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Construction Safety Dispatch Articles
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The partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration has halted more than 250 aviation development projects and caused thousands of construction workers to lose their jobs, the FAA and the construction industry say.
The projects, which were valued at $10.5 billion when they began, include radar systems to prevent runway and taxiway collisions at airports, installation of runway safety lights and construction of air-traffic control towers and facilities.
About 24,000 construction workers — in an industry already hit hard by the recession — have lost work or their jobs because of...
the projects' suspension, says Brian Turmail, a spokesman for the Associated General Contractors of America. The trade group says the construction industry's unemployment rate was 16% in June when jobs totaled 5.5 million — 2.2 million less than the industry's all-time high in April 2006.
The halt of aviation development projects also jeopardizes 46,000 other jobs in businesses related to construction, the group says.
The FAA's partial shutdown is a result of an FAA funding standoff between the House and Senate, and their inability to reach an agreement to re-authorize the agency's operations.
The dispute has also led to furloughs of nearly 4,000 FAA employees and threatens to cost the government more than $1 billion in revenue from uncollected airline ticket taxes if Congress doesn't solve the problem until lawmakers return to Washington in September.
President Obama urged Congress to extend the FAA's operating authority. The standoff involves House Republicans' efforts to change an airline labor rule to make it more difficult for employees to unionize and proposed cuts of $16.5 million in airline service subsidies to rural communities. Senate Democrats oppose both.
According to USA TODAY's analysis of stop-work orders issued by the FAA after Congress didn't re-authorize the agency July 23, 234 development and modernization projects have been halted, and 24 other projects have been partially stopped.
The biggest contract affected by the agency's shutdown is a $3.5 billion contract to Lockheed Martin for air-traffic-control radar displays. Work on the project has partially stopped, the FAA says.
Other big contracts affected are those related to the FAA's NextGen initiative, a long-term project to overhaul the National Airspace System and move from ground-based to satellite-based air-traffic control.
Partial stop-work orders have been issued for NextGen contracts of $1.4 billion to ITT, $1.2 billion to General Dynamics and $1.1 billion to Washington-based Metron Aviation.
Development projects that have been completely halted by the partial FAA shutdown include:
•A $370 million contract with Jacobs Engineering Group of Pasadena, Calif., for design, engineering and planning for air-traffic facilities.
•Construction of, or construction work at, air-traffic control towers in New York; Las Vegas; Memphis; Oakland; Palm Springs, Calif.; Gulfport, Miss.; Wilkes-Barre, Pa.; Abilene, Texas; Traverse City, Mich.; and Kalamazoo, Mich.
•Strengthening of air-traffic control facilities to withstand earthquakes in Anchorage; Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; Danbury, Conn.; Lihue, Hawaii; Livermore, Calif.; Palo Alto, Calif.; Santa Maria, Calif.; Salem, Ore.; Hillsboro, Ore.; and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Aviation consultant Michael Boyd says the work stoppages could result in additional costs for the federal government.
"It's expensive to stop construction, and it can be expensive to re-schedule contractors, suppliers and sub-contractors," Boyd says.
The Air Transport Association of America, which represents U.S. airlines, says there's "an urgent need" for a long-term FAA re-authorization.
"The absence of re-authorization creates uncertainty for all sectors of the aviation industry," says Steve Lott, the group's spokesman.
Source: Gary Stoller, USA TODAY
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