DOT stimulus funds going further than expected

The North Carolina Department of Transportation is anticipating another $100 million in federal stimulus funding for highway and bridge projects after project bids have come in less than anticipated.

"The general overall savings is around an average of 20 percent, so far, on projects," Victor Barbour, the DOT's administrator for technical services, said Wednesday.

The state initially received $735 million designated for certain projects to help boost the economy. Because of the lower bids, the DOT has added more than 40 projects to its master list, bringing the total to 284. More are expected in the coming months.

Berry Jenkins, with the Carolinas Association of General Contractors, an interest group for contractors and road builders statewide, said however that the low bids are a reflection of the overall economy.

"They're just hoping, keeping their fingers crossed, that (the economy) will get better, that the recovery will turn around," he said.

The bigger concern for the group is what will happen to some of the companies once all the stimulus funds are assigned by next year.

"They're doing it to survive," he said. "There (are) companies that have told me, and I believe that they're being truthful, that if they did not take some work below their actual cost, they would have to close their doors."

"We have to do all we can to keep the contractors alive," Barbour said. "For us at DOT, competition is a wonderful thing. The more healthy contractors we have, the better we'll all be from a taxpayer perspective."

9 Comments

WRAL.com welcomes your comments on this story. All comments are moderated prior to publication based on our posting guidelines. Please review them prior to posting and if your message is not approved.

VIEW ALL 9 COMMENTS

This story is closed for comments.

Latest Comments

Actually, the contractors are underbidding the state's own estimates out of desperation. Getting some money coming in is better than getting no money at all, so they cut their costs to the bone to get the job.

When the economy picks up and there's construction going on everywhere, both from the public and private side, contractors will bid up their prices because there will be more work than they can handle at any one time.

Oh, and these stimulus projects are mostly small projects like resurfacing, intersection improvement and safety related. There's a few larger ones but most are like the ones I just mentioned.

Now if Raleigh will get around to repaving the milled out portion of New Hope Road near US 64 Business...

Bendal1
October 22, 2009 3:42 p.m.

It's just funny to me that when you take all the 'Extra' hands out of the pot, that all of a sudden there is an increased amount of funding available to do the jobs that were originally slated to get done.

But that's just my opinion.

Cragsdale
October 22, 2009 12:34 p.m.

What, did the NCDOT find someone willing to pave a mile of road for under 23 Million?

Anyone actually see that "stimulus" construction taking place?

Not ONE major road project in my entire county...how about yours?

affirmativediversity
October 22, 2009 11:40 a.m.

These are typically large multi-million dollar projects. Some last a very long time. Contractors will low-bid the projects to just get them, and then he has few choices in how to actually make money. Do it faster than possible, hope SOMETHING else comes in to overlap, or beat the state up over change orders, which is the typical method. They look for ANY SMALL blip in the designs, and make it out to be the worst thing possible. We then have taxpayer employees spending massive amounts of time either defending something, or arguing a point. "Contractors" are not a bunch of fat cats rolling in money, we're talking about regular employees that get paid a regular salary....many of them are your neigbors and mine. I wish people would learn about how things really work, and realize that being successful in this country isn't a bad thing.

Many of you are too lazy, or too incompetent to actually make something of yourself, so quit trying to make those that have out to be the enemy!!

ObamaMustGo aka NCcarguy
October 22, 2009 10:44 a.m.

I guess I'm confused. Why would you take a job AT A LOSS? If you're in a desperate financial condition, wouldn't taking jobs at a loss hasten your going out of business?

Something sounds fishy about that. I assume what they really mean is that they're not making any money after they've paid all the salaries, including the salaries of the owners of these companies. So everyone is still making money, but the business itself is not reaping additional profits.