San Francisco Bay Bridge *Made in China*

[jmk97GT]

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.

Full article link: Bridge Comes to San Francisco With a Made-in-China Label - Yahoo! Finance

Haven't seen this posted yet. What do you think?

And, dear god, please don't get this sent to the political forum.

 

[WireEater]

Too political, needs to be moved to the politics forum.

 

[KingBlack]

too political, needs to be moved to the politics forum.

+∞

 

[CPRsm]

We, the poorest state in the nation are that way because we send our money over seas (amongst MANY MAN MANY Other things) rather than give it to our own work force. You save money up front, but now you will continue to pay unemployment to the people you screwed out of work. Morons.

 

[Daniel]

stupid

 

[Fox-4]

we, the poorest state in the nation are that way because we send our money over seas (amongst many man many other things) rather than give it to our own work force. You save money up front, but now you will continue to pay unemployment to the people you screwed out of work. Morons.

+∞

 

[Red94SVT]

i hope they don't build bridge parts like they build transmissions

 

[thomas91169]

This way we can point fingers at someone other than Bush when the shit fails.

I heard the first order of maintenance is to repaint it with non-lead based paint.

 

[oldmodman]

First really fat chick in a Caddy will collapse it.

 

[Silver2003Cobra]

it's out own damn fault.. american union workers have priced themselves out of jobs.. sow the wind, reap the whirwind..

 

[32ValveRom]

Interesting... The other day we confirmed them the worst drivers on the road but we have them building bridges for us.

 

[carrrnuttt]

What some of you are missing is that what they're doing is saving CA taxpayers 400 million dollars of cash.

Not sure where I stand: Overpay to pay locals to do it, or save a shit-ton of taxpayer money.

 

[ssssnake]

It's kinda scary because we find that a lot of stuff they produce is faulty. I started thinking about it when I looked at my package of tiliapia. Came from China. You know they don't have the controls our country has been forced to create. Think about the products from China that have caused harm to consumers. Remember the false facades at the Olympics? Kinda represents how I feel about China.

 

[CobraBob]

I have to agree. One has to wonder how quality standards are enforced with a Chinese company. How does Chinese steel compare to American steel? Etc.

I hate to see our economy sliding as we send more and more jobs overseas. That will not put the people on unemployment here back to work. China is shooting to become the world's civil engineer? They are well on their way. In the end, if nothing changes, China will ultimately become the most wealthy and powerful country in the world. By then, the cost of services/products from China will have become more expensive and we won't have the means to bring these jobs back here. We will one day regret what we're doing to China and to our own country.

If I was an unemployed worker in CA I would be royally pissed about this. Heck, I don't even live in CA and this upsets me.

 

[matab14]

Interesting read....

I agree with most of your points CobraBob. I can tell ya from an Engineering and Manufacture standpoint. I work in the Locomotive Industry and we just bought some new Dynamic Brake Grids (Compartment that helps Locomotives stop) and they were manufactured to within a +/- .05mm tolerance! I was very impressed. Even here in house with the things we build, we don't come close to that!

While as US a company we try to build / source most things here, I definitely have noticed the improvement of products from foreign companies while maintaining a very realistic price tag that is much cheaper!

 

[wvmystichrome]

I agree with Cobrabob. Seeing AND hearing this outrages me. They keep saying they want more jobs and more people back to work but they are doing the extreme opposite.

 

[hunterp]

Make sure there aren't any parts left over when they're done.

 

[MassCobra]

China's plan is to put the U.S. out of business and they're well on their way to success.

 

[cobra_mer]

this is disheartening... Outsourcing is a short term fix, there will be long term consequences for actions like these..

 

[Stanley]

Here at the plant we can't use pipe or pipe fittings from China.

Good luck with the bridge...