The Journal of Commerce reports that the U.S. Department of Transportation paid states a hefty $524 million in the week ending Jan. 22 to reimburse them for construction project costs under last year’s stimulus law, raising the total paid out so far to $8.787 billion.

The week before that, DOT paid out only $162 million to states, well below the average of roughly $300 million. In all, DOT will spend $48 billion on highway and bridge, airport, transit and inter-city passenger rail projects under American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was designed to spend most of its funds over two years.

Go to the Journal of Commerce to see the entire article.