DOT Pushes Stimulus Payouts to $2.35 billion

Federal stimulus disbursements by the Department of Transportation swelled to $2.354 billion by Aug. 28, up nearly $331 million in a single week as a range of highway, air, transit and other infrastructure projects generated bills to pay.

DOT’s agencies are spending funds that range from runway repairs to road and bridge construction, shipyard improvements and inner-city commuter projects.

The new total for how much the department has paid out on project bills coming due is up $1.2 billion from the end of July, as the spending level escalated in late summer. For the past month weekly payouts have run roughly from a quarter-billion dollars to a third of a billion.

Part of that was to reimburse automobile dealerships for the heavily used “cash for clunkers” program, which ramped up starting in late July and went through two rounds of funding worth nearly $3 billion in four weeks. DOT had to bring in extra staff to process payments for the trade-in vouchers, and is still paying back car dealers.

But that program gave a jolt to car builders, who are reopening and expanding some assembly lines to replenish vehicle inventories, in the process ordering up inputs hauled by trains and trucks. So the ripple effects are stimulating a number of industries.

DOT says its spending will keep growing. It has now approved $28 billion worth of projects, more than half its allowed total, and that does not yet include freight and passenger rail construction projects that were requested through Aug. 24.

Other agencies also spend money on freight-related projects, such as Environmental Protection Agency grants to replace or upgrade dirty freight diesel engines, and Coast Guard allocations for rail bridge projects over navigable rivers.

The administration’s Recovery.gov Web site said all federal agencies by Aug. 28 had approved projects worth more than $217 billion under the $787 billion, two-year stimulus law, and paid out about $89 billion.

Contact John D. Boyd at jboyd@joc.com.