Repair Washington: Creating Good Jobs, Strengthening Infrastructure, and Building Climate Solutions
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Rebuilding and upgrading Washington’s infrastructure gives us a great opportunity to create tens of thousands of family wage union jobs, reduce income inequality, make our economy more efficient and productive, reduce climate-‐disrupting pollution, and protect our communities from severe weather effects caused by climate change.
In this report, the BlueGreen Alliance identifies needed investment—some of which is already in the planning stages—in roads, bridges, transit, waste water, drinking water, electricity, natural gas and a smarter energy grid. After identifying these needs, we estimated the number of jobs that would be created or sustained by making these essential investments in repairing and modernizing our basic infrastructure systems.
We estimate approximately 77,900 jobs could be created or sustained across the Washington economy each year by making much-needed investments in our basic infrastructure systems. This includes the number of direct jobs from impacted sectors like construction laborers, equipment operators, and maintenance workers, as well as the number of indirect jobs from industries that service those sectors and supply chains—including the manufacturing of materials, components, and equipment. Specific energy projects in Washington, such as the Central Ferry-‐Lower Monumental transmission line and natural gas pipeline repair and replacement, hold the potential of creating and sustaining additional jobs through the economy. In addition, we estimated the number of induced jobs supported as the workers buy goods and services, including increased demand for retail, housing, and financial services.