Source: National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association, Alexandria, Va.; National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, Silver Spring, Md.
Six-hundred-plus, hard-hat-wearing construction workers from across America, representing all parts of the road-building industry and related materials suppliers, rallied on Washington, D.C.’s National Mall just before the Memorial Day holiday weekend in support of a multi-year surface transportation bill. Congressional and industry speakers, including NRMCA Chairman Karl Watson Jr. of Cemex USA, told the cheering crowd the bill is needed to create tens of thousands of new road construction jobs.
The rally was sponsored by 10 associations in the road-building industry and their suppliers, led by the NSSGA and NRMCA, and including American Concrete Pavement Association, American Council of Engineering Companies, American Road & Transportation Builders Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute, International Safety Equipment Association, National Asphalt Pavement Association, and Portland Cement Association.
“Only passage of a well-funded, multi-year highway reauthorization bill can alleviate the uncertainty that plagues our industry from hiring new employees and purchasing new equipment, and prevents state DOTs from undertaking long-term projects, which ultimately threatens America’s economic recovery and growth,” said NSSGA Chairman Dave Thomey, executive vice president, Maryland Materials, Inc.
An estimated 35,000 jobs are created for every $1 billion of new federal highway investment. In addition to the long-term benefit to the economy, federal highway investment will help speed the nation’s economic recovery.
A video clip from AASHTO’s Transportation TV News highlighting the rally shows that ready mixed producers were well represented, with a fleet of Aggregate Industries, Chaney Enterprises, Ennstone, Essroc Materials, Titan America and Vulcan Materials mixer trucks joining Capitol Hill in the rally backdrop.