The Pittsburgh region has seen more construction than any time in recent memory. Can we see the end of the long line of orange cones?
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If you live anywhere near Pittsburgh, you have likely navigated bumpy roads and closures, driven behind construction vehicles and questioned the surge in construction all year.
As of November, 88 infrastructure projects had begun or continued in the Pittsburgh region this year, and 335 miles of roadway maintenance and paving had been completed, according to Steve Cowan, press officer at the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation [PennDOT].
Why is all of this construction happening now? Philip Ameris, president and business manager of the Laborers District Council of Western Pennsylvania, said it is due to President Joe Biden’s year-old Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and it’s far from over. Construction workers and organizations alike have their work cut out for them.
Meeting the demand created by the infrastructure law
The act allocated $1 trillion to building and improving the country’s infrastructure, including its roads and bridges. It has spurred the largest construction boom Pennsylvania has seen in Ameris’ 29-year-career, and the resulting construction could continue for at least a decade.
The Associated Builders and Constructors trade organization estimates the industry nationally will need 590,000 new construction workers next year alone to meet the needs created by the bill.
To keep up with the demand for workers on construction projects, Ameris and others are recruiting workers through job fairs, trade schools and organizations. They are offering respectable wages, pensions and paid training to attract more people.
Construction industry workers can look to make $37,000 to upward of $100,000 annually according to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, which measures labor market activity, working conditions, price changes and productivity.
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