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Obama proposes $50 bln for road, rail and airways

07 September 2010 08:46 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. President Barack Obama would spend $50 billion on revamping highways, rails and airport runways to create jobs in the near term and improve the long-term U.S. transportation network, Forexyard reported.

The $50 billion would be spent in the first year and be part of a six-year transportation bill that must be passed by Congress, an administration official said.

An infrastructure bank would be created under the plan to leverage federal funds with state, local and private funding for important projects.

Following is a summary of the proposal, its likely impact and possible ways to offset its cost.

Rebuild 150,000 miles (240,000 km) of roads and bridges while expanding capacity on some of them. Construct and maintain 4,000 miles (6,400 km) of rail lines, both high-speed rail and commuter lines. The plan also would "invest in a long-overdue overhaul of the Amtrak passenger fleet." Rehabilitate or reconstruct 150 miles (240 km) of airport runways and put in place a NextGen air-traffic control system. Among improvements would be use of a satellite-based surveillance system, which would be more accurate than ground-based radar.

The plan would lead to "a substantial number of jobs" beginning in 2011, says the White House. The unemployment rate among construction workers is 17 percent, compared with the U.S. average of 9.6 percent.

Transportation experts say $1 billion in transportation construction spending creates 35,000 jobs.

A permanent infrastructure bank would help finance big-ticket transport projects by combining federal, state and local government funds with private financing. There has been little congressional interest in the idea.

The White House says the bank would have more insulation from political pressure than traditional approaches such as formulas that divide money among states or guarantee funding for various ideas.

At the same time, the administration would consolidate more than 100 transportation programs and use performance measurements to award money. Factors such as safety, environmental sustainability and economic competitiveness would be considered.