The Alliance for American Manufacturing kicked off "Should Be Made In America" in San Francisco yesterday at a news conference overlooking the new Bay Bridge.
California taxpayers are paying for Chinese steel in the bridge. That hasn't worked out too well. The project has been plagued by cost overruns, project delays, faulty rivets, subspec cement and charges of fraud against two bridge inspectors.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports,
At a press conference at the top of an Emeryville hotel with a sweeping view of the bridge, the group unveiled posters reading “The Bay Bridge — 100% foreign steel” with the tagline “Should Be Made in America.com.”
A pair of matching billboards have been posted along Interstate 880 north of the Coliseum and on the sewage treatment plant property near the MacArthur Maze. They’ll remain there for at least three months, said Scott Paul, the alliance’s executive director.
Paul and a panel of speakers excoriated Caltrans for not using American steel, and steelworkers, to assemble the $6.3 billion bridge.
“It was originally designed to save tax dollars, to be more efficient,” said Scott Paul, executive director of the alliance. “It turned out in hindsight to be a horrible decision. It ended up sourcing steel from a Chinese government- supported fabrication and steel company when those jobs could have been done right here at a reasonable cost to taxpayers.”Rock on!
