President Obama is scheduled to sign the $787 billion economic stimulus plan in Denver today. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes $26.8 billion in direct funding to states for "shovel ready" road and bridge projects.


"Shovel-ready" means that states have a week from the signing of the bill to show how they will obligate half of their funds within 90 days. States are required to update their progress in successive monthly reports. Any funds not obligated within 90 days will be distributed to other states.

Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and a principle author of the infrastructure portion of the mammoth bill, promised "vigorous oversight."

"We will insist that states, cities, and transit agencies live up to their assurances that they will be able to have contracts in place in 90 days for a substantial portion of the funding authorized by this bill," he said. "We will insist that projects under this bill be new projects, not simply replacements for projects which States were planning to carry out under existing programs. We will insist that Federal agencies expedite the process of approving projects and awarding grants."

The bill includes other transportation spending: $6.7 billion for transit projects; $9.3 billion for rail, $8 billion of which goes to high-speed intercity projects; $1.5 billion for surface transport projects including port infrastructure; and $1.3 billion for aviation improvement projects.
This portion of the bill also includes substantial spending in clean water projects. Altogether, transport and infrastructure investment in the bill amounts to $64.1 billion - a relatively small piece of the $787 billion stimulus package.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has said that most of the infrastructure money will go through state departments of transportation. He has set up a group of senior DOT officials, dubbed the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Team, to make sure the money gets out quickly.

The team, chaired by Lana Hurdle, deputy assistant secretary for budget and programs, and Joel Szabat, deputy assistant secretary for transportation policy, is charged with identifying key projects and developing reporting standards to track the money, DOT said.

To read the stimulus legislation for yourself, click here.