Obama: Government recovery plan is under budget

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is coming in ahead of schedule

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - President Barack Obama said Monday he believes his economic stimulus plan is beginning to work, with over 2000 transportation infrastructure projects approved already.

"We are seeing police departments canceling planned layoffs and plans are underway to modernize our airports, high speed rail networks," Obama said at the Department of Transportation.

Obama's economic recovery plan - officially called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- allocates $48.1 billion for transportation infrastructure projects, which are to be administered by the Transportation Department. Some of that funding is being committed to Amtrak, Federal Aviation Administration facilities and shipyard infrastructure improvements.

Obama discussed a number of projects underway, including a $68 million overpass construction project in Kalamazoo County, Michigan that will start in summer, creating 900 jobs almost immediately. That project will continue until 2011. Obama also said he was excited to see that competitive bids for many infrastructure projects are bringing down the cost of the projects significantly below what states and the Transportation Department had originally projected.

Obama noted that Oregon in February and March reported that infrastructure projects have averaged are 30% below what the state had originally budgeted. He also pointed out that competitive bids for a road project in Louisiana brought in a winning offer that was $4.7 million less than the state had budgeted for the project.

"As a result we have more recovery dollars to go around," Obama said.

However, he added that there is a lot of work to do. "We know people are hurting right now," Obama said. "The road to recovery is long, we will face some set backs along the way. It is now clear we are heading in the right direction."

The legislation also set up an inspector general to oversee all the infrastructure projects. Obama said interested companies and individuals can track projects that are underway.