Road, water, transport projects are ready to go

By Alexandra Berzon

Monday, Dec. 1, 2008 | 2 a.m.

As President-elect Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress signal that they want a new economic stimulus package to include federal money for public works projects, officials at agencies across Nevada are imagining the possibilities.

Calls to a number of agencies in recent days revealed a wish list of more than $1 billion in unfunded infrastructure projects that state and local agencies say they could begin quickly.

An example is the Las Vegas Wash environmental restoration project. The Southern Nevada Water Authority plans to spend $100 million more over 10 years on the body of water that runs through the eastern part of the Las Vegas Valley to Lake Mead. But that could be accelerated if the agency receives more federal funding, which would go for erosion control systems, habitat restoration and other improvements.

The Transportation Department has about $250 million in repaving projects and other work that could start swiftly if more money becomes available. The Clark County Regional Transportation Commission has $700 million in projects that could benefit from additional federal money, including the Boulder Highway rapid transit line, which otherwise won’t start for two years.

“This could really be a domino effect and provide a shot in the arm for projects ready to go now and in the future,” Nevada Transportation Department spokesman Scott Magruder said.

Details of a potential economic stimulus bill still haven’t emerged. Obama said last weekend he wanted to create or save 2.5 million jobs by cutting taxes for lower- and middle-class Americans and by spending money on roads and schools, as well as on environmentally friendly technology.

The numbers being bandied about now are far more than those discussed as recently as a month ago. And the strategy is a departure from the most recent economic stimulus bill passed this year that gave rebate checks to taxpayers.

Many economists say the rebates didn’t do much for the economy because a large percentage of taxpayers saved the money. But some business groups have argued that rebate checks are more efficient stimulus because public works projects too long to get started so they don’t inject money into the economy fast enough.

Other groups have gone on the offensive to dismiss that charge.

The American Public Works Association unveiled the results of a recent survey of 470 public officials that found 3,600 projects worth $15 billion nationwide are ready to go within 90 days.

In Nevada, the association surveyed five city and county public works officials and found $297.5 million in unfunded projects ready to go, including a wastewater treatment upgrade, sewage lines and highway work.

Government affairs manager Laura Berkey said the association could not reveal which agencies were included in their survey (so some projects could overlap with those described to the Sun directly by local agencies). She estimates those projects would create 10,337 jobs in Nevada.

Because of funding limitations, she said, “agencies have had to pick and choose what’s of prime importance instead of doing everything that needs to be done. The need is very great to improve our infrastructure.”

The American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials estimates that public works agencies could start work within 90 days on 3,000 highway jobs worth $18 billion, providing 500,000 jobs nationwide.

Magruder, the DOT spokesman, said in Nevada, those could include highway road maintenance throughout the state, some of which has been put on hold due to budget shortfalls.

Magruder said he hopes more federal funding for those projects could also free up money to begin bigger, longer-term initiatives, including widening northbound lanes of US 395 in Reno and widening Interstate 15 South between Tropicana and Sloan in Las Vegas. Overall, the agency needs $6 billion in funding in the next five years to keep up with the state’s needs, Magruder said.

“One of our goals is to continue designing so that even if there’s no funding, the projects are on the shelf and they’re ready to go,” Magruder said.

Tracy Bower, Clark County RTC’s director of governmental affairs, said her agency is compiling a list of ready-to-go projects from the commission, Clark County, and every city in the county to prepare for possible funding.

In addition to the $80 million phase of the commission’s ACE rapid transit system that would connect Boulder Highway to downtown, projects include the expansion of Interstate 215 at the airport for $200 million, improvements at Esther Pearson Park in Las Vegas for $800,000, and a storm drain project in Las Vegas for $45 million, as well as a long list of road improvements.

“The funding usually lags behind what we need to do,” Bower said.

Clark County School District, on the other hand, takes a different approach. Should the stimulus bill allocate money to school building projects, the district would not have projects ready to go.

District spokesman Michael Rodriguez says the district has only planned projects that have funding attached under the 1998 school bond.