Despite the infusion of billions of dollars in economic stimulus funds, a majority of transportation contractors surveyed nationwide said they laid off employees this year, and they are not optimistic about 2010.

In a survey of more than 500 contractors by the Transportation Construction Coalition, 72.5 percent of companies said they got transportation-related work from the stimulus program this year and 71.5 percent said they expect stimulus work next year.

But nearly 64 percent reported layoffs of nonseasonal workers this year and only 5 percent said they expected their work forces to grow in 2010.

The coalition, made up of 28 associations and labor unions with an interest in transportation construction, said the results underscore the need for Congress to get moving on a new long-term transportation funding bill.

"It is impossible to overstate just how difficult current conditions are or how dire the outlook for next year is," said Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America. "One-time investments in transportation infrastructure like the stimulus help, but they're simply no substitute for having a long-term investment strategy in our roads, bridges and transit systems."

Efforts to enact a law to replace the one that expired Sept. 30 are gridlocked. Congress has approved two short-term extensions to keep transportation dollars flowing until Dec. 18, but House and Senate leaders and the Obama administration are at odds over a longer-term measure.

A six-year, $500 billion measure introduced in June by the chairman of the House Transportation Committee is stalled by disagreement over how to fund it.

Two congressional study commissions have recommended increasing the 18.4-cent federal gasoline tax, which hasn't been raised since 1993, but there is little support in Congress, and the Obama administration is opposed to an increase during hard economic times.

Because of inflation and reduced fuel consumption, the tax no longer is sufficient to support federally funded highway programs, and Congress has had to bail out the Highway Trust Fund twice in the last two years.

Aside from the temporary boost from the stimulus program, which pumped $26.6 billion into highway and transit projects, states have reined in their transportation programs because of uncertainty about future federal funding and their own budget problems.

The transportation coalition favors "right-sizing the gas tax to get it back to the 1993 purchasing power," which would require doubling it, said Brian Turmail, spokesman for the Transportation Construction Coalition.

The coalition also favors public-private partnerships, other creative financing measures and an eventual transition to a vehicle miles traveled fee to finance infrastructure projects, he said.

The Obama administration, buffeted by the latest 10.2 percent unemployment rate that is the nation's highest since 1983, is planning a forum on job creation next month.

Mr. Turmail said construction projects financed by a new long-term transportation bill would be "an easy way" to quickly stimulate employment.

"This ought to be low-hanging fruit," he said.

Others in the transportation industry have expressed fears that congressional inaction on funding would wipe out whatever benefits the stimulus program generated.

A long delay "will undo all the good work the stimulus program has created," Pennsylvania Transportation Secretary Allen Biehler told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in August.

In yesterday's survey, 44 percent of contractors said they expect to lay off nonseasonal workers in the coming year and 51 percent said they expect to maintain their existing work forces.

Two other survey questions underscored the industry's lack of confidence. More than 80 percent of the respondents said they don't expect to purchase new trucks or heavy construction equipment in the coming year.

"Contractors in many states still do not see sustainable, state-funded market growth on the horizon until the overall economy rebounds significantly," said Alison Black, vice president for policy and chief economist for the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, a coalition member.

"When they hear that the one source of stable funding for the market over the past four years is in doubt -- the core federal highway and transit program -- it's not surprising many are tightening operations."

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