Stimulus-funded highway projects underway
— -- The early federal stimulus money appears to be hitting its target, paying for new projects and creating jobs, according to a USA TODAY review of some of the first projects funded.
Most early spending is flowing, as planned, into "shovel-ready" projects — a new bridge over a Louisiana bayou, the widening of a mountain road in Colorado — that wouldn't have occurred this year without stimulus money.
Hiring on those projects has already begun or will occur within the next three months, say officials overseeing the contracts.
Congress directed more than $300 billion in stimulus money to states and cities for spending over the next two years on roads, bridges, health care and other programs. The primary goal is to preserve or create jobs quickly while building or improving public works facilities.
"We told people looking for money: This is a jobs bill, not a transportation bill. We want work boots on the ground this summer," says Patrick Cooney of the Oregon Transportation Commission, which has already approved $232 million in stimulus projects.
USA TODAY reviewed more than 500 stimulus projects listed on federal and state websites to determine early spending patterns. Seventeen projects in 11 states then were selected, randomly but unscientifically, for closer analysis. The spending for the 16 construction projects and one health care program will cost about $350 million.
The findings:
• All 16 infrastructure projects will start this spring or summer.
• Fourteen of the 16 projects would not have been done this year without stimulus money. Two small projects were expected to be done anyway, and stimulus money replaced existing funding.
• The biggest spending item involves health care. Maine is using its extra Medicaid money to make a larger-than-planned $163 million settlement payment to local hospitals for overdue Medicaid bills.
President Obama signed the $787 billion stimulus bill Feb. 17. Only a fraction of the money has hit the economy.
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