This week, on the Sunday morning news programs, I heard the first real indication of what is “coming down the pike” (as they say) for the construction industry, the economy and the country’s infrastructure after the presidential election next year.
The AGC (Associated General Contractors of America) has noted over and over that the aging infrastructure, the highways, bridges, the underground piping and even the Big Dig are reaching a critical point where we have to replace and repair them or we will be in danger of substantial loss of life. According to the AFL-CIO, over 18,000 bridges have shown signs of structural fatigue and numbers of them, according to the AGC, are being retrofitted with strain gauges and GPS gauges so that their condition can be tracked in real time.
Sunday morning, on This Week with Christiane Amanpour, Tom Donohue, President and CEO of the US Chamber of Commerce and Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO both agreed that the economy can be jump-started and new jobs created by the rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure. They disagree on the how to finance it, but the fact that they both agreed that there is a growing need is significant.
Several futurists and political pundits have said that this might be the most critical domestic issue for the new president to address when he or she takes office in January of 2013. That means more construction business around the country. This is an issue for all of us to watch as the political season progresses.
Add new comment