrastructure bill. Instead of our bridges getting worse year by year, we are now investing at a level that hasn’t happened since before I was born. A lot of that is coming to Philadelphia.

There is actually a reason why announced the Bridge Formula program right here in Philadelphia. Progress on the MLK Bridge, for example, to take one. But we have 10,000 bridges across the country that are undergoing improvements.

Jim: Is the federal government in a position to help SEPTA? Because so many commuters here rely on it.

Buttigieg: Another feature of bipartisan infrastructure legislation is the largest federal funding ever allocated for public transportation, namely includes more than $300 million to help SEPTA purchase new railcars which are very much needed. The riders already know about it.

We are also making improvements and modernizations at stations. Many SEPTA stations were built before the Americans with Disabilities Act went into effect, meaning they are not accessibleWe are investing to change that.

We work with all public transport agencies to provide better service to passengers. Public transport is a key part of the future transport, so many people count on it. We are very pro-transport and one thing I would point out is that even if you don’t use it, you use it when others do because it means less congestion on our roads.