Business Viewpoint: Consider road construction as a good workout
BY KYLE WILSON Business Viewspoint
Thursday, December 06, 2012
12/06/12 at 3:55 AM
We've all seen the construction in essentially every corner of Tulsa. There's hardly any place in this great city that's without construction workers and orange cones - telltale signs of prosperity and growth even during an economic downturn in many other parts of the country.
This isn't a bad thing, though. The more orange cones and construction vests we see along Tulsa's highways, the more people have jobs and the more money is being pumped into our local economy.
As a member of the Association of Oklahoma General Contractors, I see firsthand everyday the impact construction has on our city and on our state.
Construction is just short-term pain. It's temporary, but helpful, kind of like a good workout.
It can be tough to get through, but totally worth it in the end. When a project is over, the city is greeted with a safe road or bridge so they can continue doing what they need to, safely.
While I understand this can be maddening to many, road construction is big business for Tulsa and provides good jobs for hundreds of families in our community.
AOGC helps facilitate growth through the Eight Year Transportation Plan. This carefully crafted plan - by the government, and nonprofit and private entities - lays out the appropriation of dollars on the state level to ensure our roads and bridges are maintained and constructed all across Oklahoma.
We have a plan to help ensure safety and construction of every bridge and road during the next eight years. This plan is vitally important to the continued growth of Tulsa's economy and the success of local businesses. In fact, this plan states that during the next year, there will be more than $56 million spent on improving and repairing Tulsa's roads. Moreover, the plan calls for a total of hundreds of millions of dollars in transportation improvement for Tulsa.
In addition to looking to facilitate economic growth, AOGC finds it a key priority to continued maintenance and improvements to our state's roads and bridges.
From downtown Tulsa to Owasso and Claremore, the goal of our association, in conjunction with state and private entities, is to ensure that transportation issues are never an impediment to economic growth. For too long in Oklahoma's past, we let transportation disrupt economic prosperity. Now, as we are reaping the benefits of low unemployment and low cost of living for families, it is even more important that we follow through and continue on the Eight Year Transportation Plan.
As I said earlier, right now pain is felt by many Tulsans with increased commutes and longer drive times. However, as we continue to make progress on the projects in the plan, we as a community need to remember the direct and indirect benefits of quality transportation.
As we constructed the Eight Year Transportation Plan, at AOGC it is our goal to make transportation construction projects not a problem, but instead a solution toward a long-term goal of economic benefits for all Tulsans.
Kyle Wilson is chief estimator for Becco Contractors Inc.
Original Print Headline: View road construction as a good workout
The views expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily the Tulsa World. To inquire about writing a Business Viewpoint column, e-mail a short outline of the article to Business Editor John Stancavage at john.stancavage@tulsaworld.com. The column should focus on a business trend; the outlook for the city, state or an industry; or a topic of interest in an area of the writer's expertise. Articles should not promote a business or be overly political in nature.
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