A report on how states are using American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds is in Engineering News Record today.

In the Midwest, Missouri was one of the first ready-to-go states, starting four projects on the day President Obama signed ARRA into law. Missouri DOT says more than 200 other projects are shovel-ready. Illinois also is moving rapidly, letting almost $700 million of projects in April, with work expected to start in May or June.

MoDOT says construction on three other recovery act projects also started immediately:

New passing lanes on Route 60 in Barry, Lawrence, Christian and Greene counties

Resurfacing on Interstate 35 in Clinton County

Improving pavement on Interstate 55 in Pemiscot and New Madrid counties

Additional Missouri road, bridge, air, rail, transit, pedestrian and bicycle projects will be under way in the coming weeks and months. For details, visit the MoDOT website.

Stephen Sandherr, the CEO of the Associated General Contractors, calls the economic stimulus package “the most significant investment in infrastructure in my lifetime,” according to Engineering News Record.

With $130 billion set aside for highways, buildings and other public works projects, the $787.2-billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is good news for the construction industry.

The biggest surprise in the package was the $8 billion for a new high-speed rail corridor. The biggest disappointment was the $20 billion proposed funding for school construction cut from the final package. School modernization is permitted in the $39 billion set aside for educational purposes, and some of that is likely to be spent on uprading buildings. New school construction is not eligible.

About $35 billion or 11% of the bill’s total funds for actual appropriations outlays will be spent by September 2009. The construction portion of that will go to “shovel-ready” projects. The pace will pick up in 2010, with $110.7 billion in appropriations-related outlays spent (not all construction-related).

The federal DOT has 21 days to formally apportion  highway stimulus funds to the states, but industry officials are hearing that the funds could clear to the states in seven days. States could then put projects out to bid.

For infrastructure funds, the bill set a goal of using at least 50% of the funds on work that can start within 120 days, with “use-it-or-lose-it” mandates in place.

Defense and Veterans Affairs must report to Congress within 30 days on how they plan to spend allocations. The GSA has 45 days to produce its spending report.

For a detailed list of allocations, visit ENR.

Source: ENR

The ink was barely dry on the economic stimulus bill signed by President Barack Obama when Missouri began work on the first transportation project in the country funded with the federal dollars, according to MissouriNet.

State transportation officials and construction officials gathered in Tuscumbia, Missouri yesterday to start construction on a new bridge across the Osage River.

The bridge project, approved within minutes of the President signing the federal stimulus bill, is one of four Missouri projects to be funded with federal stimulus money. Missouri Transportation Director Pete Rahn proclaimed it the first construction project anywhere in the country awarded with stimulus funds.

The 1,000-foot-long bridge spans a Missouri River tributary about 30 miles southwest of the state Capitol in Jefferson City. Built in 1933, it was closed to large trucks in 2007 because of structural concerns.

Rahn expects to receive $637 million in transportation funds through the stimulus package, with $525-million targeted for MoDOT-controlled projects. These funds don’t need to go through the regular legislative appropriations process if approved by the state Transportation Commission, which they are.

Missouri plans to begin work Tuesday on three other highway projects.

Source: MissouriNet

The stimulus proposal currently before Congress could fund $160 billion in construction projects across many federal departments and agencies, according to the House Appropriations Committee’s explanatory report on the bill. Engineering News Record breaks the appropriations into these categories:

• Transportation
• Defense/Veterans
• Housing/HUD
• Schools
• Energy
• Other Buildings
• Health & Human Services
• Water & Environment

A report by the Congressional Budget Office today, though, criticized the plan and the rate of spending. According to the Washington Post, only $136 billion of the $355 billion House leaders want to allocate to infrastructure and other so-called discretionary programs would be spent by October, 2010.

The Missouri Department of Transportation is ready to “put shovels in the ground” on $510 million worth of transportation projects within 180 days after an economic stimulus package passes.  The 34 projects would create about 14,000 jobs and have a $2.4 billion impact on the state’s economy.

That amount assumes that the stimulus package would include at least $25 billion for transportation infrastructure investments nationwide. If more funding is available for Missouri, significant portions of four additional highway projects totaling roughly $290 million could be under way in 2009.

For a list of proposed Missouri projects, visit www.modot.org.

Source: Engineering News Record

St. Louis-based Kwame Building Group is serving as construction manager for the $435 million Port Authority of Allegheny County’s North Shore Connector project in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. KWAME is part of the joint venture called TriGold, which includes Jacobs Engineering of Pasadena, California and HDR, an architectural and engineering firm of Omaha, Nebraska.

The new 1.2 mile extension will expand Pittsburgh’s current 25 mile light rail transit system known as the “T,” from the Gateway subway station underneath Stanwix Street and the Allegheny River to the developing North Shore area of Pittsburgh. The project includes construction of three new stations. Read more…