Georgia will meet deadline for highway stimulus funds

All states, including Georgia, will meet a June 29 deadline to name projects for at least half of their federal stimulus highway money, the White House announced Thursday. Georgia is getting $931 million in road money from the stimulus, and more for mass transit. The idea is to do projects as soon as possible in order to pump money back into the faltering economy.

Even so, naming the projects is not the same as spending the money. When Georgia named its projects, it submitted estimated dollar amounts that ended up being much higher than the bid amounts that came in afterward, at least so far. In order to spend all its stimulus funds, Georgia will have to name more projects for that extra unspent money.