Investments create Chicago construction jobs
Posted on April 1, 2019
Recent infrastructure investments are creating Chicago construction jobs.
Ground has been broken on on LiUNA Chicagoland Laborers’ District Council Training & Apprentice Fund’s $19 million expansion to its training center.
The training center will help ensure the city’s already unparalleled workforce can keep pace with the unprecedented infrastructure investments happening in Chicago. Since 2011, the Emanuel Administration has invested $35 billion in infrastructure to create 104,000 jobs, and projects that are underway or that have been announced will create an additional 45,000 jobs in 2020 and beyond.
“These are more than investments in infrastructure; they are investment in our residents,” Mayor Emanuel said. “By building the best public transportation system, most efficient aviation system, strongest road system, most modern school system and greatest park system, we are creating jobs, building stronger communities and securing our place as a world class city for today and for the future.”
The Training and Apprentice Center currently trains 105 DOL apprentices and 6000 journeymen. The expansion will allow the Laborers’ to increase training to 1,000 apprentices a year and more than double their current training capacity to 14,000 journeymen and apprentices a year. Improvements include 70,000 square feet of new space, 12 classrooms, 10 training bays, a 340 capacity auditorium and a 6,000 square foot administrative remodel. The Laborers’ will also double their current training staff of 25 to 48.
Since 2011, Chicago has invested over $35 billion in infrastructure improvements in neighborhoods across city including construction and renovation for schools, libraries, parks, transit, water/sewer main replacement and housing. Each of these projects helped create thousands of jobs to be filled by trainees from this center as well as increase access to city services and improve the quality of life for residents.
CPS and the Board of Education have invested $4 billion across the city to build new schools, provide playgrounds and air conditioning, improve access to technology with new computers and increased bandwidth, expand academic programs, and make core investments to fix and maintain our facilities. City Colleges of Chicago has modernized four campuses and invested more than $600 million in capital projects to bring the city’s community colleges into the 21st century.
More than $300 million in new investments have been made in Chicago Public Library under the “Branching Out: Building Libraries, Building Communities” initiative to develop and modernize community libraries throughout the city. 6 new libraries have been built and significant updates have been made at 14 branches through the work of 2FM, PBC, and CHA. By 2019, renovations at 4 libraries will be complete.
Through the Chicago Plays! Program and new park developments, the Park District built 365 new playgrounds in neighborhoods across the city. Today, nearly all Chicago residents live with a 10-minute walk to a Chicago park or open space due to strategic park acquisitions. The Park District also opened transformative urban park projects including the 606, the separation of the Lakefront Trail, Maggie Daley Park and 31st St. Harbor.