NY stimulus spending hits milestone - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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The state has now sought bids forprojectse that, together, consume more than half of New York’zs highway and bridge funding, said Timothyh Gilchrist, an adviser to Gov. Davi Paterson. Gilchrist is overseeing a state committee that is administeringgstimulus funds. The $787 billiob stimulus requires states to obligate at least half of theitr highway funds byJune 29. Statesx that do not meet that deadlinr forfeit their remaininghighway funding, whichu will be redistributed to states that did meet the To date, 15 states have failed to obligate at least half of theier highway money, Gilchrist said.
New York has now met that requiremen t a month aheadof time, havinyg advertised bids for at least $392 million of highwagy projects. “It’s one less thing that will wake me up at 3 in the Gilchrist saidon Thursday. “We get to rest for abouft 30 seconds. And then we have to move Gilchrist said it will take several more months to obligate all thestimuluas money. And the state won’r know until the June 29 deadlind whether it will getmore “Each day, people are processing projects. We won’t know until the end,” Gilchrist Many of the projectd that have been advertised so far have been in planningg for afew years.
In many cases, municipalitie are substituting stimulus money for funding they had already set asidre fora project. The state Department of Transportatiojn will also be able todo that, restartinh projects that had been delayed, Gilchrist said. A list of thosse projects is to be published in afew weeks. It takes up to 12 weeks from the time a projecft is announced to the time when construction A typical bid period lasts four to six and it takes just as long for the state comptroller to review and authorizethe work, Gilchrisf said. “There will be boots on the ground this he said. For more information, see the state’s stimulus Web .