Governor: Feds slow to create jobs

LINCOLN — Gov. Dave Heineman lashed out at federal highway officials today for delaying the start of local roads projects funded with federal stimulus dollars.

The delays are affecting some $70 million worth of city and county projects in Nebraska, including $23.2 million worth of projects in Omaha, and could push the start date for many of the projects into next year.

"Frankly, the Federal Highway Administration is more interested in stimulating paperwork than jobs," Heineman said.

The governor commented on the delays after announcing that Nebraska will submit five state highway projects for potential federal funding. The projects will be in competition for $1.5 billion worth of grants to be provided through the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program.

The Nebraska submissions would total $280 million.

To be eligible for the grants, projects must show significant impact on a metropolitan area, a region or the nation among other requirements.

The five chosen by Nebraska officials are:

• Expanding U.S. 75 from two lanes to four from Plattsmouth to Bellevue, including three interchanges in Cass and Sarpy Counties, and construction of four lanes of U.S. 34 to Interstate 29 in Iowa. This includes building a new bridge over the Missouri River, commonly referred to as the Bellevue Bridge. This is a combined project with Iowa. Nebraska cost: about $160 million.

• Resurfacing I-80 from Roscoe to Paxton in Keith County. The cost is about $40 million.

• Expanding I-80 from four lanes to six between the 56th Street interchange and the Waverly interchange in Lancaster County. Cost: about $40 million.

• Expanding Nebraska 133, commonly called Blair High Road, from two lanes to four, from the junction with Nebraska 36 north towards Blair for five miles in Douglas and Washington Counties. Cost: about $20 million.

• Expanding Nebraska 370 from two lanes to four between Gretna and I-80 in Sarpy County. Cost: about $20 million.

The delays have not affect state projects. Nebraska has $80 million worth of stimulus-funded state roads projects under contract, with $85 million more in the works.