{"id":759,"date":"2009-07-17T20:11:48","date_gmt":"2009-07-18T00:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/blueprintamerica\/?p=759"},"modified":"2009-07-17T20:11:48","modified_gmt":"2009-07-18T00:11:48","slug":"headlines-washington-state-road-officials-trying-to-put-stimulus-cash-to-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/blueprintamerica\/headlines\/headlines-washington-state-road-officials-trying-to-put-stimulus-cash-to-work\/759\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington State: Road officials trying to put stimulus cash to work"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Associated Press<\/strong><\/a> – State transportation officials on Tuesday defended their handling of federal stimulus money for road projects against criticism they haven’t moved quickly enough to turn the money into jobs and pavement.<\/p>\n

Washington state Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond acknowledged at a news conference there’s been criticism of how fast states are meeting goals set by President Barack Obama and Congress when the stimulus package was approved in February. That $787 billion package included $27.5 billion for highway and bridge construction and repair.<\/p>\n

But Hammond said that nationwide, 2,000 construction projects funded by stimulus dollars are under way, worth more than $6 billion. In all, 5,600 projects worth an estimated $16.7 billion have been approved for bids, she said.<\/p>\n

“Barrels and cones are on the road,” said Hammond, who was elected president of the Western Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials at the group’s meeting Tuesday in Seattle.<\/p>\n

The projects are “providing steady and sustained jobs, which are real family wage-earning jobs for workers in our country,” she said.<\/p>\n

The money also is being stretched farther, Hammond said, because contractors desperate for work in the bad economy are submitting lower bids. In some cases, states are paying as much as 30 percent below engineers’ estimates of what projects should cost, she said.<\/p>\n

Congressional Republicans have said Obama’s stimulus program does too little and comes too late to revive the economy, and will do more long-term damage by increasing government debt. Last week, they argued that transportation money in particular was slow to be spent. [read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Associated Press – State transportation officials on Tuesday defended their handling of federal stimulus money for road projects against criticism they haven’t moved quickly enough to turn the money into jobs and pavement. Washington state Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond acknowledged at a news conference there’s been criticism of how fast states are meeting goals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2194],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines"],"yoast_head":"\nHeadlines ~ Washington State: Road officials trying to put stimulus cash to work | Blueprint America | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/blueprintamerica\/headlines\/headlines-washington-state-road-officials-trying-to-put-stimulus-cash-to-work\/759\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Headlines ~ Washington State: Road officials trying to put stimulus cash to work | Blueprint America | PBS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Associated Press – State transportation officials on Tuesday defended their handling of federal stimulus money for road projects against criticism they haven’t moved quickly enough to turn the money into jobs and pavement. 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