The government will spend $27 billion repairing roads and bridges as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Those projects are estimated to create 765,000 jobs of the 3.5 million promised by the Obama administration. You have probably heard accounts of how the billions will be spent. A bridge here. A road there. But what's the big picture? Will repaving highways and bolstering overpasses create as many jobs as the administration says? Are they wise investments, reconstruction projects for the 21st century?
That's why we're asking ProPublica's readers to hit the pavement this summer. Chances are your daily commute already takes you by a road or a bridge that will be fixed with stimulus money. Would you volunteer to monitor a project?
We'll provide you instructions, guidance and, of course, full credit for your work.
Everything we produce together can also be republished: All of ProPublica's reporting is published under a Creative Commons license, meaning that publications and bloggers can reprint it in full. (Here are the details.) We hope it winds up in your local paper, too.
