Public construction, public cooperation

Next month, the first phase of the eight-acre Rick Rice Park (photo below) will be completed in the west Houston community of Katy. The park is a practical use of a stormwater detention area next to Mason Creek, and offers benches, an overlook platform, a central lake and fountain surrounded by a mile-long trail, and the Veterans Memorial Plaza.

Several organizations cooperated in bringing phase 1 to fruition, including the Harris County Flood Control District, Harris County Precinct 3 Commissioner Steve Radack, the Interstate Municipal Utility District and TBG Partners, the landscape architecture and site planning firm responsible for the park and trail systems' design.

Thanks to the Obama Administration's economic stimulus plan, which is boosting spending on road and bridge building and rehabilitation, more construction dollars will be allocated in the years ahead on geosynthetics, according to Cleveland-based business and market researcher The Freedonia Group. The firm expects U.S. spending on geosynthetics used in transportation infrastructure to advance 3.2 percent per year to 265 million square yards in 2012, with a value of $335 million.

Governments are looking at construction equipment rental as an option in these tight budget times, says Bob Alderete, director of research at San Jose, Calif.-based EquipmentWatch, an online provider of heavy equipment data. EquipmentWatch recently launched an online version of the Associated Equipment Distributor (AED) Green Book,  which provides average rental rates for construction equipment from rental dealers.

"We have been pleasantly surprised to see how many municipal, state and federal government agency IP addresses have been hitting our site to locate and shop for rental construction equipment from the Associated Equipment Distributor Directory," Alderete tells Govpro.com. "I think it's fair to conclude that, given the state of our economy, government agencies at all levels are seeking to implement the most responsible and cost-effective means of applying taxpayer dollars to equipment on the job." EquipmentWatch and the AED Green Book are sister publications of Govpro.com and Government Product News.

Stimulus funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has given a much-needed boost to the economy, and more relief may be on the way to governments from Washington. Local and state government administrators are still coping with declining tax revenues from the recent economic downturn.

Spiraling federal budget shortfalls remain a concern as we start the second half of 2010, says Brian Riedl, a senior policy analyst at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation. "The federal budget is set to continue along the pace to a $1.4 trillion budget deficit. While some estimate the deficit will drop this year, Congress is likely to approve yet more stimulus legislation, and also provide the annual patch to the Medicare physician payments system. This would mark the second straight $1.4 trillion budget deficit — which, at 10 percent of GDP, continues to dwarf all post-World War II budget deficits."

The Heritage Foundation is a research institute that formulates and promotes conservative public policies.

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Michael Keating is senior editor for Govpro.com and Government Product News. He can be reached via e-mail at michael.keating@penton.com.

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