DOT Stimulus Payouts Top $1.7 Billion

The Department of Transportation paid out another $243 million for stimulus projects bills in the week ending Aug. 14, bringing the total it has spent so far to $1.737 billion.

That is part of a predicted escalation in DOT disbursements that saw weekly spending jump from the tens of millions of dollars earlier this summer to hundreds of millions in each recent week. In the Aug. 7 week, spending leaped by $347 million.

While the spending amounts are a much-watched indicator of how the Recovery Act is putting money into the economy, it also understates the stimulus impact at any one time. That’s because most of the payments take place after project work is done and states bill their federal accounts to pay contractors.

DOT said it has authorized project spending of more than $25 billion, out of $48 billion it will disburse over 2009 and 2010, and that thousands of those construction projects are under way right now across the country, to fix roads, bridges, airports, some freight railroads and even some trucking and barge port facilities.

Across all federal agencies, disbursements from the $787 billion stimulus measure reached $80.9 billion through Aug. 14 or 10.3 percent of the projected total. Projects or program spending of more than $204 billion has been authorized so far.

Additional targeted transport spending will soon come in the first grants from an $8 billion fund for high-speed and other passenger rail projects, some of which will upgrade existing freight rail systems to accommodate passenger trains. And Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said he will soon issue grants from a $1.5 billion discretionary account that will include some seaport needs.

In addition, the Maritime Administration on Aug. 18 issued 70 Recovery Act grants for $98 million to improve small shipyards, an amount not included in the Aug. 14 spending totals.

And DOT is running the “cash for clunkers” program that has spurred automobile sales and some new auto production, but has swamped federal officials trying to vet the paperwork before reimbursing car dealerships.

Other transportation spending, outside the DOT, includes a Coast Guard program that is refitting some rail bridges over navigable waterways, and an Environmental Protection Agency program that pays to refit or replace commercial freight equipment to reduce diesel emissions.