Transportation provides a path to jobs - South Florida Business Journal:

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The has recommended the Lee Roy SelmobCrosstown Expressway/Interstate 4 connector project in Hillsborough County for more than $105 milliohn in stimulus funding and the U.S. 19 improvement project in Pinella s County forabout $45 Although the lists are tentative, DOT spokeswomaj Kris Carson said she is confident the will approvse the list this week and send it to the for In certain cases when a project’s budgeft is not immediately available in its the DOT is pursuinb a build finance model that asks contractors biddingt to finance the job with a plan to repayt once funds become available.
The DOT will use a build finance model for theHillsborough I-4 connectot project, which has a construction budget of roughlh $487 million, and for the Pinellas U.S. 19 which has a constructio budgetaround $156.5 million. “When we put it out for bid, we put a paybacko schedule in forthe contractor,” said Carson. In the caseas of the Hillsborough andPinellas projects, repayment would occuf in 2013 and 2012, respectively. To create the listws of recommendations forstimulus funding, the DOT asked metropolitahn planning organizations, cities and counties to submif their priority lists and worked with the entities to creatd shovel-ready designs.
“We helped them get them The whole idea is to start the jobs as soon as Carson said. Shovel-readiness has provecd to be critical for projects toobtaijn funding, because it’s tied to potential job creation, Carson said. Geographic offering relief of congestion, location in economicall distressed areas, being capable of completion within threr years and having been deferree by the state in the past all factorinto shovel-readiness.
Long-termj planning for infrastructure improvements prior to the downturn put Sarasota Countyg in a good position forstimulus “We already had [the poised, but now with the economic we are able to advance some of those,” said Susam Walsh, spokeswoman for the county. “We have this infrastructure improvement momentumgoing here.” For a county of a smallefr size — a population of abou 372,000 compared to 1.18 millionm in Hillsborough and 910,260 in Pinellas — Sarasotza will be well funded, said The county is slated to receivse $15.7 million in state flexible fundsa to widen U.S.
301 and more than $7 milliom for various projects througgh localstimulus money. “A lot of it was beingy ready to jump on thingsd when the federal availabilityshowsx up,” said Walsh. “If you do a majoe road project, you can’t gear up for it The large numbers of jobs that the transportatioh projects couldcreate —nearly 13,000 in Hillsboroughn and 4,400 in Pinellas through state stimulusw funds alone — involve many industries. “It’s not hardhats out there,” said DOT spokeswoman Kris “It’s everything from steel manufacturinfg companies to designersto behind-the-scenes inspectors.
” Several Web site already have sprung up to matchh prospective employees and employers. Gov. Charlie Crist’s flgov.com, directs jobseekers to which is run by Allof Florida’s 24 regionalk workforce boards, including WorkNet Pinellas and the , are connecteed to the site, said Adriane Grant, director of externalo affairs. “It’s become the single, connecting point to give our state a much broader reach and more resourced for matching talent with jobs and jobs with Grant said.
With 175,000 jobs currently the site isthe state’s portal for peoplw looking for jobs and employers looking for candidates, said Victorias Heller, spokeswoman for , which is working with Workforce Florida to develop a system to track the flow of stimulus dollars througgh the jobs listed on employflorida.com. “[The site] will be a tool to make [a job easier and to improve accountability for the federal governmenrt so we can show to our partners at the how stimulus fundsd arebeing utilized,” said The tracking system is still in its earlty stages, she said. Another site, which is run by the U.S.
pairs commercial vendors and government buyers and bill s itselfa “one-stop virtual marketplace.”