When the new Mississippi River Bridge opens in 2014, it shouldn’t need any significant renovation for another 100 years, designers say.
Originally, people thought that the $670 million project – a cable-stayed bridge that will move Interstate 70 off the Poplar Street Bridge – was the chance of a century to get construction workers back to work.
In 2010, the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association said the construction would generate 1,500 jobs a year through 2014, according to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch report. In 2008, then Governor Matt Blunt said, “It will create thousands of jobs initially; tens of thousands more will benefit from the project long term.”
So far, the 1,500-foot main span of the bridge – the largest portion of the project – has employed workers for 354,000 hours. That number seems impressive, but on average only about 100 trade workers, largely Missouri and Illinois residents, are working on a daily basis on the main span.
Overall, 820,000 worker hours have gone into the project’s various segments, and 23 percent have gone to minority workers and 4.9 percent to female workers.
It’s interesting to look at these numbers when talking about the impact that the bridge project has had on creating jobs for the construction industry – particularly within the African-American community.
Because the project received federal funds, the Missouri and Illinois departments of transportation had to meet the federal requirements of 14.7 percent minority workforce participation and 6.9 percent female worker participation. The project has exceeded the minority goal on the main span with almost 25 percent of worker hours going to minorities. Even more, the project has exceeded these goals per craft.
But the percentages and worker hours can be deceptive in terms of job creation.
In April, 23 percent of workers on the main span were minorities, and some trade groups were much higher. For example, 100 percent of the electrical workers on the main span were minorities. But there was actually only one electrical worker. Among cement finishers, 50 percent were minorities. But there were only two. (See table.)
Gregory Horn, project manager for the bridge, said he tracks worker hours from the payroll, not actual workers, because the workers are constantly coming in and out.
“They get iron workers out there, and then they leave and the carpenters come out, and then iron workers come back,” Horn said. “That is why we track the hours.”
However, Horn said that the original projections of 1,500 workers per year should be accurate, though they may not be working every day.
‘Insignificant’ economics
Adolphus Pruitt, president of the St. Louis City NAACP, said the bridge project has been a lesson for him in economic development – just because it costs a lot, it doesn’t mean more jobs.
“The economic multiplier to put dollars in the hands and pockets of African Americans was insignificant when you look at those numbers,” Pruitt said. “That denotes that relying on construction jobs to bring economic vitality to the African-American community does not make sense. We have to go way beyond construction jobs. We have to rely on professional service providers and vendors. If we get stuck on strictly construction jobs, we aren’t going to get there.”
On-the-job training
Since 2010, the Missouri Department of Transportation has received $1.69 million in federal funds to create training opportunities for women and minorities, who continue to be underrepresented in the highway construction industry.
Horn said these Federal Highway Administration funds went to On-the-Job Training (OJT)/Supportive Services training centers throughout Kansas City, St. Louis and Columbia. Since 2010, these centers have graduated 369 trainees and have created 180 apprenticeships.
On the bridge project, MoDOT employed 11 On-The-Job trainees. About half of them went through the On-the-Job Training prior to 2010, for projects such as the Interstate-64 project.
In essence, of the 369 individuals that graduated from the program since 2010, about six trainees were employed on the biggest transportation construction project that the state has seen since 2010 – despite the fact that MoDOT has received $1.69 million from the highway administration for training centers and apprenticeships.
On the bridge, the On-The-Job trainees were only intended to be used if the contractor is failing to attain the project’s minority participation workforce goals. If the contractor is meeting or exceeding that minority participation goal in each craft, then MoDOT did not require the contractors to hire OJTs.
Though the number of trainees was low, Horn said that most portions of the bridge have exceeded the goal for minority workers, but not women, in each craft.
Just for comparison, MoDOT employed 93 On-The-Job trainees on the $524-million Interstate 64 project, which was completed in 2009. There were over 400 workers on that project. Many of the trainees came from the pre-apprentice training centers that MoDOT provided grants to, and they worked anywhere from a few days to a couple years, Horn said.
“Remember, though, the OJT goal for I-64 was set in 2006 when construction was booming,” Horn said. “The construction industry tanked in 2008. Our goal now is to keep those previous OJTs employed and not necessarily replace the new minority journeymen with new OJTs.”
Of these I-64 trainees, MoDOT hired four of them for the bridge project, and they have since graduated to journeymen status, which means an important pay raise for these workers.
Pruitt agrees with Horn that MoDOT should focus on retaining its OJTs. One of the NAACP’s biggest points of contention during the I-64 project was that many trainees didn’t attain journeyman status.
“If you started training them in heavy construction work, then it is important that they continue that training on other MoDOT projects,” Pruitt said.
Jobs off site
Horn said the trade workers on the main span and the 38 other bridge segments are “just the tip of the iceberg.”
He said these numbers don’t include the suppliers such as: people working at the concrete plants to deliver the concrete; people who are producing the steel girders and anchor boxes; people working at the quarries producing the rock for the concrete; truckers hauling materials to the project; people building the reinforcing steel; people who produce the lights and message boards; and all the engineers working on the project.
“There is a whole lot more than just the trade workers that benefit from this project,” Horn said. “The local restaurants benefit that are patronized by the workers. Local gas stations benefit where the fuel is bought. We even had over 100 archeologists working on the project that are not included in the trade workers hours. The MRB project has a major effect on the local economy.”
To this, MOKAN executive director Yaphett El-Amin said that they have closely been watching MoDOT’s use of minority-owned and women-owned business enterprises (M/WBEs) as suppliers and subcontractors. MOKAN, a 30-year-old advocacy organization for MWBEs, has been a constant voice at the table to ensure minority business owners benefit from the project’s impact on the local economy.
“Part of our continual concern is compliance and monitoring,” El-Amin said. “There needs to be more focus placed on eliminating front parties and punishing large contractors who create front companies.”