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.

This week's stimulus snapshot

• Seven more local stimulus projects completed 
• Recovery Act highway project payroll topped $130 million to date 
• One state project completed – I-5 concrete rehabilitation in Pierce and Thurston counties 
• City of Airway Heights awarded Lawson Street project 
• Important stimulus dates 
• Useful Recovery Act web links 
• Stimulus data table update
  

Seven more local Recovery Act highway projects completed – Local governments reported seven more projects completed this week. The projects included street paving in Port Angeles, Olympia, Rainier, and Kelso, new intersection lighting in Mason County, and road widening and improvements in Poulsbo and Clallam County. Three were finished in early summer and four were completed in the last few weeks. To date, local governments have completed 126, or 74%, of the 170 local highway projects that received $152 million in Recovery Act funds.

• Clallam County – Mt Pleasant Road
• Mason County – Solar Lighted Intersections
• Olympia – Union Avenue
• Port Angeles – Peabody Street
• Poulsbo – Viking Avenue Phase 3
• Rainier – Minnesota Street
• Kelso – 13th Ave Overlay
  

Stimulus highway projects have paid out more than $131 million in payroll – Employees on state and local highway projects receiving Recovery Act funds in Washington worked over 173,000 hours and earned payroll totaling $6.9 million in September. To date, employees have worked over 3.4 million hours on and earned more than $131 million from projects receiving stimulus funds. Now that 74% of the highway stimulus projects are operationally complete and fall weather has taken hold, WSDOT expects fewer labor hours to be reported through the fall and winter months. For more information, see the main Recovery Act employment webpage.

One local project awarded – On October 22, the city of Airway Heights in Spokane County advertised its Lawson Street project. The city received $1 million in Recovery Act funds to reconstruct the road. All but eight Recovery Act highway projects are now completed, awarded, or under way.

Federal Transportation Blog highlights this week – Check the WSDOT Federal Issues blog for recent items on TIGER II grant announcements, high-speed rail, the Obama administration’s transportation plans, and the planned transportation reauthorization bill.

WSDOT Highlight of the Week

Treat for construction-weary I-5 travelers in Thurston and Pierce counties – A six-month project that rehabilitates more than 25 miles of Interstate 5 between Pierce and Thurston counties has come to an end.

The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) said the project was completed this week, adding 20 years of life to sections of I-5 that carry 100,000 to 150,000 vehicles each day.

Crews replaced 50- and 60-year-old concrete panels that had exceeded their life expectancy by 20 years. Workers reinforced other parts of the roadway by installing more than 53,000 steel dowels, and they ground smooth nearly 211,000 square yards of roadway surface.

“This $8.4 million project funded by the 2009 American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) not only brings new life to this part of the I-5 corridor but also puts people to work,” said Paula Hammond, Secretary of Transportation. “Up to 67 crew members, including laborers, operators, truck drivers, mechanics, concrete masons and iron workers, worked hard on this project every week.”

Thanks to motorists, weeknight lane closures and eleven extended weekend closures necessary to complete the work with minimum traffic disruption went off without a hitch.

“The motoring public had a big role in the success of this project,” said Kevin Dayton, WSDOT region administrator. “The patience they showed while I-5 was reduced to a single lane overnight for the past six months was incredible. On the extended closure weekends, we asked drivers to avoid I-5 in Lakewood altogether because we knew that normal traffic volumes would cause many miles of backups. Motorists listened, and traffic volumes during those weekends dropped as much as 40 percent.”

Important dates

October 30: Federal accountability reports published at Recovery.gov
November 20: Next accountability report to the T & I Committee
Fall: Next high-speed rail grant announcements expected
December 1: New federal accountability reporting will be posted at USASpending.gov

Websites of interest

WSDOT ARRA website: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/funding/stimulus
WSDOT Federal Transportation Issues blog: http://wsdotfederalfunding.blogspot.com
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 Railroad 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)