Advertising road work with stimulus money

[F350]

What the hell are they thinking?! 

Article link: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/01/25/kaye.signs/index.html?hpt=C2

Ohio is spending a cool million on highway signs saying this road here was funded by the stimulus money. Have we no common sense at all? 

[Scott5114]

It doesn't matter how stimulus money is spent, it just has to be spent to do its job. They could spend $7 billion on decks of playing cards and it'd still stimulate the economy.

[J N Winkler]

If they don't put up signs indicating where construction is occurring on stimulus projects, they get accused of taking your money and burning it in secret.  If they do put up signs, they get accused of wasting your money trying to be transparent.  No way to win, is there?

The trouble with this incessant criticism and negativity (which is not confined to stimulus signs) is that the underlying message is "Government is evil," and once that message is internalized, not just by the public (which then becomes apathetic and uninvolved in public life) but also by the government and its agents, the end result is government that is evil.

[shoptb1]

If they don't put up signs indicating where construction is occurring on stimulus projects, they get accused of taking your money and burning it in secret.  If they do put up signs, they get accused of wasting your money trying to be transparent.  No way to win, is there?

The trouble with this incessant criticism and negativity (which is not confined to stimulus signs) is that the underlying message is "Government is evil," and once that message is internalized, not just by the public (which then becomes apathetic and uninvolved in public life) but also by the government and its agents, the end result is government that is evil.

Well said.  I think that apathy is the perfect word to describe what is going on today.  The government, which is just an extension of the public, is ostracized as some completely separate creature, and then used as the convenient whipping boy for almost all problems.  Instead of saying "us" it's "them", which allows everything to feel completely unattached to the event that's actually occurring.

It is always easier to criticize than to be a part of the solution, and the people that we have elected are just an extension of the public in general.  In that respect, we are to blame for this apathetic discourse and the only way to make it stop is by starting with the public.  Back to the topic, if these signs were not erected, the same senator would be complaining that ODOT is not being transparent with the federal funds that are being provided to it.  I read that news story as nothing more than useless rhetoric and also a convenient catch-22.

[Alex]

It kills me to see one of those signs installed for something as routine as a guard rail replacement project...

[hbelkins]

What the hell are they thinking?!  

Article link: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/01/25/kaye.signs/index.html?hpt=C2

Ohio is spending a cool million on highway signs saying this road here was funded by the stimulus money. Have we no common sense at all?  

This has also come up in Kentucky. No one that I've seen has had the correct answers to these questions.

The federal government is requiring the use of these signs on stimulus projects. The reason they all look the same from state to state is that the standards are included in the federal specs for the use of the stimulus money. I'm surprised the feds haven't cracked down on Arkansas for their variation, "Keeping Arkansans At Work" instead of the standard "Putting Americans To Work."

So instead of blaming various state DOTs and officials for the cost of the signs, the blame needs to go to the federal government.

[US71]

This has also come up in Kentucky. No one that I've seen has had the correct answers to these questions.

The federal government is requiring the use of these signs on stimulus projects. The reason they all look the same from state to state is that the standards are included in the federal specs for the use of the stimulus money. I'm surprised the feds haven't cracked down on Arkansas for their variation, "Keeping Arkansans At Work" instead of the standard "Putting Americans To Work."

I've not seen them in Missouri.
And Keeping Arkansans At Work is a joke, since we seem to have out of state contractors doing most the work (unless it's a simple pavement overlay). 

[shoptb1]

And Keeping Arkansans At Work is a joke, since we seem to have out of state contractors doing most the work (unless it's a simple pavement overlay).  

I agree.  There are no provisions that require a particular state to utilize labor from within that state.  It's a poor assumption that Arkansans are getting any additional work for these projects.

[J N Winkler]

The federal government is requiring the use of these signs on stimulus projects.

I have heard the same press reports but I don't think it is actually true, at least in that wording.  I have seen numerous contracts with ARRA funding which have not had details for ARRA signs, either in the plans or proposal book or incorporated by reference to published standard plans or special provisions.  There are also a few state DOTs out there which don't seem to have standard details for ARRA signs (TxDOT comes to mind).  Unless ARRA signs are being added by change order on a massive scale, I think the reality is that state DOTs have significant leeway to decide which projects receive stimulus signs.

The reason they all look the same from state to state is that the standards are included in the federal specs for the use of the stimulus money.  I'm surprised the feds haven't cracked down on Arkansas for their variation, "Keeping Arkansans At Work" instead of the standard "Putting Americans To Work."

They do not, in fact, look the same from state to state.  What the federal government has published is a recommended design for the ARRA sign, and some states have elected to use their own designs.  MnDOT's, for example, is different from the federal design--it uses the Recovery.gov logo but the text legend appears in different alphabet series and in black on orange rather than white on green.  MnDOT's design is, in fact, significantly better than the federal one because it uses less condensed alphabet series and is actually in construction-sign colors.

WSDOT has its own standard project funding sign which uses the Recovery.gov logo for ARRA-funded projects but does not have the phrase "Project funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act."  PennDOT uses the FHWA design without change (at least in some districts).  UDOT's design is also very similar to the FHWA one, except the alphabet series are dropped one step (i.e., Series B for Series C, Series C for Series D, etc.).  Kansas DOT has separate ARRA signs for local projects and for KDOT-administered projects on the state highway system.  KDOT's local-projects ARRA sign uses the terminology "Project funded by the ARRA" (i.e., ARRA is abbreviated rather than spelled out), and the black-on-orange top panel is replaced by a white-on-blue top panel with the name of the city.  KDOT's sign for its own projects spells out "ARRA" (the design matches FHWA's rather closely) on the white-on-green bottom panel, and has a blue-background panel on top with "Kansas Department of Transportation" under the current KDOT shooting-star logo.

Need I go on?

So instead of blaming various state DOTs and officials for the cost of the signs, the blame needs to go to the federal government.

If the provision of stimulus funding signs is in itself blameworthy--and I do not agree that it is--it is not clear to whom the responsibility should be attributed.  I personally think the devices that were promoted as improvements to transparency, not just the stimulus funding signs but also the whole concept of a single federal website which would list all the projects receiving ARRA funding, were mis-sold.

Stimulus funding signs are not a useful guide to the presence or absence of stimulus money in a project's funding package unless there is a guarantee that stimulus funding signs will be used for all ARRA-funded projects.  There are some ARRA projects for which this is manifestly not happening.  Meanwhile, the Flash-driven project map on the Recovery.gov website and the other federally generated "project tracker" information is not particularly useful because the project metadata is limited to short verbal descriptions of the type of work; it does not contain any project numbers which might allow details of the project to be retrieved from the agency which actually supervises its execution, which is generally the state DOT for ARRA projects on state highway systems.  Some states do publish marginally more metadata--with Michigan DOT, for example, you get the job numbers (but not the corresponding control sections--control section, hyphen, followed by job number is a typical MDOT contract number) in the 1511 certification listings.  Other states don't, so determining which specific projects are slated to get ARRA funding becomes a huge guessing game.  With KDOT and K-18, for example, I did not have project numbers until comparatively late in the game.  (I thought the relevant project number was 18-81 KA 0410-01, but that turned out just to be the anchor for development; the actual construction segments are getting project numbers of 18-81 KA 0410-03 through -05.)

Returning to Recovery.gov and its Flash map, whole ARRA projects are often either absent or badly georeferenced.  For instance, Caltrans is using ARRA money to build the Caldecott Tunnel fourth bore but there is no marker for this project in the Flash map.  (This is a rather large omission since the construction contract involved has an engineer's estimate upward of $250 million.)  Meanwhile, the only ARRA project on the state highway system in Wichita is the 47th St./US 81/I-135 interchange in south Wichita.  The dot for it is put about a mile to the southeast of where the work is actually taking place, and the blurb lists just the grant recipient (KDOT) and the amount of the grant ($19 million), without describing the work actually being done, or providing a project number so an interested person could actually try to get the construction plans from KDOT.  (The project number, by the way, is 135-87 KA 1006-02.)

I will not fault the Obama administration for its good intentions in using ARRA as a vehicle for improving fiscal transparency, but because there is still no meaningful pass-through of project metadata between the federal and state level, the Recovery.gov website and the stimulus funding signs haven't really made it any easier to access specific information about given projects than was the case before ARRA.  Now, as before, we are still heavily dependent on information developed and published by the state DOTs themselves.

[Mergingtraffic]

I don't know about your state, but CT put one up on CT-8 for a repaving job and the sign is cheaply made.  You cannot see it at night.  It's one big shiny glare.   The white letters and green background are indistinquishable. 

[Stojko]

They put up project signs in Newfoundland and Labrador for every road project as well (even repaving or fixing potholes). It usually says something along the lines of "A project of the Department of Transportation and Works", then has the Minister of Transportation and Works name on it, provincial and sometimes federal government logos, etc.

[LeftyJR]

They put up project signs in Newfoundland and Labrador for every road project as well (even repaving or fixing potholes). It usually says something along the lines of "A project of the Department of Transportation and Works", then has the Minister of Transportation and Works name on it, provincial and sometimes federal government logos, etc.

I have noticed that West Virginia does the same thing when I've vacationed and traveled there.  It says something like "your highway taxes at work in West Virginia"

[US71]

Missouri has Progress as Promised signs they started using a few years back after the gas tax was raised to fix the roads. They also have Completed as Promised banners they paste over the sign when the job is complete.

[akotchi]

New Jersey has its own signs "Your Highway Taxes at Work," which contain a breakdown of state and Federal contributions.  These are not used for ARRA projects, but the stimulus sign is.  (Other New Jerseyans can correct me if I am wrong -- this is what I have seen in the field.)

Cost is most likely a wash here, then.

[shoptb1]

Missouri has Progress as Promised signs they started using a few years back after the gas tax was raised to fix the roads. They also have Completed as Promised banners they paste over the sign when the job is complete.

I've always liked these signs because they typically also include expected project completion dates for travelers.  I really wish that more states would include this information as I feel that it's important to provide this transparency to the taxpayers...i.e., those that are really the stakeholders

[Scott5114]

Missouri has Progress as Promised signs they started using a few years back after the gas tax was raised to fix the roads. They also have Completed as Promised banners they paste over the sign when the job is complete.

I can only assume these "Completed As Promised" placards are used every time a project wraps up; I never saw a "Completed Late And Probably Overbudget Too" placard while I lived in Missouri.

[shoptb1]

I can only assume these "Completed As Promised" placards are used every time a project wraps up; I never saw a "Completed Late And Probably Overbudget Too" placard while I lived in Missouri.

[PAHighways]

PennDOT and the PTC have put up signs to advertise project websites and/or give a projected completion date.  They, along with the ARRA signage, are just removed after the end of work.

[Stojko]

Missouri has Progress as Promised signs they started using a few years back after the gas tax was raised to fix the roads. They also have Completed as Promised banners they paste over the sign when the job is complete.

I can only assume these "Completed As Promised" placards are used every time a project wraps up; I never saw a "Completed Late And Probably Overbudget Too" placard while I lived in Missouri.

Haha!

[F350]

It kills me to see one of those signs installed for something as routine as a guard rail replacement project...

This was one of my concerns as well. It makes no sense when the sign itself cost more than the entire project of repainting the median line.

[F350]

The federal government is requiring the use of these signs on stimulus projects. The reason they all look the same from state to state is that the standards are included in the federal specs for the use of the stimulus money. I'm surprised the feds haven't cracked down on Arkansas for their variation, "Keeping Arkansans At Work" instead of the standard "Putting Americans To Work."

So instead of blaming various state DOTs and officials for the cost of the signs, the blame needs to go to the federal government.

Where does it say that the feds are requiring this? I wasn't aware of a such requirement. State or federal, I strongly disagree with this. We are being pounded with enough advertising as it is. 

In my state (MD) the ARRA projects are lagging. I haven't seen any road work nor that ARRA sign on the roads in MD. Anyone else think the same?

[Scott5114]

It doesn't matter how stimulus money is spent, it just has to be spent to do its job. They could spend $7 billion on decks of playing cards and it'd still stimulate the economy.

A few people seem to have not read this the first time.

[MDRoads]

In my state (MD) the ARRA projects are lagging. I haven't seen any road work nor that ARRA sign on the roads in MD. Anyone else think the same?

I caught this ARRA sign in MD, for center guardrails on MD 700 (Martin Blvd.).  It was from back in August, but is gone now.  Not cheaply done, either.

[J N Winkler]

It doesn't matter how stimulus money is spent, it just has to be spent to do its job. They could spend $7 billion on decks of playing cards and it'd still stimulate the economy.

A few people seem to have not read this the first time.

I think it is more a question of that statement being looked at but not seen.  This hobby in general tends to attract people from the right-hand side of the political spectrum, and that tends to go hand in hand with a gut inclination toward monetarism.

[Nexis4Jersey]

Those signs are crocks , everytime i see one i laugh , the road is still in terrible condition and work has either been finished or been going on for a long time.