Compromise... Canada agrees to purchase US steel for the Windsor approach, the US purchases US steel for the Detroit approach, and the river span uses Chinese steel. Individual contracts for the bridge are divvied up such that Canada is solely in charge of building the river span, so the US violates no laws on our end.
Bridge deck segments require lots of highly specialized labor and welding, so the cost difference between American and Chinese fabricators could be gigantic. On the other hand, American steel mills are perfectly capable of producing the wide-flange or box girder segments for the approaches at a reasonable price.
The intent of the Buy America law is not to train workers with highly specialized skills, but to encourage workers to develop those skills that are actually useful to our infrastructure needs. Since we build these suspension bridges so rarely, it doesn't make sense to develop companies with the skills to build them. We'll always be able to get a better price from developing nations with greater need for bridges and therefore greater economies of scale.
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la forme d'une ville change plus vite, hélas! que le coeur d'un mortel...
Last edited by ardecila; Jun 3, 2012 at 1:57 AM.
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