RI Ranked Number One in National Transit Report

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Thursday, February 03, 2011

Leah Michaels, GoLocalProv Contributor

Based on a new report by Smart Growth America, Rhode Island is tied for first place for investing all of the money it received from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in fixing old roads and encouraging environmentally-friendly and efficient public transportation.

Rhode Island’s success in using these open-ended transportation dollars means that the state government can get more jobs for the money and work on healing the suffering state economy, mirroring President Obama’s intention to reboot the national economy by repairing transportation-related infrastructure.

The rankings were created based on how states spent their portion of the $26.6 billion dollars from the ARRA. Rhode Island, along with seven other states, holds first place for using the ARRA money for first fixing old roads and bridges in disrepair rather than building new ones.

“Smart Growth America commends Rhode Island for using its federal stimulus funding to maximize job creation,” said Geoff Anderson, President and CEO of Smart Growth America. “If Rhode Island can continue its focus on accelerating repair and maintenance and expanding access to public transportation – while minimizing transportation related borrowing and debt service – then we believe the state can bring its transportation infrastructure into a state of good repair, put people back to work and expand economic opportunity.”

According to the report, 16 percent more jobs are created from the repair and maintenance of existing bridges and roads than from the building of brand new ones. Because they require more workers with different skill sets, spend more money on paying employer salaries than on buying land, and spend less time overall on permits and plans, these reparation projects result in more jobs more quickly.

The complete report can be found on http://smartgrowthamerica.org/documents/lessons-from-the-stimulus.pdf