Ohio veers away from some shovel-ready road projects

No other state is using federal stimulus funds for planning, officials say.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio wants to spend $57 million in federal stimulus money on highway projects that won’t begin for years, an unusual strategy for money that President Barack Obama said should be used to give the economy an immediate job-creating jolt.

Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland and the state’s transportation officials passed over some ready-to-go construction projects and steered about 7 percent of their $774 million share for planning and preliminary studies.

That infuriated some local leaders who hoped the money would build even more new bridges or resurface roads in the cash-strapped state, where unemployment recently hit a 25-year high of 9.4 percent.

“I could have dug the darn thing myself, that’s how shovel-ready we were,” said Fostoria Mayor John Davoli, who sought $10 million to build bridges over two railroad crossings and was denied.

The Federal Highway Administration has no other examples of states’ using stimulus money for planning, although some states haven’t completed their project lists and the agency hasn’t approved Ohio’s request, spokeswoman Nancy Singer said. The agency has to review the projects to ensure that they are eligible.

Though the overall approach to Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package is to get money to projects that can be started right away, planning is a legitimate use of economic stimulus money, said Jill Zuckman, spokeswoman at the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Strickland said studies of long-term projects, as well as some types of preliminary work, position the state for future economic growth.