DOTs Ready for Stimulus South Central’s planned highway projects exceed money

Even though not one state received as much as it could use, highway departments are embracing the opportunity to advance long-awaited projects and simultaneously stimulate the economy, create jobs and move other projects further up in the queue.

By Angelle Bergeron

Like wall flowers at a high school dance, highway departments were tapping their toes and eager to hit the floor when the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act came calling.

Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee all had shovel-ready wish lists that well exceeded their final allocated amount.

Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee all had shovel-ready wish lists that well exceeded their final, allocated amount. Even though not one state received as much as it could use, highway departments are embracing the opportunity to advance long-awaited projects and simultaneously stimulate the economy, create jobs and move other projects further up in the queue.

“We identified more than 255 projects at $1.2 billion, and the total coming to Alabama for transportation infrastructure is $513.6 million,” says Tony Harris, Alabama Department of Transportation’s governmental relations manager and special assistant to the transportation director.

Of that amount, $80 million will be divided among the state’s 67 counties and Metropolitan Planning Organizations, and an additional $15.4 million is reserved for local transportation enhancement, leaving ALDOT with $417.8 million, Harris says.

ALDOT won’t have any difficulty in awarding contracts within the time constraints, Harris says.

“We aren’t looking to leave any money on the table,” he says. “Our project development process has moved along at a pace where projects reaching a ready-to-go-status have exceeded our available funds. Everything we submitted is ready to go.”

ALDOT will award work in every county in the state. Projects will include a “handful” of major projects, some new construction, resurfacing, widening, safety and bridge rehabilitation, Harris says. Projects that aren’t covered by stimulus funds will be rolled back into the state’s five year plan, but “this will help take pressure off that plan and get to other projects faster,” Harris says.

“It’s a win/win situation,” he adds. “This money will get jobs, preserve jobs and maybe help local economies survive these tough economic times as well.”

Harris says he has no idea why ALDOT received the amount it did, which is about 40% of its shovel-ready list.

The $298 million of the $430 million transportation stimulus funds that will go to the La. Department of Transportation and Development will allow the department to advance projects.

“I don’t think Congress based the funding distribution on what any of the states identified as good-to-go,” he says. “I’ve seen where other states had huge amounts identified and only got a small percentage of that.”

The Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department has had a list of 130 projects worth $1.1 billion ready to go since 1999, but will only receive $350 million in stimulus funds. However, that is almost equal to its normal annual expenditure, which is just short of $400 million, says Glenn Bolick, public affairs spokesman.

“Essentially, we are going to be able to do three years worth of work in the next two years.”

Of the $350 million, $10 million will go toward enhancements and $15.5 million is allocated for MPOs, areas with a population larger than 200,000, which includes West Memphis and Little Rock, Bolick says. ASHTD will use a portion of the enhancement money to build a new welcome center in the West Memphis area, along Interstate 30 near the I-55 intersection, Bolick says.

“That’s a project we were already doing, but since we were able to take that $10 million in enhancement money toward completion, we will have the $10 million to apply to something else.”

Throughout the state, the most visible impact of the stimulus will be on traffic signals, Bolick says.

“Cities across the state that have had the 20% match funds for traffic signals have been waiting on us because we didn’t have the money to go ahead.” ASHTD is also planning to use about $50 million of the ARRA for road rehabilitation, including asphalt overlays and concrete patching.

“We’ve got everything from a ($130,000 estimated cost) traffic signal in Colt, Ark., to the Vilonia Bypass in Faulkner County, which will be between $45 million and $50 million,” Bolick says. “Another significant project is Phase 2 of improvements to the intersection of I-630 and I-430, which is $15-$20 million.”

Industry association leaders in Arkansas have assured ASHTD they are good-to-go on whatever work the department lets.

“In the spirit of the bill, this will certainly have a trickle down effect on concrete and asphalt suppliers, people who rent safety equipment and everybody who deals in construction,” Bolick says.

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The $298 million of the $430 million transportation stimulus funds that will go to the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development will allow the department to advance projects and definitely create a statewide “ripple effect,” says Mark Lambert, communications director.

“If you move a project forward, especially some of these big capacity projects, all the smaller projects behind it can move up and get in line a little quicker,” Lambert says.

“When you start getting these big, money-soaking projects out of the way, you can bring in a few dozen smaller projects. It really does wind up benefiting the whole state because you will have some overlay project in a rural parish get done months sooner than it would have otherwise.”

In January, La. DOTD presented its list to the Obama Administration and Congress for $1.3 billion in projects. When the figure came back significantly smaller, the Louisiana joint budget committee disagreed over the allocation for high-cost projects in major metropolitan areas.

“A lot of legislators felt that their part of the state had been left out,” Lambert says. However, DOTD is moving forward on the $75 million I-10/Causeway Boulevard interchange improvements in Jefferson Parish and the $42 million construction of 4.6 mi of new, Interstate 49 North in Caddo Parish.

“In March, the legislature voted to approve the funding for all of the projects scheduled to go within the first 120 days, and they want to come back in a few weeks and look at the others,” Lambert says.

The La. DOTD might also be eligible to apply for a portion of the U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary’s $1.5 billion discretionary fund, Lambert says.

“We can apply that money towardany mode of transportation, but we have to document how many jobs are created or retained. Right now, the FHWA (Federal Highway Administration) is still developing a process to help our contractors to do that.”

The Mississippi Department of Transportation received $350 million in transportation stimulus, half of the department’s initial request, says Charles Bailey, with MDOT public affairs. After distributing the 3% for enhancements and 30% for MPOs, MDOT is left with roughly $235 million for construction, a little more than half its annual budget range of $400 to $450 million.

The funding “will allow several important roadway and bridge improvement projects to move forward,” MDOT Executive Director Larry L. “Butch” Brown said in March, but at the time, MDOT still hadn’t specified which projects.

“We are trying to come up with the most equitable distributions of funds that will ensure the greatest possible impact in terms of job creation and economic development,” Bailey says.

Brown, who worked on the transportation portion of the ARRA, lauded it as “a well-thought-out, comprehensive package of expenditures.”

The Tennessee Department of Transportation submitted $1.7 billion in needs for highways and bridges, transit, rail and aviation.

“Although transit, rail and aviation funding are not yet tallied, we know that the state will be receiving $572.7 million for highways and bridges,” Julie Oaks, public information, said in March.

About $469.7 million of the allocated amount will be under TDOT’s discretion to advance projects in the categories of major construction, bridge replacement and resurfacing, Oaks says.

“This year’s budget (minus the ARRA funds) would have been $631 million in federal funds and $109.9 million in state funds for highways and bridges, so the funds from ARRA are more than half of our normal highway and bridge program.”

In March, TDOT let the first 10 ARRA-funded projects, bridge replacements worth an estimated $7.9 million. At that time, TDOT was still developing its final project list, which was scheduled to be presented to the Tennessee General Assembly.

“Also included in that three-year plan will be an initiative at the state level to create jobs by bonding $350 million to $400 million in bridge repair and replacement projects to fix two-thirds of our state’s on-system structurally deficient bridges,” Oaks says.