State And Fed Stimulus—

Funding Delays Reroute Local Road Projects

By John Voket

Newtown Public Works Director Fred Hurley was matter-of-fact when first asked about the status of local road projects being underwritten by state budget and federal economic stimulus funds.

“There aren’t any; next question,” Mr Hurley stated, before offering detailed information explaining why even one of the most high profile proposed stimulus projects on Queen Street will not be happening anytime soon.

Mr Hurley said he met with state Department of Transportation officials August 12, and as a result of updates he received in that meeting, he has nearly completed “reassembling the federal application for the stimulus funds.”

First and foremost, the public works director said a two-phase proposal to mill and repave Queen Street with the hope of eventually installing sidewalks on part or all of the expanse is currently “off the table for federal funding.”

Mr Hurley explained that structuring the project to accommodate Federal Highway Administration (FHA) guidelines, as applied to this particular local road project, would escalate the cost to more than $1.2 million.

“If we handle this ourselves, without applying for the stimulus grant, Queen Street will end up costing a fraction of that,” Mr Hurley said, putting the estimated Phase 1 cost at around $160,000. As a result, the town will restructure and fast-track its federal application through the state DOT to a combined project involving Castle Hill and Castle Meadow Roads.

Those separate projects originally designated in the first round of transportation stimulus included $255,902 for paving work to improve the overall safety of Castle Meadow Road, and construction work centering around Castle Hill Road in the area Mr Hurley once described as the “car eating curve.”

That expanse is at the base of the north/south hill leading into town, with an estimated price tag of about $291,000. Mr Hurley said the revised application for the combined project closely matches the DOT’s and FHA’s approximate cost to complete — between $700,000 and $800,000.

As for road funds that were expected from the 2009-2010 state budget, which has yet to be approved, Mr Hurley said the town “can’t really plan based on state promises.”

As a result, Mr Hurley is planning to reallocate local capital money back to road projects that were originally deferred farther into the future.

“We’re looking at moving up Brushy Hill and Obtuse Road projects,” he said. “We’re hoping to reorient the capital funding to fast-track these projects between now and next summer because of the delay in implementing the stimulus package.”

Improvising is required, because of both state budget and federal stimulus delays. “It’s all tied together — and the state delay isn’t helping.”

Mr Hurley cited a simple milling project that is currently scheduled to take a month to review at the state level. “That same project would take us 24 hours to review locally,” he said.

In regard to the two Castle Hill projects, Mr Hurley said the town must have bidding completed, and a final sign-off by the state, to trigger the federal stimulus by February 2010 in order to qualify to get the money promised earlier this year.

“It’s frustrating because we were one of first towns in state to submit an application for stimulus funding back in February 2009,” he said. “Now we won’t even have final approval at the state level until next February.”

As far as the town’s role in the application process is concerned, the public works director said Newtown is “going to move as quickly as possible to give state and fed maximum time for approvals.”

Mr Hurley also pointed out that some recent criticism from council members about delaying road projects was ironic, since $2 million in road and bridge project cuts were approved by the council in the latest municipal budget.

In the long-term, he said planned road projects have consistently lacked the level of funding expected, to the extent that a previous 20-year plan to fully renovate all Newtown roads and bridges will now likely take more than to 30 years.

This bureaucratic phenomenon has caused a domino effect impacting local bridges. Since those projects are potentially more critical, Mr Hurley said addressing bridge priorities is taking funding away from roads.

“You never want to get to the point where you’re Band-Aiding bridges,” he said, adding that to date, all Newtown bridges classified as “poor” in the initial road and bridge survey have been renovated or replaced.

“Now we’re at the point where we are beginning to reconstruct bridges determined to be in ‘fair’ condition,” he said. “And those have be done in next 20 years.”

Mr Hurley said the structures in question were originally installed in the 1920s and 30s.

“Their useful life cycle will be at 75–95 years by time the last one is replaced,” he said. “That’s a very different order of magnitude than roads that need potholes filled or drainage systems replaced.”

Summer Projects Stalled

The Associated Press recently reported that in many Connecticut communities, the failure by the General Assembly and Governor M. Jodi Rell to approve a state budget is bringing summer road construction work to a standstill.

The state has been operating without a budget the beginning of the fiscal year, July 1. Gov Rell and legislators are negotiating to cover a deficit of more than $8 billion in the 2010-11 fiscal years.

Gov Rell has been paying state bills through monthly executive orders, but they have not included at least $11 million that the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities believes is needed to fund summer road construction projects in the state’s 169 communities. Budget negotiations are ongoing.

“This is certainly something that’s affecting towns all over Connecticut,” said Kevin Maloney, spokesman for the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities. “Construction season in Connecticut is usually from late April to early October and to have the budget up in the air for so long hasn’t been good for towns trying to figure out how they’re going to pay for road and construction projects.”

Mr Maloney said he assumes the grant will be paid through bond funding this year rather than from the state general fund.

Bart Russell, executive director of the Connecticut Council of Small Towns, said towns are feeling the squeeze as the days of summer wind down.

“I think where towns are feeling the most pressure is that they want to get construction done before the school buses start rolling,” he said. “I’m sure this is a huge inconvenience to residents and businesses with roads that were planned to be repaired this summer but are not.”