| Online maps "show us the money" for bridge program spending |
|
|
 |
| ODOT News |
|
ODOT News
Which county employed more bridge program construction workers—Jackson or Josephine? How much did bridge program spending benefit design firms in Benton County? Did Multnomah County or Marion County contractors earn more from bridge program work?
You can find the answers to these questions with a couple of quick clicks in three interactive maps that depict how much money the Oregon Transportation Investment Act III bridge program has spent with design firms, construction companies and construction workers.
“We’re more than halfway through the bridge program, in the middle of the peak construction phase, so economic stimulus is well under way at this crucial time,” said Jim Cox, assistant branch manager of the Major Projects Branch. “Boosting Oregon’s economy by sustaining jobs and fostering businesses is a key program goal, so we developed these maps to show where the money is going.”
To see counties in which contractors and consultants have received bridge program funding, go to http://www.obdp.org/program/economic_success/ and move your mouse over the interactive maps tracking design payments and construction payments, which have pop-ups showing more information by county. Besides the distribution of funds, the maps show the locations of newly repaired or replaced bridges. A separate link leads to stories about individual companies’ success.
Though it’s not possible to track wages earned by the engineers, architects, surveyors and other employees of design firms, which submit lump-sum fees rather than individual payroll data, ODOT is able to track wages and benefits paid to construction workers. On this map, viewers can see the total number of workers employed, the value of their wages and benefits, and the economic stimulus resulting from the multiplier effect, which calculates how dollars make their way through local economies many times, benefiting numerous other businesses and workers indirectly. The multiplier effect also reinvigorates the state’s tax coffers, a crucial and reliable source of basic funding in hard times.
###
|
|
|
|
