Rebuilding America's infrastructure, as promised on the campaign trail and in the first year and a half of the Trump Administration, will get a lot harder when the price of steel has gone up by 40 percent since the beginning of 2018.
David A. Lieb reports on the effects of the Trump Administration's trade policies on infrastructure investment projects and programs around the United States.
Steel prices have risen sharply since the Trump Administration instituted tariffs on steel imports in March, according to Lieb. While some projects are under construction with pre-tariff prices locked in, projects in the pipeline aren't so fortunate. Lieb references the Kansas City streetcar extension, a bridge project over the Mississippi River in St. Louis, and highway construction programs in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania to exemplify projects that are re-evaluating their plans in light of the new prices for steel.
There's also the specter of President Trump's proposed (but likely dead on arrival) $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan. The article implies, with some degree of subtlety, that Trump's trade policies are making Trump's infrastructure promises impossible.
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