PennDOT Announces Stimulus Projects
Transportation Secretary Allen Biehler this week released the final list of highway and bridge projects to be funded with slightly more than $1 billion from the federal economic stimulus package.
Biehler said the stimulus funds are divided equally between bridge repairs and highway projects. He said PennDOT will follow an aggressive bidding schedule, and that he expects all of the stimulus work to have been awarded within approximately six months in order to assure that the initiative puts as many people to work as quickly as possible.
The secretary noted that the one-time stimulus package will be combined with about $1.8 billion in highway projects already scheduled to be put out for bids this year, making this “by far the most highway and bridge work ever produced in a single year in Pennsylvania.”
Legislative leaders have noted that while the economic recovery initiative is welcome, Pennsylvania will face a severe cutback in transportation funding beginning in the 2010-11 fiscal year, the result of the Federal Highway Administration’s rejection of the Interstate 80 tolling plan. Chairmen of the House and Senate transportation committees have pledged to begin addressing that problem this spring.
Biehler noted that Pennsylvania’s first stimulus highway project was awarded last week, to State College-based Glenn O. Hawbaker Inc. for a $2.8 million project to improve six miles of Routes 26 and 64 east of State College. For PennDOT’s final list of stimulus highway projects, go here.
