Fed Highway Admin going out of its way to buy Chinese steel for Bay Bridge

[kurth]

MARCH 6, 2006
BusinessWeek

CAPITAL INSIDER
A Bridge Too Foreign

Congress says "Buy America," but the Federal Highway Administration is going out of its way to choose Chinese, a Washington State congressman charges. Representative Brian Baird (D-Wash.) says the government is circumventing the law so it can purchase foreign steel for the $6.2 billion project to rebuild the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to better withstand earthquakes.

"Buy America" rules require that federal road projects use domestic steel unless the materials increase the project cost by 25%. Baird says the FHWA and Caltrans, California's transportation agency, are slicing up the project so the mandates apply to only small portions of the work. Baird has a parochial interest: Bay Bridge Fabricators LLC, a consortium of four Washington companies, will be cut out if Chinese steelmakers supply the 320 million pounds of steel needed.

The FHWA is unmoved by Baird's arguments. "The Federal Highway Administration is deeply committed to Buy America provisions in federal law," the agency said in a state-ment. But because only state funds are being used now, the federal Buy America provisions do not apply. Tony Anziano, toll bridge project manager for Caltrans, says it comes down to dollars and cents: "What we're trying to do is build a seismically safe bridge as quickly and in as cost-effective a manner as we can."

By Eamon Javers

[bbinacan]

1. Sounds more like the

state is going out of its way and not the FHWA.:shrug:

[Dr. Jones]

2. I wonder if that's the same steel

from the fallen World Trade Center that was hurriedly shipped off to China for recycling (destroying the evidence?)...

[Emit]

6. My first thought, too. n/t

[tsuki]

3. I have an 18 gauge, 8-10, 304 Chinese kitchen sink on my

showroom floor, and I can tell you that it is of lesser quality than the 18 gauge, 8-10, 304 sinks that I have from American and European firms on my showroom floor. I often have the clients bend the Chinese sinks between the double bowls, something that they cannot do with the Am/Euro sinks.

So, to conclude, 18 gauge, 8-10, 304 is not the same from East to West.

[standup]

4. so now we'll have a made-in-China bridge - fit for Yugos

[caligirl]

5. you would not believe the cost overruns and $$$$$$$$$$$ involved

since this got approved. :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: