Beating its congressionally imposed deadline, the U.S. Dept. of Transportation has released the $27.5 billion provided for highway projects in the recently enacted economic-stimulus package. The release of the funds, announced March 3 by President Obama, followed the Federal Highway Administration's formal apportionment the day before of $26.7 billion of that total among the states.
In making the announcement at DOT's headquarters, Obama said, "I can say that 14 days after I signed our recovery act into law, we are seeing shovels hit the ground." Obama said the first highway stimulus contract was awarded to American Infrastructure, Worcester, Pa., to grind, patch and resurface a 1.1-mile section of Route 650 in Silver Spring, Md. The contract value is about $2.1 million, according to the Maryland State Highway Administration.