Stimulus News You Can Use is one way WSDOT is working to keep transportation stakeholders updated on the fast-moving effort to put people to work and improve the state’s infrastructure. Each edition will have information on project delivery and highlights. Sign up to receive stimulus news e-mail updates. Visit the Newsletter Archive for earlier editions.
May 5, 2010
This week's stimulus snapshot
- Lewis and Clark Bridge project awarded
- Federal Rail Administration will hold outreach meeting in Portland June 4
- Skokomish Tribe project awarded
- Federal Recovery Act reports published online
- Tier 3 project under way in Whitman County
- Important dates
- Useful Recovery Act web links
- Stimulus data table update
Lewis and Clark Bridge Painter project awarded – WSDOT awarded the Lewis and Clark Bridge Painter project to Odyssey/Geronimo JV of Houston, Penn. on April 30. The project was awarded with a winning bid of $33.7 million. Following recent trends, the project came in at 7.3 percent under the engineer’s estimate of $36.4 million. The project will paint the superstructure of the bridge between Washington and Oregon. Repainting the bridge preserves its structural integrity and protects it from weathering. The project received $12.5 million in Recovery Act funds.
National Rail Plan outreach meeting scheduled for June 4 in Portland – The Federal Rail Administration (FRA) is hosting a stakeholder meeting on the National Rail Plan in Portland on June 4. The docket includes discussion of the planning for freight and passenger rail, including the expansion of High-Speed Rail and strategies for its future funding.
Skokomish Tribe awarded local Recovery Act project – One local project, the Skokomish Tribe’s SR 101/t3ba’das Parkway Intersection and Safety Improvements project, was awarded on April 28. To date, 96% of the certified Recovery Act projects have been awarded or are under way, including 156 of 162 local projects and 45 of 47 state projects.
Guidance for TIGER II grants released – Following on the $1.5 billion Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants in the Recovery Act, the U.S. Department of Transportation released guidance for National Infrastructure Investment Grants, a similar, non-stimulus, $600 million grant program referred to as TIGER II. More information about the grants is available at the WSDOT Federal Transportation Issues blog. Pre-applications for the funds will be due in July, with final applications due in August.
OMB Quarterly Report published – The latest quarterly reports to the federal Office of Management and Budget were published on the federal stimulus website, www.Recovery.gov. Stimulus funding recipients reported creating or preserving over 682,000 quarterly jobs between January 1 and March 31. The next cycle of reporting for the website is due on July 10, 2010.
Highlight of the week
Construction under way on Tier 3 project in Whitman County
Work began in April on a paving project in southern Whitman County. The job consists of resurfacing work on US 195 from the Idaho border near Lewiston to Colton, about eight miles north.
Poe Asphalt Paving, Inc. of Post Falls, Idaho is the prime contractor on the job with a construction bid of $2,014,005. The work should take about two months to complete.
This project and six other Tier 3 Recovery Act projects were made possible through savings on other Recovery Act construction projects built in 2009.
This paving project is a part of WSDOT’s pavement preservation program. The current road surface is deteriorating as a result of routine wear and tear. The existing surface will be ground out and replaced with a new layer of hot mix asphalt. In Uniontown the entire roadway surface will be removed down to the subgrade gravel and be fully rebuilt.
The project should be fully completed by late June. As always, paving work is dependent on the weather. Wet, cool conditions may cause delays to the paving operations on this project.
Important dates
May 20: Next performance report due to House T & I Committee
June 4: FRA holds National Rail Plan meeting in Portland
July 16: TIGER II pre-application deadline
August 11: Transit application deadline for TIGGER grants
August 23: Final TIGER II application deadline
Websites of interest
WSDOT ARRA website: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/funding/stimulus
Washington recovery website: http://www.recovery.wa.gov/
Federal recovery website: http://www.recovery.gov/
FHWA recovery website: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/economicrecovery/index.htm
Federal Transit Administration recovery website: www.fta.dot.gov/recovery
Federal Rail Administration recovery website: http://www.fra.dot.gov/us/content/2153
Federal Aviation Administration recovery website: http://www.faa.gov/recovery
OMB recovery website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/recovery_default/
This week by the numbers (project dollars in millions)
Individual highway projects | State | Local | Total | Notes |
|---|
Operationally complete | 21 (45%) | 74 (46%) | 95 (45%) | No additional projects completed this edition |
Awarded/under way1 | 45 (96%) | 156 (96%) | 201 (96%) | Includes completed projects |
Advertised | 47 (100%) | 157 (97%) | 204 (98%) | Includes completed and awarded projects |
Certified, awaiting advertisement | 0 (0%) | 5 (3%) | 5 (2%) | These projects are planned for upcoming advertisement |
Total highway funds | $340 | $152 | $492 | |
Obligated funds2 | $340 (100%) | $152 (100%) | $492 (100%) | All funds were obligated by
March 2, 2010 |
Projects certified | 47 (100%) | 162 (100%) | 209 (100%) | Three additional projects certified
in March |
Projects obligated2
| 47 (100%) | 159 (98%) | 206 (99%) | FHWA has approved funds for the projects |
Safety funding buckets ($12 stimulus) | Rumble
Strips | Cable
median
barrier | Total | Notes |
|---|
Completed | 15 | 6 | 21 | State stimulus funds only |
Awarded | 28 | 11 | 39 | Includes completed projects |
Advertised | 28 | 13 | 41 | Includes completed and awarded projects |
Transit projects | Large
urban | Small
urban | Nonurban/
rural | State total |
|---|
Percent of total $179 awarded | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100%
Includes Washington State Ferries projects |
Number of Transit projects obligated | 35 of 35 | 19 of 19 | 20 of 20 | 55 of 55
FTA counts all rural projects as one project |
March employment | State | Local | Total | Notes |
|---|
Payroll (in millions) | $3 | $4 | $7
for March | Cumulatively, $72 million to date
Average wage is $38 per hour |
Hours | 60,687 | 102,576 | 171,263 for March | Employees have worked 1,867,991 hours to date |
FTEs | 397 | 593 | 990
for March | FTE = 173 hours per month |
Employees | 1,183 | 2,674 | 3,857
for March | Note: Not a count of unique employees |
1 This includes one state project that has stimulus funding authorized for pre-construction and is currently under way.
2 All funds were obligated by the March 2, 2010 deadline as required by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. As projects develop, obligation totals will fluctuate as funds are deobligated due to low bids or savings are realized on project closeouts. Unobligated ARRA balances available to the Highway Construction Program will be used to fund Tier 3 projects. Local ARRA balances will be made available to three additional local projects which were certified on March 8. After September 30, 2010, ARRA funds may not be re-obligated and any balances will be turned over to FHWA for distribution back to the states for project cost increases. |
Last revised on August 26, 2010