I just drove to Pittsburgh this morning and once again had to slow to 45mph through Washington, PA due to construction. This construction is on about 2 miles of interstate where rt 70 and rt 79 coincide until they split at the other end of the town. This was one of Obama's shovel ready projects that was supposed to stimulate the economy just after he took office. It has lasted for 11 years and is still ongoing. I can't imaging the cost of 11 years of road construction at union wage scale and at the rate of progress it would take 100 years to rebuild interstate 79 alone.
At the time that this project was started another road construction job was begun connecting Morgantown, WV to Pittsburgh, PA. The PA portion had been completed but due to the lack of funding the WV end was stalled. With the new stimulus money the project was restarted. This road was built very quickly again at the prevailing wage but with shoddy workmanship. Soon after completion it had to be repaired in many places due to settling which was due to poor compaction before paving. 9 years later the road is in disrepair with rough areas and dips that were not repaired. After being paid for with stimulus funds it became a tool road and the time saved using it is lost when stopping to pay the toll.
These are 2 projects that in recent times have been slow or of poor quality workmanship but paid at the highest rate or the prevailing rate. A couple of years ago our county maintenance supervisor had an article in the paper claiming that he had saved the county over $200,000. by doing road work in house rather than asking for bids and contracting it out. I talked with his father-in-law and he said the savings were due to the difference in pay rates between the prevailing or union wage and the pay rate of the county employer. WV has recently passed a right to work bill and it has been contested by unions since. The idea that we could construct a road with a non -union company would save enormous amounts of money but it is yet to happen. One of the arguments by the unions has been that their members are the only ones that do quality work and my answer is simply take a ride on the Mom-Fayette road. We have been held captive by too many politicians that receive large amounts of re-election funding from the union establishment. It also amazes me that while the state requires union companies for road work they are content to pay state and county maintenance workers a sub-standard wage to do the same work. The state and county workers cannot give large amounts of cash toward re-elctions I guess.
As a senior in high school in 1955 and a band member I participated in the dedication of the New York State Thruway with Governor Dewey. This took place in Canastota, NY as it was the midpoint of the new road. In the 1970s I had a friend whose father was in charge of maintenance for a portion of the Thruway. They were in the process of repairing and replacing the concrete bridges becuse they had been made with concrete that was below the standard that was supposed to be used. There had not been a specification for the cement used when originally poured. This happened again twenty years later as the concrete spec still had not been upgraded and the bridges were falling apart. If you travvel on the NY Thruway today you will see bridges still being repaired and replaced. I suspect that the concrete spec is still not what it should be. I have no evidence that anything has happened that would be called shady but do know that there is the lack of brain power when writing new contracts to fix the bridges. Possibly the elected offficials that are in charge wish to keep the union comanies working and they receiving union re-election donations. Just saying???
A few years ago I becme friends with a man that contracted with the state to do testing for them on new or repaired roads. He would test compaction and take samples of concrete or macadam to test and compare his results with the written specifications for the project. He told me that many times the state inspector would tell him that certain areas did not need compaction testing as the inspector thought they were within the specs required. He was sure that the inspector was receiving kick backs from the construction company to avoid them hauling in more fill to increase the compaction that was needed. I thought about his comments to me later when I traveled the new Mon-Fayette road with all oof the dips and broken pavement soon after it was completed.
It seems that politicians are seldom capable of doing their job when re-election becomes more important and they need a source of funding. Recently our Senator Manchin voted against Justice Barret's confirmation even though 70% of the state was for her. His political power within the democratic party was more important to him than represent those that voted for him. This is another example to illustrate the need for term limits on elected officials. Of course they make the laws and will never vote to limit their power. Lastly we have seen the teacher's unions defy governors and keep schools closed. The unions are more important than the children affected. The WV teacher's union are opposing the buidling of charter schools to help raise the level and quality of education within the state. They are afraid that they may lose some union dues. Many of the politicians side with the unions to keep the money flowing,
GOD help us!
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