Federal agency procurement officers are breathing a bit easier after a mad dash to obligate their remaining American Recovery and Reinvestment Act dollars by Sept. 30, the deadline for committing many stimulus-act construction dollars. Agencies have seen bids on ARRA-funded projects come in well below initial estimates, opening opportunities to redirect those savings to thousands of additional projects.

A White House report, released on Oct. 1, says eight agencies were able to fund more than 3,000 additional projects beyond their original projections. Those agencies include the Depts. of Defense, Interior, Labor, Transportation, Veterans Affairs, the Environmental Protection Agency and the General Services Administration. “Contract bids, in some cases, have come in anywhere from 6% to 20% below expected costs, allowing agencies to do more work within their original [ARRA] appropriations,” according to the report.

State agencies are seeing the same trend. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Transportation reported that bids on its ARRA projects came in at 8% to 10% below estimates. PennDOT’s $1 billion in stimulus funds initially were expected to help finance 241 projects, but the savings permitted the department to award contracts for 103 additional small projects.