Construction Informer

Regardless of who slices and dices the proposed economic stimulus package making its way through Congress their assessments are enough to numb the collective consciousness of 30 math scholars confined to a room with one chalk board.

By using viral phrases like “shovel ready,” (right, like we want to do this work with shovels), the infrastructure spending has been touted as a quick way to get parts of the economy moving. The Congressional Budget Office found that 64 percent of the projects would be completed in 19 months, and that construction projects offered the slowest return on stimulus dollars. And then, there were of course, the inclusion of contentious items like millions of dollars for improvements to the National Mall that many believe will offer scant economic benefit at the price of driving up the deficit.

Meanwhile the states are lining up like dutiful recipients and are already peppering the media with prognostications about how glorious the packages will be. Virginia is arguably the most blatant about its prospects as one of its congressional delegates went on the record to imply that as a result of that state’s governor’s relationship with the President it was sure to “see a lot of money.”

In Nueces County, TX, there is some contention over stimulus money being requested for construction projects that are already funded.

A Senator from New Hampshire wants to see more construction money for that state’s colleges, and power line upgrades.

New Auburn, MN, has an aggressive plan to pave some streets and besides considering a special assessment, it is also hopeful the stimulus package will pay the bills.

Others complain of obscure requirements included in the bill and of the small amount of money made available for construction.

In Hawaii, one writer laments the requirement that all projects funded by the stimulus must pay Davis-Bacon prevailing wage rates. He estimated the result will be a $17 billion inflation of project costs, thereby depressing local economies.

A Congresswoman in WA claimed one of the reasons she voted against the stimulus package was because only five percent of the funds were devoted to infrastructure, and that much of the package wouldn’t take effect until 2010 or later.

If you are interested in what projects are being considered for stimulus money you can download information on 18,000 of them from Reed Construction Data. Then, get those pencils sharpened ’cause there’s going to have to be some serious estimating going on.