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Ohio infrastructure jobs boom described at hearing chaired by Sen. Sherrod Brown

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Ohio infrastructure jobs boom described at hearing chaired by Sen. Sherrod Brown

WASHINGTON, D. C. – Billions of federal dollars coming to Ohio from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and CHIPS and Science Act will provide thousands of well-paid jobs in the state with potential to deliver lasting economic recovery in Ohio’s struggling towns, a top Ohio construction union official told a Senate committee on Wednesday.

Mike Knisley, the executive secretary-treasurer of the Ohio State Building and Construction Trades Council, predicted the number of union building trades and construction workers in the state will grow from around 100,000 today to between 115,000 and 125,000 over the next generation, even factoring in attrition with retirements and deaths.

“Good infrastructure and investment policies that comes out of Washington create great outcomes in our local communities,” Knisley told a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing chaired by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Cleveland Democrat.

Brown said more than 60,000 infrastructure projects are already underway across the country because of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. He said they’re improving 165,000 miles of road, and repairing more than 9,400 bridges, with benefits to every state.

Nationwide, Brown said 670,000 construction jobs have been added to the U.S. economy over the past three years, with hiring expected to pick up even more in the future as bigger projects get underway.

For example, he said the CHIPS and Science Act is enabling construction of a new generation of computer chip production factories in Ohio and around the country. Knisley said that nearly 10,000 construction tradespeople will build Intel’s newest semiconductor plant in the Columbus area.

Brown said Bipartisan Infrastructure Law money is being used to build a new Brent Spence companion bridge over the Ohio River to connect Cincinnati with Kentucky. He said Cincinnati’s 90-year old Western Hills Viaduct is being replaced, as is the Market Street Bridge, that connects Steubenville with West Virginia.

He said the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority is getting 60 new rail cars to replace cars that date back to the Reagan Administration. A new Akron Metro maintenance facility and a new Amtrak station in Bryan, Ohio, are among the new facilities being built to improve transit and rail service.

In Cleveland, he said a “transformational project” is underway that will connect downtown Cleveland to Lake Erie, to provide lake access to Clevelanders who have grown up near the lake but had trouble getting there because they’d have to cross railroad tracks and a large freeway.

“We are seeing major upgrades to streets and bridges across Ohio, including Ohio’s rural counties and Appalachia,” said Brown.

The committee’s top Republican, South Carolina’s Tim Scott, questioned the effectiveness of federal spending, noting that inflation has driven up construction costs as does government-imposed bureaucratic hurdles.

“Unfortunately, every time well intentioned politicians make the decision that ‘we know better than the local community,’ it costs jobs, it cost prices because they explode,” said Scott. “I’m glad we’re having the hearing today, but I gotta tell you, most Americans would say skip the hearing, block grant the money and let a brother go to work.”

R. Richard Geddes, who heads Cornell University’s Program in Infrastructure Policy, urged Brown’s committee to encourage greater private involvement in US infrastructure delivery. He said that public-private partnership construction projects can put the risk of time and cost overruns on the private partner instead of the taxpayer.

“These arrangements that encourage public and private cooperation can bring American infrastructure delivery up to global standards through better cooperation,” Geddes told the committee.

Sabrina Eaton writes about the federal government and politics in Washington, D.C., for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.

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