DENVER—U.S. Sen. Mark Udall said Saturday he’s open to increasing funding for infrastructure projects in the Senate’s $900 billion stimulus proposal. However, he said he would have to weigh any increases against what other projects would have to be cut from the bill.
“As the debate unfolds, I want to look at what the trade off would be,” he said after visiting a bridge in Denver in line to be replaced with stimulus money.
The Senate is set to take up the bill next week. Some Democrats, including Chuck Schumer of New York, have promised to add more money for roads, bridges, mass transit and traditional public works projects to the bill to try to get support from Republicans.
The House approved its $819 billion version this week.
The stimulus proposals also include money for expanding broadband Internet access in rural areas and upgrading the nation’s power grid. Udall said those should also be considered as infrastructure projects. Backers of renewable energy in Colorado have been pushing for new transmission lines to bring more wind power generated on the Eastern Plains to the rest of the country.
Currently, the House and Senate versions of the stimulus plan would provide Colorado with about $400 million for road and highway projects and another $100 million for transit. Those figures could change because a compromise reconciling the two versions will have to be worked out.
State transportation officials say there are about 140 state and local projects that are ready to begin once Congress passes a bill, including the Alameda Avenue bridge over Interstate 25 that Udall viewed on Saturday.
Randy Jensen, who oversees Colorado Department of Transportation projects in metro Denver, explained to Udall and Sen. Dan Gibbs, D-Silverthorne, that the 53-year-old bridge needs to be replaced with a longer span to prepare for a widening of I-25. The $25 million project would be put out to bid this summer and take about 18 months to finish.
Contractors who stopped by for the news conference estimated it would create jobs for about 100 workers, in addition to providing business for companies supplying steel and concrete.
The bridge is one small piece of a $400 million plan to widen and improve a stretch of I-25 south of downtown Denver made necessary by the expansion of the highway farther south under the T-Rex project. Jensen said the two bridges that span I-25 just south of Alameda are in much worse shape but the Alameda project has to be done first to correctly align the traffic. The other two bridges won’t be designed until later this year so they don’t qualify yet for the stimulus money.
Jensen said it’s possible states may have to return some money because they won’t be able to spend it fast enough and that Colorado could try to win some of the leftover funds to replace the other two bridges.
