Biden says OP is paving road to economic recovery

Aside from the administration's talking points touting the federal stimulus package, Vice President Joe Biden told approximately 150 invited guests Thursday in Overland Park that the $82.2 million widening and improvement project of U.S. 69 Highway between 75th Street and I-435 is helping to lead the country out of the economic crisis.

"We are literally paving the road to recovery right here in Overland Park," he said.

Biden came to Overland Park to mark the beginning of the project along with former Kansas Governor and now Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and Secretary of Transportation Ray Lahood. Joining them were Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson and Bill Clarkson, whose company was awarded the project's contract.

The gathering took place at the edge of a strip shopping center just east of U.S. 69 at the 103rd Street overpass and Masten Street.

Biden talked about several aspects of the stimulus package and took a jab at President George Bush's administration saying that some people took their "eye off the economy in the last eight years." That, he said created the economic crisis forcing quick and expensive action.

"We had to give the economy a shot in the arm," he said. "And that's what this recovery act is all about: The single biggest investment in the history of the United States of America, arguably the world.

"In addition to the regular budget, $787 billion is to be spent out in 18 months, we're investing in health care, we're investing in education, we're investing in energy, we're investing in transportation. We're putting more money into roads, bridges and highways than (at) any other time since President (Dwight) Eisenhower announced the Interstate Highway System. We're doing it to save jobs today and to create jobs today."

Clarkson said the project would employ 300 people for 2-1/2 years. The first phase of the project takes in 75th Street to I-435 and includes adding lanes to U.S. 69; reconstructing Lenexa Drive from 87th to 75th streets; and improving interchanges at 95th, 87th and 75th streets.

Overland Park eventually wants to extend improvements on U.S. 69 through 167th Street at a cost projected to exceed $500 million. Travel time on U.S. 69 is expected to triple over the next 20 years and without improvements officials say a roundtrip from 167th Street to downtown Kansas City, Mo., could take two hours each way.

Of the $82.2 it will cost to complete this phase of the U.S. 69 project, $76 million will come from the federal stimulus package with $6.3 million coming from the city of Overland Park. The Overland Park City Council deserves credit in having the vision to allocate money for the project in advance of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 said Overland Park Mayor Carl Gerlach.

"It was one of those shovel-ready projects because of our staff and our council committing millions of dollars years ago because this was such an important project," he said. "Because of that, that's why (the project) was shovel-read when they came out with this recovery act."

Gerlach met with the vice president in welcoming him to Overland Park and said he thanked him for the partnership between the federal government, the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT), and the city of Overland Park.

Biden said the economic impact of the project will be significant to the local economy.

"The impact of this goes well beyond the shovels that we're putting into the ground today," he said. "The companies that make the asphalt that you're going to be pouring, they will be employing more people. The people who build the machinery you're using and repair it, they will be employing more people."

He said the economic ripple will spread to restaurants and other small businesses and added that by expanding the road infrastructure, taxpayers will save billions of dollars.

"When you're stuck in traffic on 495 (I-435), that's our economic engine getting clogged and it has been shown without question that we lose $80 billion a year in lost productivity because people are bumper-to-bumper on the interstate," Biden said.

"So the spinoffs are significant. The work we're doing today is going to help unclog that engine. We're going to widen this highway. We're going to rebuild this interchange and fix the tunnel to nowhere I'm told it's referred to, so that it really goes somewhere in a timely fashion. You're making it easier and cheaper for the entire Kansas City area to do business, not just for tomorrow, but for decades to come."

Gerlach said the tunnel off 87th Street will be used to improve the flow of traffic where U.S. 69 enters I-35.

"There's a slowdown there," he said. "So they are going to take some people getting off 75th Street through that tunnel and make (the flow of traffic) more efficient."

Biden said in the first 100 days since the stimulus package had been signed, 150,000 jobs had been created, $135 billion has been made available allowing more than 4,000 transportation projects to be let. He said Kansas has received $1.9 billion in recovery act funds of which $387 million is for state transportation.

Several local officials were invited, including Sen. Tim Owens, R-Overland Park, House Majority Leader Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, and Johnson County Chair Annabeth Surbaugh.
Owens called Biden's remarks a "decent canned speech."

"(The speech) was designed to do exactly what he did - beef up the whole idea of jobs and to let people know that the trickle reaches out; I think that was what the whole message was supposed to be," he said.

Owens said he was glad the U.S. 69 project received federal funding.

"Somebody's going to get the money, it might as well be us," he said. "We've needed this for a long time. I appreciate very much (Biden) taking the time, he didn't have to come here.

"This was a big project and Secretary (Kansas Secretary of Transportation Debbie) Miller does a great job and this (project) has a lot to do with her and her expertise in getting things together so we had a shovel-ready project that's big in numbers that they could come out and show off."

But when it comes to the rest of the stimulus package rhetoric, Owens said he has some reservations.

"I see (increased jobs) happening in some quarters but not all," he said. "When you look at some other professions, lawyers, doctors, dentists, insurance agents, a lot of them are hurting right now because people can't afford to go to them and you don't really think about those folks.

"There may be more jobs out there at McDonald's and blue collar kinds of jobs, and that's good, but when you look at the ancillary things it's going to be awhile before the recovery gets out into those radiant ripples."

But Owens said he would give President Barack Obama's administration some time before passing judgment.

"We needed to do something because the way it was before it wasn't working," he said. "How far we go and what we need to do remains to be seen. They're trying and I'm willing to give them some time. A lot of people want to start right out by criticizing a lot of things, but I'm not one of them.

"I usually wait until I see what's really happening."

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