N.C. Transportation Secretary Gene Conti is looking for “shovel-ready” construction jobs in anticipation of federal economic stimulus money.

G. R. Kindley Jr. of Rockingham, Division 8 member of the Transportation Board, said the shovel was already in the ground on any construction projects planned for Richmond County.

“Each division is preparing a list of projects ready to go,” Kindley said. “We have talked about them, but right now we have no idea how much money to expect.”

He said the main discussion in NCDOT is among the chief financial officer and staff.

The latest project will be bids to be put out March 17 for a new bridge on Capel Mill Road over Big Mountain Creek.

Work on widening U.S. 1 from Marston to Moore County is continuing.

Work on widening U.S. 1 from Roberdel Road to Wire Grass Road has slowed down, but some parts of construction are still under way.

Kindley said the foundations of the roadway are in place and will be finished after the new fiscal year’s budget goes into place July 1. A main project on the site now is lowering the hill in front of the Dollar General store on U.S. 1 just north of Rockingham.

North Carolina expects to receive $93 million in new road and transit dollars as part of the $789 billion economic stimulus package moving through Congress.

DOT Thursday said the March contract letting will include projects worth about $111 million in all, many of them bridge replacement and road resurfacing projects that were proposed last year.

Although details on the state’s share of the stimulus package are still unknown, Conti said in the end the state may receive roughly $900 million for road and transit spending.

DOT divisions around the state have offered some $6 billion worth of projects needing funding.

He said most of the stimulus money will go to bridge and highway projects previously approved in the seven-year State Transportation Improvement Program.

DOT had slashed spending in the past year to cope with a slowdown in tax collections. It had been scheduled to award only about $18 million in new bridge and road contracts before word of the stimulus package.

n Contact reporter Tom MacCallum at 997-3111, ext. 15; e-mail tmaccallum@yourdailyjournal.com.