Located next to a wastewater treatment plant, the River Raisin Bridge in Monroe, Michigan, isn’t photo-op material. The mud is deep and the puddles are enormous on a raw December morning. Still, camera crews and local politicians and union members gather as if Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is giving out gold bars. And in a way, he is. Buttigieg, clad in his standard crisp white shirt and blue tie, is here to announce $196 million in funding to rebuild the bridge before it deteriorates further and forces expensive and unsafe detours through the area.
Buttigieg is on a farewell tour of sorts after the Democrats’ November defeat. He’s trying to connect the dots in his now-home state of Michigan between the Biden administration’s expansive infrastructure program and job creation for a working class yet to feel the post-pandemic economic recovery that long ago reached Wall Street.
“This is a piece of infrastructure that serves 60,000 vehicles per day,” Buttigieg says. “I-75 between Detroit and Toledo [Ohio] is significant to international trade as well as to this region, but was left to deteriorate — but not anymore. This bridge overall and the associated economic activity are expected to support over 4,000 jobs. That includes people designing, building, supplying materials, and the jobs in retail, food service, and other local businesses that are going to be supported by this. We’re thrilled about how we’re not only building bridges, we’re building livelihoods, homeownership, and so much more for families doing this work.”