Safer Roadways Paved by the Recovery Act

In the first two years of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, construction crews across Washington preserved 820 lane miles of rural and urban highways and upgraded 879 miles of roadway to reduce the risk of serious collisions.

These are just two of the investments outlined in a Washington State Department of Transportation report on the state's delivery of Recovery Act-funded projects. The report – WSDOT and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – documents how WSDOT worked with its partners in local government and private construction companies to deliver transportation improvements across the state.

State and local governments have completed 185 projects and spent more than $400 million of the $490 million in Recovery Act highway funds distributed to Washington. In addition, the state has received $781 million in federal high-speed rail funds and $179 million in transit funds as part of the Recovery Act.

The analysis is part of WSDOT's ongoing effort to assess state and federal investments in transportation and comes at a transition point for Washington's Recovery Act project delivery. Most of the highway, transit, and ferries projects are now complete, while construction is about to begin on the agency's Recovery Act-funded high-speed rail program.