Gov. Ed Rendell's people have complained that transportation borrowing during his administration is not the first since 1979, as "Getting Around" has been reporting, and that he's being unjustly criticized.

OK, we stand corrected.

The $350 million he announced last week to repair an extra 411 bridges is the first transportation borrowing done by PennDOT in 16 years, not 29 years.

Upon further review, records show PennDOT engaged in piecemeal borrowing in amounts as low as $22 million for a total of $795 million between 1986 and 1992 for roads and bridges, an average of $132.5 million a year.

PennDOT took on no more long-term debt between then and last summer.

But counting the $350 million now being borrowed for bridges, and money borrowed by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission over the past year to hand over to PennDOT under Act 44, Mr. Rendell and the Legislature have already stuck future taxpayers with $1.1 billion in new transportation debt.

The number will jump again in two weeks, when the turnpike writes more IOUs to send the first of four $212.5 million quarterly checks due PennDOT for the current fiscal year.

PennDOT Press Secretary Richard Kirkpatrick wrote in defense of the Big Guy and the department:

"We are not going to repeat the mistakes of the 1960s, when the state borrowed heavily without identifying a repayment strategy to build the interstate system.

"The governor signed a very prudent program [the $350 million] that will take advantage of low interest rates to accelerate work on critical bridges. This will help us beat an inflation rate running at least 12 percent a year overall and hitting 50 percent or more in some quarters for such materials as structural steel.

"Gov. Rendell has demonstrated he is fiscally responsible and his track record is solid. In both Act 44 and with the new $350 million program, there are solid repayment plans in place.

"We owe it to our children and future generations to invest in bridge repair now. Otherwise, they will not have the transportation infrastructure they need to compete and they'll pay exponentially more for the repairs we can afford to do today."

We may owe it to our children and future generations, but they're the ones who could owe $3.5 billion, plus interest, by the time Mr. Rendell leaves Harrisburg.

Disappearing money. The $350 million that the governor and PennDOT are borrowing to repair bridges may actually net out at $250 million, a Harrisburg confidant reasons, because of lower gas tax receipts in the Motor License Fund and an extra $10 million going to state police.

The strain on PennDOT's budget does not include runaway cost increases for steel, asphalt, concrete and energy, meaning highway-bridge tax dollars won't go as far and projects will have to be delayed or scrapped.

"In addition, the debt service for the $350 million will probably be $20 million to $30 million a year and will come from the Motor License Fund, so there's that much less for pay-as-you-go projects in future years," the highway consultant said. "This isn't a complaint -- obviously, this was a tough budget."

His point? At best, PennDOT is only slowing down the rate of highway and bridge deterioration, not stopping it.

Reappearing traffic. Edward Smallwood, a Downtown attorney, asked why traffic on the Parkway West, especially Green Tree Hill, has increased so dramatically in recent months, especially during morning rush hours.

"It backs halfway up the hill by 6:30 a.m., something that never used to happen at that time, particularly in summer," he e-mailed.

Some of it has to do with increasing development along the corridor. Some of it has to do with changed driving habits in order to beat the crowd and cut down on fuel consumption. And some of it has to do with people diverting from the West End, where PennDOT's construction of a new interchange has restricted traffic on a "back door" route to the city.

Unfortunately, don't look for the situation to get better.