Finance & Funding
Climate Change
In the United States, many local governments have
had their plans for transportation projects impacted
by the reduction of tax revenues and project funding
due to the current economic downturn. As money for
transportation projects is reduced, many projects
have been temporarily halted waiting for funds to
become available.
States, counties, municipalities and cities are anx-
iously waiting to find out what money will be available
and how they can spend it based on recent information
about an economic stimulus package. That package will
provide money for infrastructure upgrades and devel-
opment. A challenge for the local government will be to
quickly identify and submit projects for infrastructure
funding that won’t take a long time to research and
implement, while at the same time provide projects that
are significant enough to make use of the funds and have
a large enough impact in order to stimulate the economy
by creating jobs.
Stimulating the stimuli
In a recent report listing proposed economic stimulus
projects, it is estimated that about half of the stimulus
package funding will be earmarked for programs and
projects that will stimulate job growth. The balance will
be used for tax relief measures to help individuals,
“Transportation
projects tend to be
a good way to
generate economic
benefi ts as they
have been planned,
but are just waiting
for funding”
families and businesses. A majority of funding used to
create jobs will go towards transportation initiatives
even though funding for investments in technology and
healthcare are a high priority. Transportation projects
tend to be a good way to generate economic benefits as
these projects have been planned, but are just waiting
for funding. These types of transportation projects can
be initiated with short notice and immediately create
employment opportunities.
It is likely that state Departments of Transportation
(DOTs) will follow existing protocol of having federal
funds provided directly to them. Then, project funding
to local governments will be disbursed by the DOT
based on their current allocation process. Even though
the existing process may not be agreeable to all local
governments, in order to move projects ahead as quickly
as possible, it is unlikely the process will change.
Transportation projects can take the form of new road
construction, road upgrades, public transportation sys-
tems as well as changes to traffic intersection control
www.thinkinghighways.com Thinking Highways Vol 4 No 1 27
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