Court Opinion

ID: 9630780
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 10:20:18.689632+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:07:43.351635
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION BY
Judge LEAVITT.
Respectfully, I dissent. I do not believe that preparing a road for new blacktop is “repair” but, rather, “maintenance.” Accordingly, I would reverse the Pennsylvania Prevailing Wage Appeal Board.
In Kulzer Roofing, Inc. v. Department of Labor & Industry, 68 Pa.Cmwlth. 642, 450 A.2d 259, 261 (1982), this Court held that the re-roofing of buildings “which changes or increases the size, type or extent of the roof is repair work” and not maintenance. We further explained that “maintenance work” is work that “partially overhauls or patches” a roof without changing or increasing the size or extent of the roof. In Borough of Ebensburg v. Prevailing Wage Appeals Board, 893 A.2d 181, 185 (Pa.Cmwlth.2006), we held that where every bit of sidewalk and curbing was demolished prior to replacement, this was not an overhaul or mere patching expected in maintenance. Appropriately, *1203we held that destroying a sidewalk and entirely replacing it constitutes a “repair” subject to the prevailing wage requirements. I agree with the majority that Kulzer and Ebensburg are instructive here, but I disagree with the lesson to be learned.
An examination of the project at issue here shows that the Borough of Young-wood is not replacing an old road with a new road. The top of the road is being “milled” in preparation for laying down the new surface material. It is, as the Borough points out, similar to the process of scraping off peeling paint before putting down a new layer of paint. Milling is preparation for the “partial” overhaul to the road that leaves the road bed and subsurface areas unaffected. Milling does not increase the “size, type or extent” of the road. Under Kulzer, the project constituted maintenance, not repair.
Further, the milled road can be continued to be used until the new surface is applied. This makes the project quite unlike that in Ebensburg where the sidewalks and curbing were demolished. There was no sidewalk to use until it was replaced. By contrast, here the milled road awaiting resurfacing can and will continue to be used until the repaving is complete.
The majority describes the project as “the laying down of new road.” Majority Opinion at 8. Under this logic, applying “new” paint to the surface of a building is repair not maintenance. Maintenance projects will always require the use of some “new” materials. The majority’s emphasis on “new” obliterates the difference between maintenance and repair.
The Borough of Youngwood was not trying to evade the Prevailing Wage Act. It researched the question and relied upon directives from Commonwealth agencies that its project did not implicate the Prevailing Wage Act. Further, the Borough’s belief that milling constitutes maintenance is consistent with what other sources advise. The City of Pittsburgh, for example, specifically identifies milling as maintenance on its website.1
All roads require maintenance in the form of periodic reapplication of a surfacing material. Only where the substrata are replaced should the roadwork be considered a repair project governed by the Prevailing Wage Act. Given the limited nature of the Borough’s project, I would reverse the Board.
Judge SIMPSON joins in this dissent.

. See http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/pw/ htmllstreet_resurfacing.html.