Road stimulus still doing the heavy lifting

Maybe some folks just don't like good news.

How else to explain the curious arrangement of stories in today's Wall Street Journal. One article proclaims the CBO essentially validating the Obama Administration's stimulus jobs numbers. Another laments "Job cuts loom as stimulus fades."

Guess which piece made Page One.

While the Journal is decrying the absence of a "paving fairy," this Department of Transportation is still funding road projects at an unheard-of pace.

We have over 5,400 road projects underway, and we're not even close to stopping. We're projecting to get over the 10,000 mark, which means that we've got much more to come. It’s hardly the last rays of sunshine that the Journal's readers were offered.

Here are a few examples that belie the Journal's doom-and-gloom scenario:

• In New Orleans, work on the stimulus-supported $87 million I-10 Causeway project will continue through the summer of 2012.
• In San Francisco, the Caldecott Tunnel--at $257 million, one of the largest ARRA-funded road projects in the country--isn't even set to start construction until early January.
• In Clearwater, Florida, a $123 million project that uses $44.2 million in Recovery Act funds to create 12 miles of uninterrupted travel on US 19/SR 55 also doesn't even break ground until this Friday.
• Plus, of the $48.1 billion in stimulus funds available, we have obligated $31.8 billion. By my calculation, the $16.3 billion remaining buys a lot of road, transit, rail, and port work.

As Vice-President Biden said, in response to the CBO report:

"This early progress less than halfway through the program is encouraging, but we’re just getting started.  In the coming months, we’ll break ground on thousands of infrastructure projects."

With the Recovery money, this Administration has helped put America back to work and begun to lay a foundation for long-term economic growth. We're not even close to quitting.

Economic stimulus from the Recovery Act is not yet done, not by a long shot.

Comments

[Jesse]

We have too many roads and highways as it is. They're wreaking havoc on our environment, waterways, and waistlines. We need to shift our priority to Complete Streets. That means ensuring residents have safe access to a multitude of travel options from sidewalks, bike lanes, walking trails, public transit, etc.

[Jay Badham]

This kind of reporting shouldn't be surprising....The WSJ isn't the paper that it used to be since it's owned by Murdoch, the man behind Fox Noise!

[Michael E. Bailey]

The ARRA has been a great program. Someone should ask the newspaper reporters and editors the question, What would have happened with no ARRA and the policies of the past were continued? They would have no answer nor would other newspapers that have devalued themselves into shrill noise machines more like paper versions of talk radio than real newspapers. I have heard news over this past weekend that a movement is getting underway to extend the ARRA when it runs out and that some extension funding may go into bus operations.
We need to look at transit in a whole new way from how it has been looked on in the past. In the past it was lookedon as something there for people who could not drive or were to poor to have a car. One writer to the Orange County Register newspaper said the buses were "the playground of illegal alians." The right wing doesen't like transit and probably never will. But today, we should look at transit as an important component of the infrastructure, just as important as roads, or water mains, or sewer lines to making communities work. Best wishes, Michael E. Bailey.

[Damian]

Yes, we need to stop bragging about how much money we spend on highways and start bragging about how much more we spend on complete streets and real public transit.

[California Blogger]

I agree with Damian, that 'complete streets' and practical public transit both need more focus and funding. More balance is warranted.

[Best Washer and Dryer]

We have too many roads and highways as it is. They're wreaking havoc on our environment, waterways, and waistlines. We need to shift our priority to Complete Streets. That means ensuring residents have safe access to a multitude of travel options from sidewalks, bike lanes, walking trails, public transit, etc.