NORTH AMERICA Ӏ INFRASTRUCTURE BILL
j redefined as Interstates in a couple of years. The federal government is basically promoting a state highway to an Interstate. In doing so, however, they’ve realised that some state highways are already allowing heavier trucks already so if they made that highway an Interstate they’d be regressing on the weight rules. “One of the things the bill enables is that heavier trucks will still be allowed to run on them even though they will officially be Interstates. The result of this could be really interesting as it could provide the trucking industry with hard data that Interstates really can handle heavier loads.”
PLANNING FOR SUCCESS With Biden’s development of infrastructure across the board there’s also focus on multimodal freight plans. This is an area Smith sees as a providing an opportunity for grass roots advocacy by SC&RA members. “Freight advisory committees are being formed to develop these plans; we say if you're planning for freight movement then let’s expand this to include planning for specialised freight movement. Give us a seat at the table and will help you make sure you don't make bad decisions. These committees provide a chance for SC&RA members to become involved and do some grassroots advocacy in their own states.”
KICKING THE CAN So what happens next and when will the money be available to states and local agencies for construction work? “Well, there’s one more winkle
in the way American politics and processes work,” says Smith. “Remember how I said it was an authorization bill which granted the permission to spend? Well, the permission to spend is not the actual money itself. Authorization
24 CRANES TODAY
Ion Warner, vp, Marketing & Investor relations, The Manitowoc Company, comments:
“We welcome the federal government investment in infrastructure spending and we believe Manitowoc will certainly benefit. At the same time, it’s early to discuss specifics, but our company’s extensive model offering is well-positioned to meet the diverse needs of a variety of projects, including power generation and transmission, 5G infrastructure, roads and bridges, and more. “Cranes from Manitowoc have been at the heart of the world’s infrastructure development for
more than a century. With the sector now back in the limelight, our company is well-positioned to help customers deliver the next cohort of projects. The crane industry has a crucial role to play in bringing this new generation of infrastructure to life, and contractors are relying on us to provide innovative, highly productive lifting capabilities with our products to meet increasingly complex challenges.”
Manitowoc crawlers build iconic Florida bridge: A brand-new, three-mile-long bridge is being
constructed over Tampa Bay, alongside the two current structures of the famous Howard Frankland Bridge; once complete, the original (northbound) bridge will be demolished. All but one of the 22 cranes being used on the project are from Manitowoc – predominantly lattice-boom crawlers with boom lengths ranging from 290 to 334.6 ft and standard maximum capacities between 200 and 330 t.
bills are only as good as the powers they have to spend. You need an appropriations bill each year to actually put the money in the account to make it happen. And the problem we're facing right now in Washington is that hasn't happened yet.” The concern is, when faced with making hard decisions, Congress could revert to what Smith describes as “kicking the can down the road” by continuing to fund things at previous levels until there is agreement on how much to fund the higher levels. “We're expecting all these
construction opportunities but we need the money in the bank to make it happen,” Smith concludes.
“Adding to this, it's a major congressional election here in the United States and that, in my experience, has meant that makes Congress even less likely to do things that are risky when they're running for re-election. One of the things you'll hear whispered around Washington is that things only get done on non-election years.” So it seems it’s still more a case of ‘watch this space’ than ‘shovels in the soil’. In March, however, the White House reported that at around $100 billion has already been made available via a number of programmes so far. And with more money making its way through to states hopes for a spring time construction boom are high.
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