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

[n2doc]

SHANGHAI — Talk about outsourcing.

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.


more

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/business/global/26bridge.html?

And these same people wonder why their tax receipts suck and we remain mired in recession...

[liberal N proud]

1. No chance for the middle class

[KoKo]

10. Our wages an benefits and retirement are to be sacrificed to compete with China..

As our workers lose the skills to make steel and fabricate building products the Chinese can build and ship parts of whole bridges across the Pacific and pay their workers $12.00?

What I wonder is how much oil does it take for their fleets of ships to carry these huge sections of bridge across the Pacific? Why are we not building bridges and sending them across the Pacific to the Chinese?

We are too busy sending troops into countries to nation build and our politicians tell us we are not educated and have no useful skills so they must enforce Charter Schools and programs of "re-education" so we can work at Wall Mart and food service. :eyes:

[FreakinDJ]

15. China Steel Mills can Pollute the Air without consequences

that is why all the steel production moved to China ans India

[madokie]

20. When you look back on it

the companies were telling us this would be the outcome when we passed the environmental laws we did. Where we failed is by allowing them to move our jobs overseas.

[FreakinDJ]

23. Where we failed was NOT Taxing overseas polluters

[madokie]

32. That and allowing our companies to move the jobs overseas

in some ways we could be held somewhat accountable by buying the shit that places like walmart pushes off on us. Its not only walmart either as many of he stores are only selling shit from china shores.
I guess we are to blame in a lot of ways for not holding our congress critters to account. Whatever it is or who is at fault today we're in a fix that will require some serious work to ever get out of, if it's even possible anymore.

Earlier I read a post here where the new oakland bay bridge is being built in China. :grr:

[Shagbark Hickory]

2. Remind me not to drive over that bridge. Who brokered the deal, Walmart? nt

[Exultant Democracy]

9. No shit, they make counterfeit baby milk formula. Almost a guarantee for subpar steel

First real quake and some poor innocent will be going for their last swim, so that someone could save a buck (or get a kickback.)

[kath]

30. Yep, really a freakin' brilliant thing to do in a quake-prone area.

Jeebus H. Christ.

[XemaSab]

26. They're replacing it because a section already fell down

22 years ago. :(

(It's a huge bridge; 22 years is not a crazy amount of time to get shit done in.)

[Sirveri]

45. That's really quite difficult to achieve.

It's one of the most used transit corridors in the United States. The SF Bay bridge alone carries over a quarter of a million VEHICLES a DAY. Total bay area bridge traffic for the 2009-2010 year was over 112 Million. There simply isn't capacity to shift those drivers elsewhere.

[Hotler]

3. That is fucked up beyond measure. Why was there not..

tens of thousands of workers in the streets protesting this? If there was I'm sorry I missed it.

[Poll_Blind]

14. I am of the same mind as you are. WTF.

PB

[Lasher]

4. I'll bet India is pissed.

They were no doubt counting on all that work for their H-1B and L1 visa holders. Well I guess they can do the assembly while illegal aliens pour the concrete.

[jberryhill]

7. The Indians should go after all the good Chinese jobs

[xchrom]

5. ...

:grr:

[jberryhill]

6. Oh a BRIDGE

I thought this would be a thread about mail order BRIDES.

[KoKo]

8. Pan Zhongwant arrives at 7a.m. and leaves 11p.m., earns $12.00 per day....

from the NYT article:


"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. "

[harris8]

13. ...that's $12 per DAY.

How can we compete with that? You can't live on that in the USA.

[onethatcares]

16. not to worry

our fearless leaders are working on getting that pesky minimum wage thing outa the way to make our country friendlier for business.


I'm trying not to get too depressed about all this but what the hell, we've lost it.

[kath]

31. not just a normal "day" - a double shift of SIXTEEN HOURS. For 75 cents an hour.

[jmowreader]

40. You can't live on that in China either

If this guy wasn't living in the barracks, he'd be living in a refrigerator box, or a van down by the river, or something.

[HipChick]

24. How many Americans can you get to work 7 days a week,7am-11pm for $12 per day?

0

[jmowreader]

41. Wait till 2013

If we fuck up and elect President Bachmann, who has already said she wants to abolish minimum wage, we'll all be working 7 days a week, 16 hours a day for $12 per day.

[PuffedMica]

11. Another Arnold Schwarzenegger legacy - American money supporting jobs overseas

We are exporting our jobs, design skills, and wealth overseas.

Thanks for nothing you worthless Republicans.

[hunter]

12. Thanks, Arnold.

For this, and for covering up the the looting of California by the big energy companies.

:grr:

[somone]

17. Truly abhorrent

We're so fucked

[Gregorian]

18. This planet cannot tolerate this much longer.

All of the shipping.

I believe it's all over but to experience the damage. It's coming. Ten and twenty years is a blink of an eye. And then we're going to start feeling it.

[LooseWilly]

19. The crate handling monstrosities in the background of the pic. were also made in China..

The Bay Bridge had to be closed for the night while they were shipped in, so they'd fit underneath...

So it's Chinese equipment handling the Chinese equipment... it's just another piece of the globalist new economy. As long as we keep voting for politicians who promise to manage public entities like corporate execs... this will not end.

[madrchsod]

22. obama thinks robots will solve our problems......

[madrchsod]

21. we used to make bridges but our labor was to expensive...

[Kermitt Gribble]

25. This takes the cake...

We can't even rely on jobs rebuilding our own infrastructure - at least the manufacturing end of it.

[Edweird]

27. The decimation of the American Worker continues. This is painfully stupid and shortsighted.

[trackfan]

28. I hope the Bay Bridge lasts longer than my coffee pot.

(Made in China; lasted 1 year).

[trackfan]

50. kick

[kath]

29. Absofuckinlutely DISGUSTING! I'll bet those bridge decks are of REAL high quality -

not.

[kath]

33. Kick!

The more I think about this, the more outraged I am.

[treestar]

34. How can a thing like that be cheaper to make abroad?

Plastic toys are one thing. This is really weird. Transport costs are not staggering?

[n2doc]

35. I guess labor costs trump everything

Paying skilled workers $12 a day.

[zalinda]

36. After the sheet rock debacle, how can anyone

trust that we would get quality goods from China? All those homes built with Chinese sheet rock had to be either destroyed or expensively retrofitted. That sheet rock was causing metal to corrode. Can you even imagine what this stuff was doing to the bodies of the families that were living in these houses?

What is the old saying? Penny wise, pound foolish.

zalinda

[Divine Discontent]

44. exactly - how unbelievable this feels seeing this story! How foolish to hire them for this!

[thereismore]

37. I wonder how much of that steel came from the WTC. nt

[Omaha Steve]

38. What about the "Buy American Act"?

In LBN: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4897053

K&R!

[Mudoria]

39. They may have paid less for it

but most times in life you get what you pay for. 10 years from now it'll probably need a major overall if doesn't collapse before that from the usual poor quality work the Chinese do.

[unkachuck]

42. "...will be loaded onto a huge ship and transported 6,500 miles to Oakland."

....China is a country creating jobs and doing great things while we struggle....they must have a functional economy and government....

[Divine Discontent]

43. so frustrating to see this. I heard nothing of it til now. I don't like bridges already, and I

sure as hell aint gonna travel over the SF/Oakland bridge anymore knowing it's Chinese steel. Everything they make breaks way too soon after you buy it or is defective in some manner.

[Brickbat]

46. This is a fucking shame.

"California officials say the state saved hundreds of millions of dollars by turning to China."

Yes, people working prevailing wage jobs and paying taxes and buying things wouldn't have helped the state's situation AT ALL. :eyes:

[Mimosa]

47. This shows exactly what is wrong with US.

K&R and thanks to n2doc.

'Bargains' have led to poor workers in US.

[Romulox]

48. Where is there room for people driving Priuses and Hyundais across this thing to complain?

:hi:

[trackfan]

49. kick n/t