Check Out Video Clip of Ironworkers, IUPAT Rallying for Bridges, Jobs
The Ironworkers today send us this video of their action at the South Capitol Street Bridge in Washington D. C., with the Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) during last week’s AFL-CIO’s Infrastructure Investment Day of Action. The actions highlighted dozens of bridges across the nation in desperate need of repair and called on Congress to put millions of Americans back to work rebuilding the nation’s crumbling bridges and roads.
Massachusetts Bridge: Not a Pretty Picture
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Jay Hurley, president of the New England Ironworkers District Council, says he wanted to prove a point to those who claim that the recent focus on the deteriorating conditions of the nation’s bridges and infrastructure is overblown.
So he picked a nearby bridge over Rt. 128 in Gloucester that carries more than 57,000 vehicles a day 100 feet over the Annisquam River. Hurley had District Council safety inspectors document the condition of the A. Piatt Andrew Bridge.
As you can see by the accompanying photo, it’s not a pretty picture.
The photos elicited some strong comments, including this one.
That bridge is a disaster waiting to happen…what are they waiting for—the bridge to collapse and kill some motorists? By then it will be too late.
18,000 City Bridges ‘Structurally Deficient’—Fix the Bridges, Ease the Job Crisis
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A new report shows that more than 18,000 of the nation’s busiest bridges clustered in the nation’s metro areas are rated as “structurally deficient.” Overall, there are some 70,000 structurally deficient bridges, but those in the metro areas carry 75 percent of the traffic that must cross a deficient bridge each day, according to the report from Transportation for America.
If a bridge is rated structurally deficient by a federal, state or local agency that means it is in need of substantial repair or replacement. Click here for an AFL-CIO map of the nation’s bridges in need of serious repair. You can find the number of bridges in your state and the depth of your state’s jobs crisis that could be eased by putting people back to work fixing bridges and roads.
A major portion of President Obama’s American Jobs Act included funds to put hundreds of thousands of Americans back to work fixing the nation’s bridges and roads. The bill was blocked by a Republican filibuster, but Obama and Senate Democrats are breaking out portions of the bill for votes and the infrastructure provisions are likely to be introduced soon.
U.S. Infrastructure Crumbling, Nation Falling Behind Developing Countries
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When it comes to maintaining and improving its roads, bridges and other transportation facilities, the United States is falling behind even developing nations and Congress is showing no will to address the crisis, according to a report released this week by the Urban Land Institute. Further:
Despite the nation’s unemployment woes, the vast job-creation potential of infrastructure projects is being sidetracked by concerns about government spending appetites and potential cost overruns.
In contrast with its global competition, the report notes, after more than 30 years of conspicuously underfunding infrastructure,
the United States is lurching along a problematic course—potentially losing additional ground.
So far, Hurricane Katrina and the New Orleans levee breach have not been a big enough wakeup call; neither was the 2007 Minneapolis bridge collapse, according to Infrastructure 2011: A Strategic Priority. Meanwhile, China is moving closer to completing the world’s largest high-speed train network, a 10,000-mile honeycomb linking major cities across an expanse similar in size to the United States. But the high-speed train is only a small part of a Read the rest of this entry »
A Little ‘Buy American’ Goes a Long Way
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Gee what a concept: When U.S. taxpayer money is spent on economic stimulus programs that channel the funds into U.S. jobs, America’s communities, workers and, yes, the nation benefit.
Case in point: a stimulus-funded bridge project in Hubbard County, Minn., whose construction is based on the “Buy America” provision of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. From the Alliance for American Manufacturing:
According to a Hubbard County engineer who is overseeing the project, domestically sourced inputs, including cement, plywood, and 55,000 pounds of reinforced steel, are being used because of the Buy America requirement.
Instead of using foreign inputs, which are less stimulative for job creation, domestic steel is being used to create 30-foot I-beams to support the bridge deck. Steel rebar is also used in the project. The local engineer also reports that the Buy America requirements are not burdensome and are not an impediment to the project. The project came in under budget with $600,000 allotted, but only $430,000 needed to complete the project. The bridge construction is moving quickly and is expected to be completed shortly.
Obama Economic Plan: Create Made-in-America Jobs
President-elect Barack Obama today laid out some of the details of his economic recovery plan. While the current President focuses on giving the Medal of Freedom to the leader of a country that has the highest number of trade union murders in the world and on spending nearly $600,000 on new china for the White House days before leaving office, Obama is moving to clean up the Bush economic mess. Giving the Democratic radio address this morning, Obama said:
Our first job is to put people back to work and get our economy working again. This is an extraordinary challenge.
