Stimulus cash nets 8000 Ohio road jobs

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WDTN) - More than 8000 construction workers had jobs on Ohio’s stimulus-funded transportation projects in June, according to preliminary figures collected by the Ohio Department of Transportation.

Monthly reports from Ohio’s contractors show that 8,335 workers were paid with stimulus funds last month - mostly working on highway, bridge and pedestrian/bicycle construction projects across the state. That’s a 19 percent increase from the month before, when contractors reported nearly 7,000 jobs in May.

Those same June reports also show that construction workers clocked in 332,448 hours on the job and earned nearly $10.5 million in paychecks in a single month.

These new job figures add to the thousands of jobs already created and retained by Ohio’s transportation stimulus investments. Since the start of the Recovery Act, Ohio workers on stimulus-funded transportation projects have earned more than $52 million, clocking in 1.9 million hours on the job.

From June through September, ODOT anticipates more than $40 million in paychecks will be earned by these laborers and workers, as the summer construction season intensifies on these stimulus-funded projects across the state.

As of mid-July, ODOT and its local partners had awarded more than 381 contracts on stimulus-funded transportation construction projects worth more than $871 million.

“Through these Recovery Act investments in transportation, we are putting more Ohioans to work and helping to ignite the state’s economic engine,” said ODOT Director Jolene M. Molitoris. “A true 21st Century multi-modal transportation system will strengthen Ohio’s competitive position in national and global markets and revitalize our cities and towns.”

President Obama was in Columbus in June for the start of work on a $15 million stimulus-funded roadway and sidewalk project near Nationwide Children’s Hospital, recognized by the White House as the 10,000th stimulus road project to get underway in the country.

Also in the past month, the Federal Aviation Administration added more than a quarter of a million dollars in additional funding to the state’s stimulus construction projects at four airports, bringing Ohio’s total aviation Recovery Act allocation to $24.5 million.