| Kwame Building Group providing DBE/Diversity/EEO and Schedule MonitoringST. LOUIS, MISSOURI – Women make up nearly one in 10 of the workers building the $230 million main span of the new Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge over the Mississippi River at St. Louis according to Kwame Building Group (KWAME), the firm overseeing the project’s diversity and workforce inclusion for the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT). More than one in five workers on the bridge main span are minorities.
As of September 2013, women workers had performed 9.9 percent of the construction work hours on the main span of the bridge. Minority workers had performed 22.3 percent percent of construction work hours on the main span. U.S. Department of Labor goals encourage at least a 6.9 percent female workforce and at least a 14.7 percent minority workforce on any federally funded project in the region, including the new Mississippi River Bridge project. In addition to the diverse labor workforce, more than 15 percent of the $700 million overall Mississippi River Bridge project cost was in contracts with disadvantaged business enterprises (DBEs). The overall project, which includes roadway approaches on both the Missouri and Illinois side, provided 229 contracts worth more than $108 million to113 certified minority-owned and women-owned companies. The new Mississippi River Bridge project involves 38 separate construction projects, including the main span and road approaches on both the Illinois and Missouri sides to move traffic to the bridge. KWAME is overseeing and monitoring the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE), Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and workforce development aspects of all MoDOT contracts on the main span. KWAME also provides construction management services including analysis of the main span contractor’s baseline schedule and monthly update schedules. MoDOT’s ongoing effort to expand job access and diversity in transportation projects, first implemented on the New I-64 expansion project in St. Louis, has been named “The Missouri Model” by the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO). The Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge is the first built in more than 40 years connecting downtown St. Louis and Southwestern Illinois. The four-lane, cable-stayed bridge has a main span of 1,500-foot and will carry I-70 traffic across the Mississippi River. The bridge is expected to open with two lanes in each direction in February 2014. Kwame Building Group (KWAME), an employee-owned company, is a pure program and construction management firm providing estimating, scheduling, project planning, value engineering and other project management services as an independent advocate for owners and developers. KWAME was named a 2012 “Top 100 Construction Management-for-Fee/PM Firm” by Engineering News Record, the construction industry’s leading news and analysis publication; and was selected as one of RCGA’s “Top 50 Companies in the St. Louis Region.” KWAME’s public and private sector projects include educational facilities, major airports nationwide, light-rail systems, hospitals, wastewater treatment facilities and government facilities. KWAME is headquartered in St. Louis with division offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, Pittsburgh and Seattle. For more information, visit www.kwamebuildinggroup.com or call 314.862.5344. # # #
Photos courtesy of Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) and Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT). Media Contact |
Source: Kwame Building Group – News
