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Stimulus will take time
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Published: February 11, 2009
The Congress, with President Obama's support, is almost certain to pass legislation soon involving a stimulus package. A critical part of this legislation is the repair and improvement of the country's infrastructure.
The public is under the false impression that these infrastructure improvements will put people back to work almost immediately. It won't happen that quickly! While these projects are needed and can employ many persons who are currently unemployed, there will be a time lapse between funding and when construction work begins.
After funding, infrastructure projects must be designed by engineers and public meetings must be held to discuss their merits. Afterward, comments brought up in these meetings must be addressed and responded to by government officials.
Then, in most cases, land acquisition must be undertaken and right-of-way acquired, sometimes by time-consuming condemnation proceedings. This is followed by a solicitation for bids from construction contractors, receipt of these proposals and awarding of contracts.
Winning contractors must then hire and train inexperienced workers to augment their current staffs. Actual construction can begin after these steps are completed.
I believe that selecting justifiable infrastructure projects, prioritizing them, then funding them is an excellent way of putting people back to work and I hope that our elected officials act quickly on this, but the public must not be misled into thinking that this is a quick fix that can employ millions of people with a few months.
Let's hope that the Executive and the Legislative branches act responsibly in this matter.
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