Rural Roads Stimulated

 The worst of economic times have produced a pleasant surprise. Apparently, now that everybody realizes that the government doesn’t have boundless amounts of money to spend on everything, we’ve become more realistic. Remember that ridiculous story years ago about toilet seats for some NASA project costing something like $800. Well it appears that government suppliers have come down to earth. Here’s June Sparks, Public Information Officer for the Idaho Department of Transportation discussing road construction projects: “It’s a silver lining in the recession. There are more contractors bidding on contracts and with that increase in competition, it brings their bids down and we have been able to realize with our GARVEE projects about $40 million in savings and again with our stimulus projects, an additional $40 million there. Those are 2 separate categories but between the 2 of them, we are now able to fund projects throughout the State  of Idaho that are going to benefit many communities.”

 Much of the savings have come from projects that are being constructed in urban areas such as Boise. But one might hope that some of this money will go to rural areas so that ag producers might enjoy better roads. (Sparks) “I think absolutely that will be the case. Now that we have this additional funding, we’re going to use that for rehabilitating old roadways or re-paving roadways in the more rural areas of Idaho and that will definitely benefit the farmer.”