CHICAGO —

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President-elect Barack Obama said Saturday that he wants to revive the economy and create jobs by upgrading roads, schools and energy efficiency in a public-works program whose scale has been unperceived since figure of the interstate highway system in the 1950s.

He offered none price prize for the grand plan, how the money might be divided or the effect on the rural’session financial soundness at a time of burgeoning deficits.

The ideas were outlined in the weekly radio address the day after the government reported that employers cut 533,000 jobs in November, the most in 34 years. They are part of a vision for a massive economy recovery plan Obama wants Congress to permission to pass and have waiting on his desk when he takes business Jan. 20.

The president-elect’s address never formerly used the expression. “spend,” relying in place on “invest” or “investments,” and pledging wise stewardship of taxpayer money in upgrading roads and schools, and making public buildings more energy-efficient.

“We won’t even-handed throw coin at the problem,” Obama said. “We’ll measure development by the reforms we make and the results we achieve - by the jobs we create, by the efficacy we save, by the agency of whether America is added prompted by emulation in the globe.”

Obama declared his plan would employ millions of people by “making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway method in the 1950s.” He said state officials would dispossess of the federal dollars if they did not quickly use the money to repair highways and bridges.

According to the Federal Highway Administration, a 1991 conclusive estimate of the cost of the interstate system put it at $128.9 billion, with a federal share of $114.3 billion. The estimate covered and nothing else the mileage (42,795 miles) built for that that is less than the interstate construction program. Construction of the system began in 1956 under President Dwight Eisenhower.

More than 5,000 highway projects are ready to go today, state transportation officials say, if Congress choose pony up $64.3 billion as part of an relating to housekeeping assist devise. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, which compiled the wish, said the projects would provide jobs and help reduce a backlog of crumbling roads and bridges.

A bipartisan group of governors recently met with Obama to press for some $136 billion in infrastructure projects in addition to money for health care costs.

Several governors welcomed Obama’s housekeeping plan.

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine uttered the state had more than a billion dollars in “ready-to-go” projects that have been planned for and can be under contract within 180 days. “His plan will put people to work and accord. the economy a critically of importance boost,” Kaine said in a written statement.

In a joint statement, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said it would help the U.S. stay ahead of other countries. “To stay prompted by emulation globally, the time to repair and modernize our community’s infrastructure is now,” they said.

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