«
»
The In Box Home

The stimulus is coming, and it ain’t flashy

by on April 15th, 2009

Yesterday, Governor Paterson’s office announced $34 million in transportation and infrastructure funding for the North Country. We’ve been receiving a flood of stimulus-related press releases from the Gov lately, so it’s hard to keep up. But I believe this is the first big chunk of federal stimulus money I’ve seen specifically dedicated to the North Country.

And here’s what our “economic recovery” looks like:

  • $900,000 to resurface approximately one mile of Oak Street, a Plattsburgh city street, and one mile of North Catherine Street (State Route 22), also in Plattsburgh.
  • $5 million to resurface and provide fresh pavement markings on approximately 40 miles of various highways in Lewis, Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Franklin and Clinton counties.
  • $800,000 to replace five intersection signal systems in Clinton, Franklin and Jefferson counties.
  • $1.1 million for a project to provide much-needed maintenance to approximately 500 miles of highway in Lewis, Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Franklin and Clinton counties. This work involves cleaning and sealing cracks in the pavement that contribute to deterioration of the highway surface.
  • $2.2 million to repair bridges in Lewis, Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Franklin and Clinton counties.
  • $1.3 million to complete a project replacing deteriorated guide rail in the Adirondack Park in Clinton Franklin and St. Lawrence counties.
  • $1.4 million for a project to provide needed maintenance work to two bridges in St. Lawrence County. One structure is on State Route 11B and crosses the East Branch of the St. Regis River while the second is on State Route 420 and crosses over the Racquette River.
  • $4 million for a project to restore the protective paint on eight bridges in Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties.
  • $3.5 million for a project to rehabilitate four large culverts in Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties.

Wow, fixing culverts and guard rails, traffic lights and potholes, bridges and yellow lines. Now that’s bread and butter, mundane economic development.

Tags:

Leave a Reply