let me share with do a few examples of how the recovery and stimulating our economy -- one oldcastle companies by industries in northern new england has been awarded $105 million worth of projects in three states it operates. much of this work has under way that will be done soon. in new hampshire after several early jobs have begun, mike decided to hold a job fair in concord advertising and 50 jobs. over 400 people showed up, pike fill the positions and is expecting a stimulus work to create as many as 250 jobs. another great story within the pike example of all the project taking place right now in the state of maine. last year we were fortunate enough to rebuild a large section of eid to 95. this year the main dot entered its fiscal season with the understanding it would not have the funds to support the sister project in the northbound interstate 295 ferrell. as a result of the recovery and this project has been able to move toward. as a result, with great coordination between in the dot and the contrasting committee, this project has been advertised, bid, awarded, and will be co

in companies like oldcastle have this type of long-term indicator of future investment and enables us to make a capital investment decisions that have an even greater economic multiplier effect from many sectors of our economy and to that end we recommend chairman oberstar for moving forward with the multi-year surface transportation bill. figure for allowing me to present today and i look forward to any questions. and thank you. >> thank you mr. keating and thank-you to each of you for your testimony and also for your patience this morning. just a couple of questions, mr. brown, could do you think you said in your testimony that mississippi had allocated 80% of the apportion funds for highways and bridges and plans letting 165 contract funds and how soon after funds are obligated to expect the contracts are let and how soon after that can we expect to work to get under way and people get on a job? >> madam chairman maybe i did not make myself clear i apologize. those numbers, the percentages are going to contract. those are actual contract in jobs. all of the contracts will be finish

can you comment on this based on your more recent experience with oldcastle? >> yes. essentially when the work is put out depending on the workload we may bring estimators and professionals on board will before we secure the work. there's no question once we receive a contract were in a word we need to ramp up to supply the work force for those projects. so it is actually much quicker and was there on the payroll they receive paychecks on a weekly basis. >> from one contract to the next your and the environment where there is longer term planning, would you lay them off or would you keep them on and move them to another project or hire new workers? how does that work? >> it is a critical to have a long-term plan out there knowing the funding levels for our company is involved in heavy highway construction type work as well as maintenance work for three were building a staff that will service multiple jobs over the course of the year that is dictated by the amount of work put out by the individual agency moving from one project to another on a regular basis with a stea

oldcastle somewhere. give us your thoughts about the short-term proposition advanced by the administration and the effect that short-term financing will have upon the industry as you and your colleagues -- not just sand and gravel but asphalt, cement and the cement part of ready mix. >> yeah, one key area is just capital investment. i mean, we are always looking ahead to -- for technological improvements, plant and equipment replacements. if there is no forecast out five, six years, there's no way to really way to justify an investment. you're not going to get the pay-back. if we're dealing with it on such a short period of time, we won't be investing in equipment with companies like john deere and caterpillar or aztec industries on new plants for asphalt plants or ready-mix plants. process machinery industry -- it all kind of goes to a screeching halt. it just gets stagnated. in addition to that as the work is kind of paring down, we all know the economy and the state of the economy today and we don't se

keating, president and chief operating officer of oldcastle material group east representing the american road and transportation builders association and will begin with mr. brown and. >> thank you madam chairman. as a special low before i began we have included a few figures which are incorrectly added it in now have been fixed and will ask that we be permitted to cemented that revised testimony for the record, a couple technical changes. >> without objection can i thank you. madam chairman and members, my name is larry butch brown, the executive director of the mississippi department of transportation currently serving as vice president of american association of state highway transportation officials and will be the incoming president of that association this fall. on behalf of the state department of transportation i want to thank you for your efforts in securing transportation funding as a part of the economic recovery legislation. today a want of a size three major points. all of the states have on a 50% or more of the non sum allocated funds well before the june 30 deadline. proje