Highways Agency Gets $26.6 Billion As Obama, Biden Visit
President Obama and Vice President Biden visited the U.S. Department of Transportation's headquarters together today, the first time that has happened. Obama and Biden paid the call to announce $26.6 billion in stimulus money is available today to the Federal Highway Administration, which will send that money along to the states for highway, road, and bridge projects. Biden's office issued a news release saying the total $28 billion for such projects contained in the stimulus package is expected to lead to 150,000 jobs saved or created by the end of 2010.
DOT said the money went to work today on the first project approved under the stimulus legislation: a State Route 650 four-mile resurfacing project in Montgomery County, Md., which borders the District of Columbia. The legislation is called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Biden's release said the median hourly wage paid to highway construction workers in 2007 was $18.31, compared to the median $15.10 for all jobs in the U.S. economy, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.