States did have a backlog of maintenance projects, such as repaving dilapidated roads.

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For the upcoming stimulus money, Bishop -- a Republican who is not running for re-election -- has zeroed in on a small repaving project.

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One, much of the stimulus money for infrastructure is going into repaving roads instead of long-term projects such as water infrastructure, which is in woeful shape.

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Three 10-meter-long 1997 Terex TS14D motor scrapers -- machines that chew up roads for repaving -- roar past a crowd of 1, 200 in baseball caps and blue jeans at a recent Ritchie Bros. auction in Clinton, Wisconsin.

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Fayette said he agreed to talk to the newspaper for the Irene story because of some of the critical media coverage, including an Enterprise editorial, DOT received that summer over the repaving of state Route 86 between Saranac Lake and Lake Placid.

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