A routine traffic update on the radio at mid-morning yesterday carried the first hint that federal stimulus money for road work had finally arrived in the Philadelphia region.
Construction on Route 422, east of Linfield . . .
As the report was being aired, a clot of men in hard hats and yellow-green safety vests was just beginning the 14-month job of rebuilding a 4.5-mile stretch of Route 422 at a cost of $12.2 million.
This the first of 22 PennDot highway and bridge projects in Southeastern Pennsylvania that will be financed by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the $787 billion national stimulus program signed into law by President Obama on Feb. 17.
According to a formula adopted by the White House, every $1 billion in construction spending should save or create 30,000 jobs - not for the road workers alone but also, say, for the people who manufacture the paving material and deliver it to the job site. The trickle-down effect even includes jobs for workers at the gas stations and grocery stores where construction workers spend their paychecks.
Using this formula, PennDot says the Route 422 work will generate 367 jobs. But it was hard to envision that sort of impact yesterday, with fewer than a dozen people on the site.
As eastbound cars, SUVs, and trucks squeezed past him in the left-hand lane, Ralph Falconero was working in the right-hand lane with a wheeled machine about the size of a big John Deere.
Using a heavy circular saw, Falconero was slicing sections of concrete like pieces of sheet cake. The machine continuously sprayed water on the blade to keep it cool.
Tomorrow, a different group of workers will lift out the sections that Falconero has cut. Over the weekend, new concrete will be laid in their place.
In coming weeks and months, crews will do the same sort of thing, in both directions, between the Royersford and Phoenixville exits. At the end, the roadway will be topped with 4.5 inches of blacktop.
Falconero, 49, said he was glad to have a steady, well-paying job. His girlfriend, who works at an assisted-living facility, is likely to lose her job soon, he said. And business has been slow, he said, for a sister of his who runs a rug-installation company.
For the highway construction industry, he said, these are boom times.
"I'm in the right business," he said. "It's the right time to be in the construction business."
Falconero works for Mattiola Service L.L.C. of Skippack, a subcontractor on the Route 422 work. He said he'd been with the company for 15 years but was a bit worried about his future until construction work sprouted up all over this spring.
"All the work is opening now," he said. "It was a little slow until the [stimulus] package came along. This is a real big job for us."
Adam Zaharick, a college student from Mount Carmel, in central Pennsylvania, said he'd just been hired for a third summer as a laborer. The work has enabled him to approach his senior year at Bloomsburg University without any tuition debt. He has paid his own way.
Yesterday was his second day back working for Road-Con Inc., of West Chester, the principal contractor. His boss said he might not have been recalled if it weren't for the stimulus-financed project.
His brother, Joe, is also a laborer on the project.
"It's good for the economy," Joe Zaharick said. "Any job is good. The more we get, the better."
Al Hoffman, vice president of Road-Con, said the Route 422 project probably had saved or created 30 jobs for his company. He said he didn't know how many it would generate for the several subcontractors and suppliers involved in the work.
Road-Con has successfully bid for other stimulus-financed work. It also has been hired by PennDot to build 1,600 curb cuts in Chester County at a cost of $4.4 million - to make the curbs comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Hoffman said pay scales on the jobs range from $31.55 per hour, plus benefits, to $43.84 per hour, plus benefits. Most of the company's employees work about 10 months a year, often getting laid off in January and February.
Across Pennsylvania, stimulus money will finance $1.026 billion in highway and bridge repairs. This is on top of $1.8 billion in such spending already planned by the state.
The 22 stimulus projects in Philadelphia and the four suburban counties - out of the 242 statewide - will cost an estimated $258 million. PennDot says projects in the region should create or save about 7,700 jobs.
New Jersey, which will receive $652 million in stimulus money for highway and bridge work, expects to use it on 43 projects. This is on top of the $2.2 billion in road work already planned for the next fiscal year.
Both states hope to award all of the highway projects to contractors by August.
Contact staff writer Tom Infield at 610-313-8205 or tinfield@phillynews.com.
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