How States are Divvying Up the Transportation Money

"More than a dozen states have now said how they plan to spend at least some of their transportation money, giving the clearest picture yet of how one of the president’s signature programs is playing out around the country. Beyond all the money for Medicaid and unemployment benefits in the huge bill passed last month, this will be the face of the country’s stimulus program: a bridge will be painted on a rural road, a new lane added on a suburban highway, a guardrail built on a median strip.

They may be old plans that the recession had forced a state to shelve, but multiplied by thousands, they will quickly get bulldozers rolling again and paychecks flowing. On the highway projects alone, the White House said Tuesday that 150,000 jobs would be created or saved.

Some states are taking radically different approaches with their transportation money. While Kansas is using it on a few big marquee projects to expand capacity at several highways, Maryland has adopted a fix-it-first policy, and plans to use its money to repair dozens of roads and bridges instead of building new ones."