Bridge Comes to San Francisco With a Made-in-China Label

Source: NY Times

SHANGHAI — Talk about outsourcing.

The assembly work in California, and the pouring of the concrete road surface, will be done by Americans. But construction of the bridge decks and the materials that went into them are a Made in China affair. California officials say the state saved hundreds of millions of dollars by turning to China.

American steelworker unions have disparaged the Bay Bridge contract by accusing the state of California of sending good jobs overseas and settling for what they deride as poor-quality Chinese steel. Industry groups in the United States and other countries have raised questions about the safety and quality of Chinese workmanship on such projects. Indeed, China has had quality control problems ranging from tainted milk to poorly built schools.

The new Bay Bridge, expected to open to traffic in 2013, will replace a structure that has never been quite the same since the 1989 Bay Area earthquake. At $7.2 billion, it will be one of the most expensive structures ever built. But California officials estimate that they will save at least $400 million by having so much of the work done in China. (California issued bonds to finance the project, and will look to recoup the cost through tolls.) that is about 6% of the project that they claim to have saved

“I don’t think the U.S. fabrication industry could put a project like this together,” Brian A. Petersen, project director for the American Bridge/Fluor Enterprises joint venture, said in a telephone interview. “Most U.S. companies don’t have these types of warehouses, equipment or the cash flow. The Chinese load the ships, and it’s their ships that deliver to our piers.”



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/business/global/26bridge.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp

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Pan Zhongwang, a 55-year-old steel polisher, is a typical Zhenhua worker. He arrives at 7 a.m. and leaves at 11 p.m., often working seven days a week. He lives in a company dorm and earns about $12 a day.

“It used to be $9 a day, now it’s $12,” he said Wednesday morning, while polishing one of the decks for the new Bay Bridge. “Everything is getting more expensive. They should raise our pay.”

and officials are saying " No one could have foreseen....."

did you know that?

when I was living there, and shoddy work was one of the problems then, if memory serves.
And it had been inspected.

:shrug:

USA?

basement Chinese wages it paid Chinese workers for their labor.

This should be illegal. That is simply taking advantage of currency imbalances.

The savings on the cost of the bridge are an illusion. The cost to America's working families, to our local social and economic structure and to our economy as a whole is far greater than the millions allegedly "saved" on the bridge. How many Americans could have been employed and paid taxes had the bridge been constructed in the US?

How many working people could have learned or practiced important skills working on the construction of the bridge?

Can't we learn to think beyond the tips of our noses?

is anyone else sickened by this article?

I'm sorry, i don't mind paying a bit higher taxes (they only saved 6%) if i know that that extra money is going to good american union steel workers.

A very dirty word. Cutting off our nose to spite our face.

of warehouses, equipment, or the cash flow?

We used to, until they were dismantled or destroyed by the GOP and The Chamber of Commerce - because the benefits of outsourcing outweigh the benefits of keeping American's employed.

and its quite strong...but san francisco was looking to save a few pennies on the dollar.

i'm sorry, these type of articles make me sick to my stomach

San Francisco is cutting pennies because we're too poor to pay taxes. We're too poor to pay taxes because we gave all of our money to the nation's billionaires. With 80% of the country's wealth in the hands of the richest 2% of the population, cheap plastic crap is all that the remaining 98% of us can afford anymore.

fixing the roof on jails :eyes:

CSHROF00 REPAIR OF ROOF ON JAIL FACILITIES GF-CONTINUING PROJECTS 5,200,000

http://sfmayor.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=112

Chinese steel is crap. It's very inconsistent and porous. This is a really fucking stupid idea. Way to go SFO.......

Did you know that SFO = San Francisco International Airport? Just wondering...

For example, I live in PDX. I also lived in the ATL. That doesn't mean I live(d) at the airport, rather, I live(d) in the metropolitan area *serviced* by that airport. It's a short way of referring to the aggregate community in areas with one major airport.

construction of a disaster. The American jobs lost is an additional economic loss to the communities where the workers live. This is disgusting.

:sarcasm:
unlike this gem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D827IxEJVS4

Or should I say 笑 笑 笑!

Yes, keeping prevailing-wage jobs out of the hands of your own citizens is definitely a great way to keep one's economy booming. WTF.

la, la, la, la, la, la :silly:

Almost all the work, but when project completion picture were taken all the Chinese were
deliberately kept out and white worker recruited for the photo shoot.

n/t

We must REINSTATE the tariff system that served our country so well up to Reagan. If we don't, we will never stem the flow of well paying jobs, and our economy will NEVER recover.