Dirt & Gravel / Low Volume Road Program — Lancaster County Conservation District

The Lancaster County Conservation District administers Pennsylvania's Dirt & Gravel/Low Volume Roads Program locally, providing funding to municipalities and other road-owning entities to reduce sediment pollution to streams while improving the quality of unpaved and low-volume public roads. Act 89 of 2013 increased the statewide program from $4 million to $20 million annually and broadened its scope to low-volume paved public roads, with an additional $8 million set aside for paved or tar-and-chipped roads carrying fewer than 500 vehicles per day (traffic counts must be verified per SCC policy). Fact important dates: Spring applications were due February 20, 2026 and Fall applications August 21, 2026, with Quality Assurance Board meetings March 4, 2026 and September 2, 2026. Local contact is Matt Kofroth, (717) 874-2523 or mattkofroth@lancasterconservation.org.

To qualify, the person in charge of work plan development and project implementation from the road-owning entity must have attended the no-cost, two-day Environmentally Sensitive Maintenance (ESM) training within the past five calendar years. A one-page Grant Application plus a Work Plan (and optional expenditure sheets) is submitted to the Lancaster County Conservation District; District technical staff review each project, the Quality Assurance Board reviews qualified applications, and the District Board of Directors awards the grants. The District notifies eligible applicants by first class mail and email when a grant round opens.