Turns out that the foreign company the state picked to build and then operate I-595 has no obligation to hire local workers for the $1.8 billion rehab project. This comes as some surprise to local officials like the Metropolitan Planning Organization, which apparently doesn't understand what's meant by the phrase "foreign company." The MPO passed a resolution yesterday asking the state to try to hire local firms, a move that has all the weight of, well, I can't think of an analogy for something that has ABSOLUTELY NO WEIGHT AT ALL.
So now it seems clear that the sangria-drinking, tapas-eating officials of ACS Infrastructure Development of Madrid will probably not be hiring locals to fill the 7,800 jobs the project will create. ACS will maintain I-595 through 2044, so I'm guessing here that they will also import workers to handle the upkeep of the highway. By then, it won't matter who controls the road because we'll all be issued ACS-designed jet packs that run on sangria.
Now it's not clear what kind of workers ACS will bring in to work on the project, but I'm guessing here that it will be Madrid club dudes. I'm talking about the guys who work a bit in the morning, take a rockin' siesta in the afternoon, eat a light dinner, and then hit the SoBe clubs at night. It's quite a fun schedule for everyone except commuters, who should plan to use I-595 only during non-siesta, non-club-going hours. Finally someone is bringing the fun-yet-dysfunctional lifestyle of South Beach to our highway system.
