3000 projects and 1 million jobs

Living just outside of Chicago I can attest to a recently published truck driver survey that I-55 and I-90 are two of the worst roads in the country (and they don't get much better once you drive on them outside the Chicago metro area). Not a good thing, as the reason the roads are so bad is we've neglected them for so long. As a recent overview of road construction in Parade magazine, How We Can Save Our Roads, points out, those years of neglect might just be the needed push the country needs to get the economy working again. John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) points out that as a country "we just haven't been keeping up with the maintenance and preservation." But, Horsley says, we're ready to start. He says 3000 road projects could be up and running within a few weeks if the dollars become available, and that will put one million people to work over the next year. So let's get going. As those 3000 (hopefully more) projects get underway contractors who prefer high-volume paving and roadway repair will shift themselves back into that market, leaving behind the commercial and industrial paving and pavement maintenance market they had been working in just to maintain their cash flow.