Road builders issue stimulus report

There are currently 68 American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA)-financed highway construction projects underway or completed in Mississippi involving $281.5 million in funds, according to data released by Washington, D.C.-based American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA).

The projects underway or completed have supported or are supporting 7,831 jobs in Mississippi that would otherwise not exist, says ARTBA vice president of economics and research Dr. Bill Buechner.

ARRA provided $356.3 million to Mississippi for highway, bridge and related improvements. This one-time bonus added more than 91 percent to Mississippi’s regular federal highway funds under the current federal surface transportation law—Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU)—bringing the state’s total federal highway funding in 2009 to a record $745.5 million.

According to Buechner, a Harvard-trained economist, another 95 projects have been identified and are slated to be under construction shortly.