It’s not a huge project – just a couple miles of repaving work scheduled to take about six months. But a dozen of Sierra Nevada Construction’s seasonal employees aren’t complaining. Eric Streich manages the firm’s Elk Grove operations.
Streich: “We probably would not have work for these employees at this time without the stimulus projects that we bid and awarded right now. We’d be out of work for them already.”
Still, it’s a modest start, Streich says. In a normal year, his firm does around $50 million of business in and around Sacramento. This project is bringing in a little under $2 million. And besides, Streich says, the stimulus hasn’t kicked in as fast as he would have liked.
Streich: “It would’ve been helpful if the funds for the projects could’ve come out sooner. What we saw was a gap in the time when we normally see projects bidding – where agencies were waiting for the stimulus money before they bid their projects, to ensure they had all their funding in place.”
That said, Streich says he bids on at least five stimulus projects a month – and he’s hoping for as much work as possible to offset the sluggish private sector. The Sacramento region is getting $75 million for several dozen transportation projects.