The $787 billion federal stimulus has begun to stimulate Georgia's road building industry.

State and federal transportation officials gathered Tuesday in Hapeville to celebrate the first stimulus-funded road project to go under construction in metro Atlanta, a repaving expected to pump $940,841 into the Georgia economy. The project is to pave 4.2 miles of Ga. 3, a commercial corridor in Clayton and Fulton counties near the airport. Contractors said work was slated to begin Monday night.

Officials with C.W. Matthews Contracting Co., which won the work, said it would enable the company to keep about 25 of its own employees on the payroll for the length of the project, and altogether probably double that or more when secondary jobs like quarry workers, truck drivers, line-painters and traffic signal crews were counted.

"A tough decision would have had to be made" if the stimulus hadn't filled the breach for those employees, said Bill White, vice president of asphalt construction at C.W. Matthews. Georgia is getting about $1.1 billion for transportation from the stimulus.