AS COMPLAINTS MOUNT about the slow pace of the federal stimulus program, planners of a truck staging ramp for shippers in St. Joseph, Mo., have just the opposite problem.
Time lines under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 are “very aggressive for construction projects,” said Brad Lau, executive director of the St. Joseph Regional Port Authority.
That port has a $1.3 million grant to build the truck facility and make related intersection changes, with preliminary work this year and actual construction in 2010. The project will help unclog a congested industrial area where trucks must park on the shoulders of area streets and even a nearby highway as they await their turn at loading docks.
Once it received word in June that the award was final, the port had to move rapidly to gather engineers’ bids by July 6, select one by July 15, and start sorting through complex rights-of-way issues, regulations and design negotiations even before the Missouri Department of Transportation on July 27 confirmed its engineering choice.
“It’s a great project,” said Lau, adding that only the federal money made it possible. “It enables us to achieve several goals we otherwise would have been unable to achieve.”
But, he said, “some of the requirements make it very difficult” to get everything done in the strict time limits of the stimulus law. For stimulus recipients, “sometimes there are things outside your control” in striving to meet deadlines.
That example underscores what the Obama administration and its critics have been saying. Federal Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said all along that infrastructure projects are moving fast but would first generate project applications, approvals and then construction, with only the most “shovel-ready” quickly sending in bills to repay.
The DOT has approved more than $22 billion in projects of the $48 billion it will spend, and many of those will only trigger federal dis-
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DOT STIMULUS PAYOUTS
■ Disbursements leap with summer construction bills.
$800
In millions of dollars
Source: Recovery.gov, investments by agency weekly reports
$0
7/17 7/10 7/3 6/26 6/19 6/12 6/5 5/29 5/22 5/15 5/8 5/1 4/24 4/17 4/10 3/27 3/20 3/13 1.6 1.6 1.7 2. 3
bursements in the second year. That is fodder for critics, who have said the Recovery Act was not frontloaded enough to lift the economy quickly. President Obama also said he would like to see funds disbursed faster.
In fact, some funds were sent rapidly, including extra money sent to states for Medicare and unemployment programs. Some went as added payments to recipients of Social Security and federal railroad retirement benefits.
Through July 17, more than $67 billion had been disbursed and $187 billion approved for projects out of the $787 billion stimulus.
The big infrastructure spending part of the program, advertised as something that would create jobs quickly, has been slower to inject money into the economy and is open to some criticism.
But when Sen. John Kyl, backed by Sen. John McCain — both Arizona Republicans — said the rest of the stimulus money should be canceled, La Hood pounced.
In a letter to Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, La Hood and three other Cabinet members said they could cancel the state’s flow of stimulus dollars. “If you prefer to forfeit the remaining money we are making available to
your state, as Sen. Kyl suggests, please let me know,” the letter read. LaHood’s office said he got no immediate response to that offer.
For months, though, LaHood and state officials said project spending would ramp up quickly once the summer construction season heated up.
That appears to be the case. States and travelers report construction cones out nationwide, with crews working on weekends.
And the bills are rolling in. After disbursing just $34 million as of May 1, the DOT paid out $176 million by June 5, and pushed it out to $523 million a month later and to $774 million on July 17.
The Federal Highway Administration has obligated $17.1 billion, or 64 percent, of the total it will spread around and said $7.5 billion is already backing active projects. The Federal Aviation Administration has approved nearly all of its $1.1 billion.
Yet to come are port-targeted grants from a $1.5 billion discretionary funding pool under LaHood, and spending from the $8 billion high-speed rail fund. JOC
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