Thread: Fill I-595 Jobs With Locals Broward Officials Urge

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/ ... 6394.story

Fill I-595 jobs with local hires, Broward officials urge
State signed contract with Spanish firm
By Michael Turnbell | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
2:56 PM EDT, March 12, 2009
The $1.2 billion Interstate 595 reconstruction -- and the 35,000 jobs it's expected to generate through 2014 -- will be a boon to somebody.

The Metropolitan Planning Organization on Thursday passed a resolution directing the state to make a "reasonable effort" to hire Broward County firms, suppliers and workers, and track how many I-595 jobs are filled locally. The resolution is non-binding.

State law bars giving local firms preferential treatment when awarding contracts. To do so would decrease competition and drive up the cost of projects, said Hesham Ali, transportation operations director for the Florida Department of Transportation.



The state signed a contract last week with I-595 Express, a consortium lead by Spanish construction giant ACS Infrastructure Development. ACS will finance, design and rebuild I-595 over the next five years, then maintain the highway until 2044.

State officials have said most of the jobs created will be local. But Broward planners want proof to back up those claims.

"The data is the only way to know for sure," said Broward County Commissioner Kristin Jacobs.

Elected officials and residents have voiced a common complaint: Why didn't the state award the I-595 job to an American company?

The other bidder was a consortium made up of American companies, Ali said. But its bid was more than $700 million higher than ACS' winning bid.

As part of a public-private partnership, the ACS consortium is financing the cost of the project up front to speed up completion.

The financing method is commonly used in Europe but has yet to take root here. U.S.-based companies don't have as much experience taking the lead on such projects.

The consortium won't receive any money from the state until the project is finished in five years. Then it will receive $685 million spread out over seven years, and up to $63.98 million a year for 30 years as long as the road meets the state's expectations.

If I-595 isn't maintained to state standards, the consortium will receive less money. That's a risk the consortium is willing to take.

The state will set rates and retain revenue from tolls collected in the new reversible express lanes that will be built in I-595's median. Officials believe that in 20 years, the express lanes could generate enough revenue to cover the annual payment to the consortium and turn a profit for the state.

Without e-verify want to bet most workers will be illegal aliens?

That is exactly what we have been writing in the comments. If you really want to see how fed up people are then read those comments. Even the legal Hispanics who have kept quiet in the past are now starting to get vocal. They are seeing how illegals make the rest of them look bad.

The other bidder was a consortium made up of American companies, Ali said. But its bid was more than $700 million higher than ACS' winning bid.

Whatcha wanna bet the reason ACS' bid was so low was because their labor estimate was based on importing their own cheap foreign workers!!!
Someone needs to check the contract!

Elected officials and residents have voiced a common complaint: Why didn't the state award the I-595 job to an American company?

The other bidder was a consortium made up of American companies, Ali said. But its bid was more than $700 million higher than ACS' winning bid

Good grief!! Did anyone in a position of authority ever consider asking how ACS, Spanish company, would be able to under bid an American company by $700 million dollars???

How come I get the feeling that many of these work projects created through stimulus money are going to be nothing than one big massive fraud, with little oversight, and even less questioning from those in charge!

Another example is TARP funds, which was implemented in order to encourage banks to resume lending again at levels seen before the financial crisis. That money was supposed to be distributed back into the business, housing sectors in the way of loans in order to get the economy jump started. Of course, none of that money made it's way back into the economy and they are now holding hearings to try and figure out where that money went.

Politicians, bureaucrats and large sums of tax payer dollars do not mix! It's a recipe for corruption and fraud!

That's nothing they want to build a baseball stadium for the millionaire who owns the Marlins and use stimulus money to build the parking garage. It get even better than that. They want to build where the Orange Bowl was which is surrounded by Little Havana and Overtown which are both high crime areas. If you ever watched the A&E show the First 48 which shows homicide cases in various cities you know those areas are shown often on that show. In fact Little Havana has lots of illegal aliens living there now. You can bet your last penny illegals will get the construction jobs if the City of Miami and Miami Dade County both vote yes for the project.