After early concerns of delays, stimulus-funded road projects on track in Nebraska

Stimulus-funded road projects on track in Neb.

LINCOLN, Neb. — Nebraska officials have quieted concerns that millions of dollars worth of stimulus-funded road projects would be delayed, saying that construction on all the remaining projects in the state will be under way this spring and summer.

“No one wanted Nebraska to fail,” said Kahlil Jaber, project manager engineer with the Nebraska Department of Roads. “Last year we were skeptical, we thought we were going to have some problems.”

But contracts have been awarded for all 122 stimulus projects, both state highway and local roads, paid for with about $235 million in federal stimulus dollars. Local projects make up almost $74 million of the total.

Early in the stimulus-project process, state officials including Gov. Dave Heineman partially blamed too much red tape from federal officials for expected delays in local road projects paid for with stimulus dollars. A year ago, just one contract, in McCook, had been awarded for a local project.

But they also had themselves to blame: They hadn’t fully complied with requirements stemming from a 2007 federal audit that showed a lack of local oversight of local road projects. State highway projects didn’t face similar problems.

Jaber said state and local officials worked together to meet federal requirements and fast-track road projects without cutting corners.

“If we had followed the normal process, there’s no way we would have gotten these projects out quickly,” Jaber said.

Road work was a key piece of the stimulus package meant to jolt the economy and that was approved early last year by Congress and President Barack Obama.

The 122 projects are scattered across the state, from a city street in South Sioux City in the northeast to a county road near Harrisburg, located near the Wyoming border.

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On the Net:

Nebraska Department of Roads: www.dor.state.ne.us/