The first Michigan road construction project that uses stimulus funding — $1.3 million in repairs to about 10 miles of Interstate 75 near West Branch in Northern Michigan — is slated to begin Friday, more than two weeks after state government officials signed the contract.

“We need reinvestment in transportation,” said Stuedle, who spoke Wednesday to local construction employees and high school students at a career day in Mason.

“I think we’re showing that we can put people to work and we can put them to work fast.”

East Lansing officials expect to receive about $1 million in federal stimulus funding for road construction, said Todd Sneathen, director of public works for East Lansing.

Two months ago, city officials applied for more than $35 million in federal stimulus funding to repair nearly 50 roads, Sneathen said.

“We haven’t gotten anything official at this point, but we’ll probably end up with about $1 million,” Sneathen said.

The money likely would go to a single repair project: the restoration of Mount Hope Road between U.S. 127 and Farm Lane, Sneathen said. The project could begin by August.

Sneathen said Mount Hope Road was chosen because it would be a project that could start quickly.

“Mount Hope was easier to prepare for early bidding than those other projects,” he said. “It’s a street that doesn’t have a curve and gutter on it. When you have a curve and gutter, it takes a lot more engineering design.”

Although Stuedle said Michigan appreciates the federal funding boost, he said more assistance is needed for the department’s shrinking budget and the state’s deteriorating roads.

“It’s great, it’s going to give us a boost, but it’s still just a shot in the arm,” Stuedle said of the federal funding. “What we have is a good arm, and the rest of the body is falling apart, and that’s the message we continue to send.”

The road repair projects are expected to create about 109,000 construction jobs for laid-off workers and new employees.

Depending on the sector, 20 to 60 percent of construction workers in the state have been laid off since the economic downturn, said Brindley Byrd, executive director of the Capital Area Construction Council.

“(The new jobs) will work their way through the system in the next 12 to 18 months, but those companies will hire back that laid-off workforce first, then hire the new workers,” Byrd said.

“I think the young people now have a sense there will be a job available soon.”