The Boulder Daily Camera reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday during a visit to Broomfield that the recent stimulus grant to extend U.S. 36’s bus, car pool and managed lanes will give that project “a running start” and bring jobs to the area. Pelosi was in Broomfield to tout the anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The project to widen U.S. 36 will receive $10 million from the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program. The project was one of 51 winners selected from more than 1,400 applicants. The grant was announced Feb. 17.
The Federal Times reports that Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said Wednesday the department has a backlog between $80 billion and $100 billion in high-priority infrastructure improvement projects that it cannot afford to fund.
The Journal of Commerce reports that stimulus funds for transportation infrastructure have so far paid to complete more than 3,000 construction projects around the United States and are now supporting three times that many under construction.
Those numbers come from the latest oversight report from the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, based on data as of Dec. 31.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act set aside $64.1 billion for expenditures under the committee’s jurisdiction. The report said nearly 17,000 projects totaling $56 billion have already been identified.
Go to the Journal of Commerce …
The Washington Post says that a new report released Tuesday by congressional economists said the economic stimulus law added between 1 million to 2.1 million workers to employment rolls by the end of last year.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office study also said the $862 billion stimulus added between 1.5 to 3.5 percentage points to the growth of the economy in 2009. The controversial stimulus law combined tax breaks for individuals and businesses with lots of government spending.
The U.S. Department of Transportation is giving a $10 million grant to extend U.S. 36 bus-car pool lanes and adding toll-paying solo drivers – far short of the $200 million the state sought but allowing work to proceed incrementally.
As the Senate debates the merits of a Jobs Bill, a new report — Projects and Paychecks: a One-Year Report on State Transportation Successes under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — finds that more than 280,000 jobs were created and more than 12,250 transportation projects are underway as a result of the jobs bill signed into law one year ago.
The Federal Highway Administration this week approved Colorado’s last highway Recovery Act project, which means Colorado has now obligated all $385.6 million in highway funds nearly one month ahead of the March 2 deadline.
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.
With the possibility of a second wave of stimulus funding coming out of Washington, Colorado’s transportation planners are solidifying lists of shovel-ready projects that can quickly ride that wave from the drawing board to the ground.
CDOT Press Release
DOUGLAS/JEFFERSON COUNTY — Tonight, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) will resume weekend work on C-470 between I-25 and Santa Fe Drive as part of an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) project. The project repairs and replaces concrete along nine miles of C-470 between I-25 and Santa Fe Drive, paves C-470 in asphalt and makes repairs to 26 miles of the C-470 bike path between I-25 and I-70.
“The project shutdown shortly before Thanksgiving so that our work would not impact holiday traffic,” said CDOT Project Engineer Scott Smith. “With the holidays behind us, the weekend work will resume and take place as weather permits.”
This weekend, crews will work from 8 p.m. on Friday, January 29th until 5 a.m. on Monday, February 1st. During this time, the following closures will be in place on C-470 and major delays are expected:
Eastbound C-470 between University Boulevard and Colorado Boulevard- The left lane of eastbound C-470 will be closed from 8 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday. Major delays are expected and alternate routes are strongly advised.
Since the concrete repairs require crews to place new concrete, there is about a 10 to 12-hour timeframe in which the concrete has to cure. During this time, the lane closure will remain in place but crews will not be visibly working. This is a necessary process for concrete replacement to ensure the pavement is of high quality and can withstand the heavy traffic C-470 handles. Once the concrete cures, crews will stripe and conduct some other minor work before reopening the left lane of eastbound C-470 between University Boulevard and Colorado Boulevard.
CDOT would like to remind motorists to obey all traffic signs and flaggers and to “Slow for the Cone Zone.” Most fines will be doubled if the infraction occurs in the work zone.
Castle Rock Construction Co. of Centennial, CO is the contractor for this $32 million Recovery Act project, which is scheduled to be complete in September 2010.
In all, Colorado will receive more than $400 million from the Recovery Act for transportation projects and $103 million for transit projects. For more information about how Colorado is putting the recovery act to work, visit www.colorado.gov/recovery. For a list of CDOT’s Recovery Act projects, visit www.dot.state.co.us/arra.
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