It is hardly a scheme. For many years insufficient maintenance has been performed on streets, sewers, and bridges. When we meet with the DOT and go over future projects and as well as work on current projects,we know first hand how neglected some areas are...
We are a non-union company in the infrastructure sector. Most jobs are under $25,000,000 and Michelle is not fully informed.
Our trucks run in the right lanes in many areas because we will crack the springs if they run in the left lane. You do not notice this in a car because you are not hauling 40,000 lbs. Roads are bad. Bridges are unsafe. We neglected for years what should be done annually. The Governor in WI, Doyle paid off the teachers unions by robbing the State Transportation Fund and canceling $300,000,000 worth of work on recent years. All that is going on from an engineering stand point, is mostly work that should have already been done. Nationwide, we still have a trillion dollars to go. Sewers are dumping into fresh water supplies and that must be addressed.
I was fortunate to have many contracts this past year. They caused me to go to for the first time in our corporate history, 24 hour manufacturing. We doubled our labor force in my quarry and increased labor by almost 20% at my structures company. This is seasonal work mostly, but I did add permanently two new management positions because of the exceptional talent available today in our sector that I did not want to lose going forward.
It is not the infrastructure spending that is a concern because we either pay it now or pay it later at a higher cost. The work must be done and will be done. All they did is accelerate that work, but again, we have yet to address all the safety issues.
The money added to the infrastructure "stimulus" bill has nothing to do with it and should be attacked. |
