Title: Grateful State Agencies Scrambling to Get Workers Going on Projects
Abstract: The $49.3 billion in federal stimulus money is being put to use rapidly by state departments of transportation. California and Texas are the two largest recipients, with $2.6 billion and $2.2 billion, respectively. With a deadline of March 2010, states are pooling resources from other agencies and stepping up the timing of deferred maintenance. In Phoenix, some money will go to finishing a light-rail system. New Mexico is using the money for design work on stalled projects, while most of Nevada’s is for pavement work. Colorado is using more than $100 million for transit, and another $30 million at four state airports. The transit agency in Denver had already asked consultants to forfeit at least three percent of their 2009 awards in order to close budget gaps, as well as freezing hiring of new employees and cutting merit raises. Idaho will not decide until its legislature adjourns in mid-April. Utah’s governing body has already passed a bond measure toward reconstruction of Interstate 15 in Utah County. Additional projects are described in the Northwest and the Northeast. Highway and bridge projects are the main recipients in the latter region. States in the South Central region have lists that well exceed their allocation. New Jersey is using a large amount of its $1 billion toward the second Trans-Hudson rail tunnel for commuters into Manhattan. It is using a total of $425 million for transit and about $650 million for highways. In the Southeast, Florida is the biggest recipient, with $1.4 billion in stimulus funding. Nearly all of it will go toward highway and bridges, though transit is receiving more than $310 million. Maryland was one of the earliest to actually spend the fund, with a $2.1 million road project awarded two days after the federal money became available.
Publication Year: 2009
Publication Date: 2009-04-13
Language: en
Type: article
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