Media Coverage

Minorities seek share of bridge construction work

EAST ST. LOUIS - Concern for minority employment for new Mississippi River bridge construction increased over the last seven weeks since the bridge's groundbreaking was rescheduled to Monday.

United Congregations of Metro-East, a social justice organization, held a news conference Monday following the Illinois and Missouri Departments of Transportations' groundbreaking ceremony on the Eads Bridge deck, a few feet from where dignitaries had praised the project minutes before.

"Important representatives were here today, but only one talked about diversity," said Jobs Task Force Chairman Troy Buchanan with United Congregations of Metro-East and the O'Fallon, Ill., NAACP as political chairman.

Buchanan referred to U.S. Rep. William "Lacy" Clay, D-St. Louis, but Buchanan stressed the importance of the Illinois Department of Transportation employing Illinois minorities.

In letters sent to Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, who was absent Monday, and other governors, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood asked them to provide small disadvantaged businesses and female and minority workers a fair chance to participate in transportation projects. MoDOT has awarded a large portion of the contracts for the main span to minority contractors, but IDOT has not followed suit, Buchanan said.

Buchanan said he expects at least 30 percent minorities to be employed for the Illinois portion of the project. IDOT submitted a request for a waiver to the U.S. Department of Transportation in order to be able to set separate goals for disadvantaged minority and women-owned contractors. While United Congregations of Metro East, Metropolitan Congregations United and the Transportation Equity Network support these efforts, the groups' major concern is creating equal employment opportunities for those who are unemployed and experiencing economic hardships in the communities surrounding the project, particularly East St. Louis.

East St. Louis' unemployment rate is 18.4 percent, which is double the national average. Yet, one of the largest U.S. infrastructure projects will take place at the city's doorstep.

"We want to make sure the economic and community development is there for all," East St. Louis Mayor Alvin Parks said.

Buchanan said that 10 of the 100 people who went through the IDOT job program were hired for the project. He said IDOT has spent millions of dollars in training these people. More than 100 people are in training now, he noted.

The Interstate 64 (U.S. Highway 40) project in St. Louis had a minority workforce percentage of 27 percent. Buchanan said his leadership had an agreement with the Interstate 64 project that it would use 0.5 percent of its construction budget for workforce development, and that they were able to have an on-the-job training program for I-64.

"We were happy with the success, and we are attempting to duplicate that in Illinois," Buchanan said. "But we're talking two different states, two different jurisdictions and different administrations that run the states. So, we have to come over here and talk about this issue."

MoDOT and IDOT both promised to follow the I-64 model for the Mississippi River bridge, but neither has included these provisions in the contracts, advertisements or in any other agreement, Buchanan said.

Diversity Economic Council's Toni Perrin sat with IDOT officials to make sure Illinois minority apprentices and journeymen were hired, she said.

"But they are bringing back older people in union halls, and they don't want to adopt I-64 as a model," Perrin said at the news conference. "Nothing has happened. We've trained all of these people with different schools, and they still don't have jobs."

She said right now, IDOT and MODOT are using only the U.S. Department of Labor's goals of 14.7 percent for minorities and 6.9 percent for women. There are incentives for achieving these goals and sanctions if not.

"This is low with the number of people in this community," Parks said about East St. Louis, which has nearly 100 percent minority residents.

The bridge project is being funded through a combination of federal, Illinois and Missouri state funds, but the majority of spending will be done in, by and for Illinois for the state's portion of the project. The Mississippi River bridge funding breakdown is $313 million in Illinois funding; $115 million in Missouri funding; and $239 million in federal funding for a total of $667 million.

Buchanan said that $240 million is allocated specifically for the bridge's span and, but for the small percentage of Missouri spending, the rest of the money would be spent for construction on the Illinois side of the Mississippi.

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Mississippi River Bridge project facts (Sources: Illinois and Missouri Departments of Transportation):

- The project is expected to be open to traffic in 2014.

- The Illinois and Missouri Departments of Transportation, along with the main span contractor team, Massman Construction/Traylor Brothers/Alberici, announced Monday the start of work on the bridge's main span.

- The cable-stayed bridge will relocate Interstate 70 from the Poplar Street Bridge to the new bridge.

- The 1,500-foot main span will be the third-longest cable-stayed bridge in the United States.

- The main span will cost $229.5 million; the total cost will be $670 million, which includes $313 million from the state of Illinois.

- At 400 feet tall, the towers for the main span are two-thirds the height of the Gateway Arch on the St. Louis riverfront.

- The Illinois and Missouri governors signed the bi-state agreement for the bridge project in February 2008.

- The cable-stayed portion of the bridge will require 8 million tons of reinforcing steel - equivalent to the weight of 363 school buses.

- The main span requires 14.8 million pounds of girders - equivalent to the weight of 925 elephants.

- This project will accommodate building a companion bridge to provide an additional four lanes. The companion bridge will be constructed in the future if traffic levels dictate and funding becomes available.

This story originally appeared in the Alton Telegraph on April 19, 2010 and is available here: http://www.thetelegraph.com/news/bridge-39085-illinois-project.html

L.A. bus, rail fares may increase

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is proposing fare hikes for the first time in two years to offset a $204-million budget gap. The Bus Riders Union says the agency has other options.

By Dan Weikel, Los Angeles Times

Amid the worst economic downturn since World War II, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is planning to increase fares for the first time in two years to help offset a $204-million gap in its operating budget for buses and rail systems.

The proposed fare hike, which will go into effect July 1, is opposed by the Bus Riders Union, which protested the planned increase Tuesday morning outside the MTA headquarters in downtown Los Angeles.

Unless the MTA board of directors rescinds the increase, the one-way cash fare will rise from $1.25 to $1.50, a daily pass will go from $5 to $6 and a monthly pass will increase from $62 to $75. Fares will not be raised for people with disabilities, students, Medicare recipients and people who are 62 or older.

"The monthly pass is going up by $13. That's a meal on the table. The typical transit rider only makes about $12,000 to $17,000 a year," said Barbara Lott-Holland of Los Angeles, a member of the Bus Riders Union who relies on the county transit system.

Holland attended the protest with about 25 other people, including representatives from the Natural Resources Defense Council, Los Angeles Bicycle Coalition, Coalition for Clean Air, Transportation for America Campaign and California Public Interest Research Group, or Calpirg.

The MTA board is scheduled to address the fare hike at its Thursday meeting and decide whether to hold a special hearing in May to explain to the public why transit officials believe the increase is necessary. The agency now averages more than 1.5 million boardings on its bus and rail systems per day.

Authority officials estimate that the fare increase — the third in 15 years — is expected to lower the deficit in the operating budget to $180 million next year. The MTA will try to reduce the remaining gap by cutting its staff, reorganizing the agency and employing other cost-saving measures.

The deficit has been caused by a decline in ridership, the loss of state funds and declines in revenue from two of the county's three transportation sales taxes — all factors driven by the economic recession. Authority officials expect ridership and tax receipts to rebound.

Dave Sotero, an MTA spokesman, said Tuesday that even with the increase, the MTA will still have some of the lowest fares compared to major metropolitan areas such as New York and Chicago, where a one-way ride can cost $2 or more.

Locally, the Riverside Transit Agency and the Orange County Transportation Authority now charge $1.50 one way, $4 for a daily pass and $55 for a 30-day pass. The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System charges $2.25 one way, $5 for a daily pass and $72 for a 30-day pass.

For Terri Thorpe of Norwalk, who regularly uses buses and trains to get to work at a Borders Bookstore in Pico Rivera, the cost of her daily transit pass could go up about 20%, increasing the pinch on her pocketbook.

"Its unfair," Thorpe said as she headed to catch the Red Line subway at Union Station on Tuesday. "They are going to stick it to the little blue-collar worker who can't afford a car."

The sentiment was the same at the nearby protest, where the Bus Riders Union and other transit advocates demanded that the MTA cancel the fare increase and redirect funds from other projects to help close the budget gap.

They also called on U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) to support pending legislation in Congress that would grant local transportation agencies more flexibility in the use of federal transportation funds.

"People struggle every day, scraping together their change, just to buy a daily pass," said Esperanza Martinez, an organizer for the Bus Riders Union. "MTA has the money. It is all about choices."

MTA officials say, however, that they cannot transfer funds to the operations budget that are earmarked for construction projects. Though it appears that the agency is flush with cash, they say, there are restrictions on how the MTA can use the revenue from county transportation sales taxes.

This story originally appeared in the LA Times on April 20, 2010 and is available here: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-transit-fares-20100421,0,521035,print.story

States set aside differences for new bridge

BY KEN LEISER

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

04/20/2010

Illinois and Missouri leaders set aside past differences over a new Mississippi River bridge on Monday, turning over shovels full of dirt from both states in a ceremonial groundbreaking on the historic Eads Bridge.

"It's been a long haul," said Missouri Transportation Director Pete Rahn. "We have worked very hard together to reach an agreement to allow this important project to move forward."

By the time it opens in 2014, the bridge will carry Interstate 70 over the river. The span will be north of the Edward Jones Dome near Cass Avenue. The new bridge is part of a $670 million assortment of projects that will link I-70 to the Interstate 55/64/70 interchange in East St. Louis.

Besides alleviating traffic jams on the Poplar Street Bridge, the bridge will spur economic development in the region and ease east-west traffic flows in the I-70 corridor across the country, officials said.

"This is about jobs. It's about economic development," said U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Belleville, who was instrumental in bringing the project to fruition. "It's about reducing congestion. It's about getting commerce from one coast to the other coast in the United States."

The St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association said construction will generate 1,500 jobs a year through 2014. MoDOT estimates it will create 2,200 primary and secondary jobs.

The two states had clashed over whether to pay for the bridge with motorist tolls, and whether to build a smaller bridge in a different location. The governors of both states finally agreed on a compromise agreement to build the bridge — without tolls — but with four lanes instead of the original eight.

"Now I hope we can put the Mississippi River file back in storage," quipped U.S. Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo. "It got to be a thick one."

Illinois Transportation Secretary Gary Hannig acknowledged the two states have "had our ups and downs" before reaching a compromise agreement on the bridge plan more than two years ago.

"But as anything that's worthwhile, it certainly was something now that we can both be proud of," Hannig said.

Shortly after the ceremony, the United Congregations of Metro-East appealed to transportation officials to ensure that more of the work goes to minority workers and subcontractors than is currently proposed.

So did U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis.

"I challenge both IDOT and MoDOT to make diversity real instead of just an afterthought," he said.

State transportation officials on Monday pledged to stress diversity on the bridge project.

This story originally appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on April 20, 2010 and is available here: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/F6A4A396006489188625770A00812306?OpenDocument

Save Transit! rallies across the country call attention to transit funding crisis

Riders who rely on public transportation and transit workers across the country have launched a series of actions over the next several days to rally support for emergency funding to prevent draconian service cuts, layoffs and fare hikes in more than 150 systems nationwide. Today, April 20, 2010, the Transportation Equity Network (TEN), an alliance of local and state groups across the country, held a Save Transit! day of action as Transportation for America (T4America) launched its new and expanded online database http://t4america.org/resources/transitfundingcrisis/ that captures the thousands of service cuts and fare hikes across the country. The Save Transit! rallies are being organized by TEN, a non-profit coalition that is raising awareness about the impact of service cuts and fare increases on mass transit riders around the country. Between April 22 and April 28, protests and rallies will take place in Atlanta, GA; Washington D.C.; Los Angeles, San Francisco, CA; Minneapolis, St. Paul, MN; Kansas City, St. Louis, MO. “At a time when our national economy is on the brink of recovery, and Americans across the country are demanding increased access to transportation options, transit systems should not have to cut service and raise fares, but should have the support of Congress,” says James Corless, campaign director for T4America. “This is a national crisis that needs a national response, now.” In a headlining event in Atlanta, Georgia, where MARTA is faced with eliminating 30 percent of its routes, members of the local Amalgamated Transit Union, community leaders and transit supporters rallied and painted huge red Xes on buses and trains to illustrate what the severity of local cuts should the transit system receive no Congressional or state aid before June. “America’s transit systems are in crisis just when we need them the most – for access to jobs, education, health care and opportunity,” says Laura Barrett, executive director of the Transportation Equity Network. “Service cuts and fare hikes are hitting low-income people, people of color, students, retirees and the disabled especially hard, and they're robbing all of us of a proven engine of economic growth. TEN is calling on Congress to keep America moving by letting our transit agencies use federal funds for operating expenses.”
This story originally appeared in Busride News on April 20, 2010 and is available here: http://www.busride.com/news.asp?N_ID=1111

Transit advocates rally in 11 cities

The St. Louis-based Transportation Equity Network (TEN), an alliance of local and state groups across the U.S., held a “Save Transit!” day of action as Transportation for America (T4America) launched a new and expanded online database capturing the thousands of service cuts and fare hikes across the country.

From April 20-28, hundreds of members of the TEN and their allies in eleven cities will hold a series of memorial services, rallies, and other actions to resurrect mass transit in their communities.

On Tuesday:

In Atlanta, red Xs were placed on Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) buses and trains to illustrate how drastically service will be reduced without swift action.
In the D.C. metro area, the Partnership for Renewal in Southern and Central Maryland (PRISCM) and local Amalgamated Transit Union members held a pray-in with personal testimonies and songs about the need for transit.
In Los Angeles, the Bus Riders Union, Move L.A., the California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG), and the Natural Resources Defense Council rallied for federal transit operations funding.
In Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., members of ISAIAH, a non-profit coalition of 90 congregations, conducted a phone-a-thon asking their congressional representatives to support emergency transit funding.

The Week of Action will continue on April 27 to 28 with rallies by Transportation Equity Network member groups in San Francisco, St. Louis, and Kansas City, Mo. The groups will announce their participation in a nationwide effort to restore service and avoid future cuts and fare hikes by supporting federal legislation that would provide hundreds of millions of dollars for transit operations around the U.S. (S. 3189).

“At a time when our national economy is on the brink of recovery, and Americans across the country are demanding increased access to transportation options, transit systems should not have to cut service and raise fares, but should have the support of Congress,” said James Corless, campaign director for T4 America. “This is a national crisis that needs a national response, now.”

“America’s transit systems are in crisis just when we need them the most – for access to jobs, education, health care and opportunity,” said Laura Barrett, executive director of the Transportation Equity Network. “Service cuts and fare hikes are hitting low-income people, people of color, students, retirees and the disabled especially hard, and they're robbing all of us of a proven engine of economic growth. TEN is calling on Congress to keep America moving by letting our transit agencies use federal funds for operating expenses.”

This story originally appeared in Metro Magazine on April 20, 2010 and is available here: http://www.metro-magazine.com/News/Story/2010/04/Transit-advocates-rally-in-11-cities.aspx