PM Network - April 2009

“Shovel-ready projects have to be ready to go,” says Heather Jones, construction economist at FMI Corp., a Raleigh, North Carolina, USA-based management consultancy for the construction industry. Basically, organizations have done everything but put the projects out to bid, she adds.

That means projects should be up and running faster—providing an influx of money into the economy, she says.

To make the cut, many municipalities are pushing permits through, “but there are risks,” Ms. Jones says. “If the project doesn’t get funded right away, it may be a waste of resources.”

Most states are forging ahead anyway to make sure they meet the criteria.

“To be truly ‘shovel-ready,’ these projects have to meet some fairly strict definitions,” Jodi Rell, governor of Connecticut, told The Bristol Press when asked in January what projects would make her list. “They have to be fully designed. They have to be fully permitted—and that includes not only all of the state, local and federal permits needed but also any inspections, surveys or reports required from agencies such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. And they have to be ready to break ground within 180 days of getting the money.”

Ms. Rell’s state has assembled a list of several projects for consideration, including a $304,840 turnpike paving project and a $165,767 initiative to replace a failed sanitary system at a state park.

Florida is also looking for its share of those stimulus funds for its own shovel-ready projects, which range from a $67,000 storm water improvement initiative in South Daytona to a $33 million streetscape effort in Orlando, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

“I asked our staff to figure out any and every possible project that might fit under any criteria that they could possibly come up with,” Buddy Dyer, the city’s mayor, told the paper. “We don’t anticipate that every one of these projects is going to get funded, but if there’s a possibility, we certainly didn’t want to feel foolish by emphasizing one type of project over another.”

Government officials aren’t the only ones making lists. The National Audubon Society in Washington, D.C., USA, announced its own

$150 billion
Amount expected
to be spent on
infrastructure
projects by the
Obama administration

SOURCE: CIBC World Markets

inventory of shovel-ready projects, all of which will specifically target ecosystem restoration.

“These projects are a win-win because they are a great way to both stimulate the economy through job creation and also improve many degraded parts of the nation,” says April H.G. Smith, director, ecosystem restoration. “Our proposals, including projects to be executed for the Mississippi River Delta, Long Island Sound and the Everglades, have been vetted and are all ready to quickly create tens of thousands of jobs.”

Ms. Smith estimates a $3.5 billion investment in ecosystem-restoration projects would create 50,000 to 75,000 jobs in industries including construction and engineering, while restoring thousands of acres of habitat.

Obviously not all of these projects will win funding, but the promise of money is out there for the right investments. So it pays to identify which projects can be ready to go as soon as those dollars are released.

Government leaders in Huntington, West Virginia, USA are doing precisely that.

“It’s important that we have a plan in place and be ready to respond,” Tom Bell, economic development director and Huntington’s deputy mayor, told the Herald Dispatch in January. “Even if funding doesn’t come to fruition, we at least will have a better feel for these projects.”