For years, a higher-speed rail route between Chicago and St. Louis "has been a construction season or two away from reality," says Rick Harnish, executive director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association. Pleasantly surprised by the $8-billion pot created in the final stimulus package for high-speed rail, he says, "Hopefully this will put it over the edge."
High-speed rail is the surprise winner in the $787-billion package, which includes $48 billion for transportation infrastructure. "It was a shock, but a good shock," says Peter Gertler, vice president of transit services for HNTB Corp., Kansas City, Mo., which is providing engineering services for half of the 800-mile high-speed rail route in Cali-fornia funded under a bond measure passed last November. Although high-speed projects have a use-it-or-lose-it deadline of 2012, which is longer than most other projects, "there are opportunities that are very in line" to get work going fast, such as 200 grade separations, Gertler adds.