Shovel ready stimulus projects?

[thelakelander]

Was the definition of "shovel ready" different for Miami and Jax?

Miami compiles $432 million, 34-project transportation stimulus list

The City of Miami is asking the county's planning organization to consider a $432 million list of 34 transportation projects for federal stimulus money.  City Manager Pete Hernandez said the state is handing federal funding for local transportation projects to Miami-Dade's Metropolitan Planning Organization, the Miami-Dade transportation planning arm.  "We have been able to fine tune the list to meet certain criteria for eligibility," he said.

Selected transportation projects have to be ready to go in either 90 days or by June 2010.

According to the city's list, 23 projects are ready to begin construction within a three-month time totaling $44.9 million in needed funding estimated to create 898 jobs.  Projects include citywide drainage and sidewalk improvements, each at a price of $10 million and a job creation of 200.

Another item calls for buying rubber-tire trolleys to connect communities to Downtown Miami, Brickell and the Health District estimated to cost $5 million and yield 100 jobs.  The city also asks for $2 million in funding to restore the Brickell Key Bridge that would create 40 jobs.  Six additional items, ranging from $700,000 to $850,000 in required costs, are to provide trolley services to Little Havana, Coconut Grove, Allapattah, Southeast Overtown and Park West area, and downtown's upper eastside.  The list shows each trolley project could generate more than a dozen jobs.

Another 11 transportation and road projects â€" totaling $387 million in needed funds that would create 2,704 jobs â€" could be ready to go by mid-2010, the city's list shows The Miami Streetcar project â€" a light rail train connection from downtown to the Design District and the Health District â€" is one of them.

Miami is asking for $280 million to build the streetcar that would generate 560 jobs. Also, listed are plans for roadway and drainage improvements along South Bayshore Drive at a cost of $8 million and creating 160 jobs.
Another $20 million is requested to build a pedestrian-accessible sidewalk and make hardscape and landscape improvements along the roadway and Miami River â€" from Northwest Seventh to Northwest 12th avenues and Northwest Third Avenue to Bicentennial Park.  This project would lead to 400 new jobs.  The city also seeks $15 million to build a sidewalk and make landscape improvements along the roadway and river, west of Northwest 12th Avenue, yielding 300 jobs.

Mr. Hernandez said the city is keeping a close watch on the economic recovery package, which got Senate approval on Tuesday, to look for other ready-to-go projects that meet federal eligibility.
City departments have been directed to look at potential projects, he said.
"We need to prepare as much as we can in advance, so when eligibility becomes available we can move forward expeditiously."

http://www.miamitodaynews.com/news/090212/story5.shtml

[civil42806]

Miami is asking for $280 million to build the streetcar that would generate 560 jobs.


$500,000 per job one might note, if one was cynical.   I suspect that the people employed won't quite make that much.  Nice bit of overhead, I know there will be spin offs, hopefully if the money is actually spent it will produce something that will be useful to the city.

[Charles Hunter]

Well, for construction projects you have lots of very expensive materials.  Now the race is on to get that first batch of money committed.

[tufsu1]

They can ask for anything they want, but they won't get it

From what I understand of the funding formula, Jacksonville's MPO will be getting about $30 million for local/regional projects (separate from FDOT's money)....and has about a million people...so thats $30 per person.

In Miami, that would translate into about $75 million for all non-DOT projects.

And in Tampa, the MPO just voted to take all of its share and pool it w/ FDOT money to get moving on the I-4/Crosstown Connector.

[thelakelander]

Broward County planners say Dixie Highway may be sole stimulus project

By Michael Turnbell | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
February 18, 2009

Broward County expects to receive $40 million for roads and bridges from the federal stimulus plan and, if transportation planners have their way, they'll spend it all on one massive project.

Construction of a Dixie Highway overpass could start this year with an infusion of cash that will be showered on counties from the federal government's $787 billion economic stimulus package.

The new four-lane bridge would carry Dixie over Northeast Second Street, the Florida East Coast Railway and the Hillsboro Canal, smoothing out traffic flow between Deerfield Beach and Boca Raton. It also would eliminate a notorious zig-zagging, two-lane stretch of Dixie that forces drivers to slow down and make sharp turns.

But some city officials are upset that all the money could go to one project and be spent on a state road instead of a city or county road or bridge. They also question whether putting all the dollars into one project would generate as much economic stimulus as spreading the money around.

full article: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-flbstimulus0218sbfeb18,0,7865439.story