Dinae Sawyer reoprting Chinese to rebuild US bridges.

[kid4dinar]

Could this have anything to do with the delay of the rv?

Diane Sawyer reporting on U.S. bridge projects going to the Chinese...NOT Americans.

The bridges are right here in the U.S. and yet Obama has approved for Chinese contractors to come in and do the work. What about jobs for Americans???

Watch this video. It doesn't take long to view.

This one should be tough for the supporters of the current regime to swallow....AND it comes from ABC NEWS...no less

U.S.A.Bridges and Roads Being Built by Chinese Firms

Shocking to say the least! This video is a jaw-dropper that will make you sick. (It was also shocking that ABC was actually reporting this story.)

The lead-in with Obama promising jobs in the U.S. by improving our infrastructure is so typical of all his promises!

Click here: U.S. Bridges, Roads Being Built by Chinese Firms | Video - ABC News

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/us-bridges-roads-built-chinese-firms-14594513?tab=9482930?ion=1206853&playlist=14594944

Our tax dollars are at work - for CHINA!!!

I pray all the unemployed see this and cast their votes accordingly in 2012!

Obama is not a DEMOCRAT???????????????????

[Abarvets]

Why am I not surprised?

[SgtFuryUSCZ]

***///

When Carter gave away OUR Canal in Panama - a strategic funnel for world commerce - not just a military enclave for us in LatAm - the Panamanians turned over running of it to who else?, THE CHINESE - providing them with the strategic foothold they've always wanted in this hemisphere.

Now O just opens the front door and let's 'em walk right in and take over our country, too...?

I'm sick to my stomach.

Edited February 7, 2012 by SgtFuryUSCZ

[thegente]

THIS is how he stimulates our economy?? By hiring non-US firms? What a jackass....

[DiveDeepSix]

Surprise Surprise, Many are unaware or have forgotten that the all powerful "O" gave a contract to a Canada company to come in and work on our roads and bridges from the first stimulus disaster. Yeah shovel ready jobs, just for people in another country is the problem. At this point nothing would surprise me coming from the anointed one himself. November can't come soon enough!

[Unitedrich]

Now I really think I understand why his nickname is Obamao

[Carrello]

You are painting a picture that says the federal government makes the decisions for states for what they will build and by who. That is not the case. A state can get federal funds for project, but the federal government did not make the decision, let's say about the Oak Bay Bridge that was just repaired with Chinese steel. The California Dept. of Transportation made that decision, and was also supported by Republican governor, Schwarzenegger. The project was awarded to two American companies that made the decision to go to China for the steel, not the federal government. The bridge's construction is also paid for by tolls, and not the Federal Government

Don't get me wrong. I want every job to stay here in the US that possibly can. I posted an article below that gives additional information on the Bay Bridge controversy. You need to know a few details before you post or comment on something as incindiary as this. Do you really think President Obama would want jobs to go to the Chinese before an American? Why don't you ask an American autoworker that question.

You may hate our President, but at least fight the fight with facts, and not a fairy tale. When you do that, you bring a butter knife to the knife, and we bring oozies, called facts.

SHANGHAI — Talk about outsourcing.

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

Jim Wilson/The New York Times

www.nytimes.com\

By DAVID BARBOZA

Published: June 25, 2011

The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The replacement eastern span is on the right, with the city of San Francisco beyond.

At a sprawling manufacturing complex here, hundreds of Chinese laborers are now completing work on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Next month, the last four of more than two dozen giant steel modules — each with a roadbed segment about half the size of a football field — will be loaded onto a huge ship and transported 6,500 miles to Oakland. There, they will be assembled to fit into the eastern span of the new Bay Bridge.

The project is part of China’s continual move up the global economic value chain — from cheap toys to Apple iPads to commercial jetliners — as it aims to become the world’s civil engineer.

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.

“They’ve produced a pretty impressive bridge for us,” Tony Anziano, a program manager at the California Department of Transportation, said a few weeks ago. He was touring the 1.2-square-mile manufacturing site that the Chinese company created to do the bridge work. “Four years ago, there were just steel plates here and lots of orange groves.”

On the reputation of showcase projects like Beijing’s Olympic-size airport terminal and the mammoth hydroelectric Three Gorges Dam, Chinese companies have been hired to build copper mines in the Congo, high-speed rail lines in Brazil and huge apartment complexes in Saudi Arabia.

In New York City alone, Chinese companies have won contracts to help renovate the subway system, refurbish the Alexander Hamilton Bridge over the Harlem River and build a new Metro-North train platform near Yankee Stadium. As with the Bay Bridge, American union labor would carry out most of the work done on United States soil.

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.

But executives and officials who have awarded the various Chinese contracts say their audits have convinced them of the projects’ engineering integrity. And they note that with the full financial force of the Chinese government behind its infrastructure companies, the monumental scale of the work, and the prices bid, are hard for private industry elsewhere to beat.

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.) California authorities say they had little choice but to rebuild major sections of the bridge, despite repairs made after the earthquake caused a section of the eastern span to collapse onto the lower deck. Seismic safety testing persuaded the state that much of the bridge needed to be overhauled and made more quake-resistant.

Eventually, the California Department of Transportation decided to revamp the western span of the bridge (which connects San Francisco to Yerba Buena Island) and replace the 2.2-mile eastern span (which links Yerba Buena to Oakland).

On the eastern span, officials decided to build a suspension bridge with a complex design. The span will have a single, 525-foot tower, anchored to bedrock and supported by a single, enormous steel-wire cable that threads through the suspension bridge.

“We wanted something strong and secure, but we also wanted something iconic,” said Bart Ney, a transportation department spokesman.

A joint venture between two American companies, American Bridge and Fluor Enterprises, won the prime contract for the project in early 2006. Their bid specified getting much of the fabricated steel from overseas, to save money.

California decided not to apply for federal funding for the project because the “Buy America” provisos would probably have required purchasing more expensive steel and fabrication from United States manufacturers.

China, the world’s biggest steel maker, was the front-runner, particularly because it has dominated bridge building for the last decade. Several years ago, Shanghai opened a 20-mile sea bridge; the country is now planning a much longer one near Hong Kong.

The selection of the state-owned Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Company was a surprise, though, because the company made port cranes and had no bridge building experience.

But California officials and executives at American Bridge said Zhenhua’s advantages included its huge steel fabrication facilities, its large low-cost work force and its solid finances. (The company even had its own port and ships.)

“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.”

Despite the American union complaints, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, strongly backed the project and even visited Zhenhua’s plant last September, praising “the workers that are building our Bay Bridge.”

Zhenhua put 3,000 employees to work on the project: steel-cutters, welders, polishers and engineers. The company built the main bridge tower, which was shipped in mid-2009, and a total of 28 bridge decks — the massive triangular steel structures that will serve as the roadway platform.

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.”

To ensure the bridge meets safety standards, 250 employees and consultants working for the state of California and American Bridge/Fluor also took up residence in Shanghai.

Asked about reports that some American labor groups had blocked bridge shipments from arriving in Oakland, Mr. Anziano dismissed those as confused.

“That was not about China,” he said. “It was a disagreement between unions about which had jurisdiction and who had the right to unload a shipment. That was resolved.”

Xu Yan contributed research.

Edited February 7, 2012 by Carrello

[katshamm]

There are many reasons to out bid work in the US. It is not uncommon. One is pattens that are owned elsewhere and needed here for manufacturing. agreements. YES we need employment. Ask yourself the obvious WHY would he do that? It hurts him politically. Yet he did it? I Get tired of people not walking in someone elses shoes yet very judgemental, negative and egotistical putting down without knowing a full story. The politics in the US should stay out of this site JMO.

Oh Yah I iforgot to mention it saves our country billions a year to outsource. Sad but true.

[SgtFuryUSCZ]

***///

Anything made w/ chinese steel is suspect! Look up chinese drywall debacle - poisoned pet food debacle - lead poisoning our babies debacle...

china can kiss my b-hind.

States don't pick the contractors for FEDERAL highways, parks, thruways, projects, etc....

[thegente]

There are many reasons to out bid work in the US. It is not uncommon. One is pattens that are owned elsewhere and needed here for manufacturing. agreements. YES we need employment. Ask yourself the obvious WHY would he do that? It hurts him politically. Yet he did it? I Get tired of people not walking in someone elses shoes yet very judgemental, negative and egotistical putting down without knowing a full story. The politics in the US should stay out of this site JMO.

Oh Yah I iforgot to mention it saves our country billions a year to outsource. Sad but true.

You're actually trying to say that outsourcing is good for the USA? All the tax revenues lost, disposable income not being spent, folks not buying homes, cars, etc...are you kidding me? So when GM shut down a large portion of it's manufacturing base, that was good for Amercians? When Verizon and the like shut down call centers and shipped them off to India and the Phillipines, that was good for America? Take a look at Flint, MI and tell that to the former GM workers. residents, and business owners.....Outsourcing only benefits the shareholders of the said corporation, and the people and country to which the jobs are outsourced to PERIOD.

Edited February 7, 2012 by thegente

[SgtFuryUSCZ]

***///

The workers who built the TransContinental Railroad were many Chinese escaping the brutality of their former homeland.

When they finished it, many went to Panama to work on Teddy Roosevelt's Shovel Ready Panama Canal project.

Their contribution shall not go dismissed by me, they remained here in our hemisphere and were glad for the freedoms, and suffered and paid much to have it.

But this is different. Vastly. Not the same thing at all.

And The Canadians are NOT the chinese. If they were, why would so many chinese want to live there so much (and boy DO they ever!) instead of brutal china...?

Canada is our neighbor, ally, friend - it's different. Neighbors helping neighbors.

But we should NOT be giving jobs to a COMMIE country that's got us by the short hairs already!

[katshamm]

You're actually trying to say that outsourcing is good for the USA? All the tax revenues lost, disposable income not being spent, folks not buying homes, cars, etc...are you kidding me? So when GM shut down a large portion of it's manufacturing base, that was good for Amercians? When Verizon and the like shut down call centers and shipped them off to India and the Phillipines, that was good for America? Take a look at Flint, MI and tell that to the former GM workers. residents, and business owners.....Outsourcing only benefits the shareholders of the said corporation, and the people and country to which the jobs are outsourced to PERIOD.

Never said it was good. It benefits the company or country saving money. Its a fact not an opinion. The only reason is a financial one.

[Bigguy]

Since Obama can't win an election amongst the working class and true intellectuals these days he has to insure that the majority of voters are on some type of Government Assistance and that our Country is held ransom for the debt we owe, which by the way is mostly with the Chinese.

We need to wake up and clean out the entire political establishment of its "professionals" and realize that both sides have the same end, just spin a different story. We need true United States Of America citizens to stand up, forget party lines, and use the election process to clean house of all current members over the next six years. Then reset the rules of the game so no one has a long term stay in the federal arena and all "servants" of the "people" abide by the same laws and rules as the rest, including retirement and healthcare. You would see those items cleared up and fixed quick, fast and in a hurry if you did it that way!!!

Enough said as I rarely post if at all on this site. It just hit a nerve with me today when I saw this.

Too bad it cost so much money to run for office as I am sure there are plenty here that could do a better job.

Well that's my two cents and 15 minutes of fame.

God Bless America!

From a true Independent.....have a nice day everyone and go RV.

[amhvl]

WOW...Sure sounds like debateable topic. Just curious why this was posted in "Iraq & Dinar Related News"?

[tarsi]

You Know whats odd is once FACTS were presented to show this was not the doing of Obama, not 1 of the bashers that were so quick to jump on board, to trash him has come out and admit, that once again they were wrong and once again made to look well anyway, funny how they just deflect to another point just proves once again you all have NO idea about whats really going on just merly followers lead around like robots by the PTB to take up their causes

[SgtFuryUSCZ]

***///

SAVING US MONEY??????!!!!

I'd rather pay some Yank 20 bucks an hour that'll feed his family and OUR economy

than give 2cents an hour to the ChaiComs to stimulate THEIR COMMIE ECONOMY!

Boo Hiss!

[wpsmit]

Never said it was good. It benefits the company or country saving money. Its a fact not an opinion. The only reason is a financial one.

You said that right! Let's see $12.00/15 hours = $0.75 per hour for labor. Now how much would that cost for the American union workers to do the same (or probably a lot less) amount of work. Hmmm, 25 - 30 hours overtime per week, umm let's just say $2,000 - $2,500 per week versus $60.00 per week...You do the math.

When are the unions going to wake up and smell the coffee? Their stranglehold on the American workforce is being rapidly sold out to the lowest bidder (China). And yet they continue to support Barry and them dems who are the auctioneers!

[katshamm]

***///

SAVING US MONEY??????!!!!

I'd rather pay some Yank 20 bucks an hour that'll feed his family and OUR economy

than give 2cents an hour to the ChaiComs to stimulate THEIR COMMIE ECONOMY!

Boo Hiss!

Making money is not personal If emotions ruled the economy there would be no competition or growth

[carlablum]

Moving to Off-Topic

Thank you for the post!

Carla

[thegente]

Making money is not personal If emotions ruled the economy there would be no competition or growth

Show me the competition and growth of the last four years? Zip. When outsourcing or using foreign firms takes jobs and $$ away from Americans-it's very personal. How many do you know that have lost well paying jobs, and are now pumping gas, or working at Wal-Mart? I know plenty....The jobs aren't there anymore....Our net wealth has been being exported by the corporate elite for the last 30 years...standard of living is lower, wages have not grown with inflation. Any dollar not made by American and spent here, is a dollar going overseas to stimulate a foriegn economy...I know it's the cold hard truth, but it's still not right for the US.

[kid4dinar]

IN FORCE THE BUY AMERICA ACT AND DO NOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN.

IF 1 TAX PAYER PENNY GOES TOWARD FUNDING OF THIS PROJECT THE GOVT CAN AND SHOULD ENFORCE THE BUY AMERICA ACT.

You are painting a picture that says the federal government makes the decisions for states for what they will build and by who. That is not the case. A state can get federal funds for project, but the federal government did not make the decision, let's say about the Oak Bay Bridge that was just repaired with Chinese steel. The California Dept. of Transportation made that decision, and was also supported by Republican governor, Schwarzenegger. The project was awarded to two American companies that made the decision to go to China for the steel, not the federal government. The bridge's construction is also paid for by tolls, and not the Federal Government

Don't get me wrong. I want every job to stay here in the US that possibly can. I posted an article below that gives additional information on the Bay Bridge controversy. You need to know a few details before you post or comment on something as incindiary as this. Do you really think President Obama would want jobs to go to the Chinese before an American? Why don't you ask an American autoworker that question.

You may hate our President, but at least fight the fight with facts, and not a fairy tale. When you do that, you bring a butter knife to the knife, and we bring oozies, called facts.

SHANGHAI — Talk about outsourcing.

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

Jim Wilson/The New York Times

www.nytimes.com\

By DAVID BARBOZA

Published: June 25, 2011

The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The replacement eastern span is on the right, with the city of San Francisco beyond.

At a sprawling manufacturing complex here, hundreds of Chinese laborers are now completing work on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Next month, the last four of more than two dozen giant steel modules — each with a roadbed segment about half the size of a football field — will be loaded onto a huge ship and transported 6,500 miles to Oakland. There, they will be assembled to fit into the eastern span of the new Bay Bridge.

The project is part of China’s continual move up the global economic value chain — from cheap toys to Apple iPads to commercial jetliners — as it aims to become the world’s civil engineer.

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.

“They’ve produced a pretty impressive bridge for us,” Tony Anziano, a program manager at the California Department of Transportation, said a few weeks ago. He was touring the 1.2-square-mile manufacturing site that the Chinese company created to do the bridge work. “Four years ago, there were just steel plates here and lots of orange groves.”

On the reputation of showcase projects like Beijing’s Olympic-size airport terminal and the mammoth hydroelectric Three Gorges Dam, Chinese companies have been hired to build copper mines in the Congo, high-speed rail lines in Brazil and huge apartment complexes in Saudi Arabia.

In New York City alone, Chinese companies have won contracts to help renovate the subway system, refurbish the Alexander Hamilton Bridge over the Harlem River and build a new Metro-North train platform near Yankee Stadium. As with the Bay Bridge, American union labor would carry out most of the work done on United States soil.

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.

But executives and officials who have awarded the various Chinese contracts say their audits have convinced them of the projects’ engineering integrity. And they note that with the full financial force of the Chinese government behind its infrastructure companies, the monumental scale of the work, and the prices bid, are hard for private industry elsewhere to beat.

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.) California authorities say they had little choice but to rebuild major sections of the bridge, despite repairs made after the earthquake caused a section of the eastern span to collapse onto the lower deck. Seismic safety testing persuaded the state that much of the bridge needed to be overhauled and made more quake-resistant.

Eventually, the California Department of Transportation decided to revamp the western span of the bridge (which connects San Francisco to Yerba Buena Island) and replace the 2.2-mile eastern span (which links Yerba Buena to Oakland).

On the eastern span, officials decided to build a suspension bridge with a complex design. The span will have a single, 525-foot tower, anchored to bedrock and supported by a single, enormous steel-wire cable that threads through the suspension bridge.

“We wanted something strong and secure, but we also wanted something iconic,” said Bart Ney, a transportation department spokesman.

A joint venture between two American companies, American Bridge and Fluor Enterprises, won the prime contract for the project in early 2006. Their bid specified getting much of the fabricated steel from overseas, to save money.

California decided not to apply for federal funding for the project because the “Buy America” provisos would probably have required purchasing more expensive steel and fabrication from United States manufacturers.

China, the world’s biggest steel maker, was the front-runner, particularly because it has dominated bridge building for the last decade. Several years ago, Shanghai opened a 20-mile sea bridge; the country is now planning a much longer one near Hong Kong.

The selection of the state-owned Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Company was a surprise, though, because the company made port cranes and had no bridge building experience.

But California officials and executives at American Bridge said Zhenhua’s advantages included its huge steel fabrication facilities, its large low-cost work force and its solid finances. (The company even had its own port and ships.)

“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.”

Despite the American union complaints, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, strongly backed the project and even visited Zhenhua’s plant last September, praising “the workers that are building our Bay Bridge.”

Zhenhua put 3,000 employees to work on the project: steel-cutters, welders, polishers and engineers. The company built the main bridge tower, which was shipped in mid-2009, and a total of 28 bridge decks — the massive triangular steel structures that will serve as the roadway platform.

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.”

To ensure the bridge meets safety standards, 250 employees and consultants working for the state of California and American Bridge/Fluor also took up residence in Shanghai.

Asked about reports that some American labor groups had blocked bridge shipments from arriving in Oakland, Mr. Anziano dismissed those as confused.

“That was not about China,” he said. “It was a disagreement between unions about which had jurisdiction and who had the right to unload a shipment. That was resolved.”

Xu Yan contributed research.

[SgtFuryUSCZ]

***///

Bravissimo, Gente! Molto bene!

Katshamm fails to see that which you and most of us see.

Damned straight I get emotional when I see US money goin' to the ChaiComs!

And that ain't bad business, it's this same kind of ire that made this country stand up for itself and made it great!

Making it possible for us to sustain the whole damned world at some time or other and now it's time to hunker down,

and SAVE OURSELVES from the monsters we created!

We gave 'em a hand out and a hand up and now they're all bitin' the crap out of us!

And we can start by slammin' the door in the face of communism, fascism, socialism!

Since when is what china doin' to it's people "okay"..? We should NOT support that!

We should NOT be indebted to them, our politicians have f'd us over good!

ENOUGH!

[carlablum]

***///

Bravissimo, Gente! Molto bene!

Katshamm fails to see that which you and most of us see.

Damned straight I get emotional when I see US money goin' to the ChaiComs!

And that ain't bad business, it's this same kind of ire that made this country stand up for itself and made it great!

Making it possible for us to sustain the whole damned world at some time or other and now it's time to hunker down,

and SAVE OURSELVES from the monsters we created!

We gave 'em a hand out and a hand up and now they're all bitin' the crap out of us!

And we can start by slammin' the door in the face of communism, fascism, socialism!

Since when is what china doin' to it's people "okay"..? We should NOT support that!

We should NOT be indebted to them, our politicians have f'd us over good!

ENOUGH!

Bravissimo, Gente! Molto bene!

You sound Italian

Are you?

[Shabibilicious]

When the Presidents first round of infrastructure stimulus came around, my community qualified for half a million (doled out by the state, mind you). The "american" contractor completed the job successfully. And all I heard was, "That contractor is not local". His firm was from a neighboring county. People spouted off, not knowing a thing about the bidding process. You will never make everybody happy. All people want to do is work. And they don't care who gets the job.....if it's not them, it's wrong. As always, just my opinion. Oh, on a side note: Had this job not required union workers, making prevailing wages......it would have cost half as much.

GO RV, then BV

[willy1der]

Oh, on a side note: Had this job not required union workers, making prevailing wages......it would have cost half as much.

GO RV, then BV

Where's your link to support this or is this your opinion?