Frederick Douglas Memorial Bridge
District of Columbia
The PLA for the Fredrick Douglass Memorial Bridge was an abysmal failure at meeting the promises to hire D.C. residents.
The Fredrick Douglass Memorial Bridge was a $480 million PLA project built entirely in Ward 8 of the District of Columbia. Officials claimed that, even with the PLA, that 51% of new workers on the project would be D.C. residents. PLAs, however, generally discriminate against local workers in favor of out-of-state workers who have seniority in the union. Data obtained through a Freedom of Information Request (FOIA) show that was clearly the case with the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge project. In fact, due to the PLA required by the local officials, it was an abysmal failure at hiring D.C. residents and a missed opportunity to bring job training and employment to the District.
How it failed
In 2015, the D.C. Council required certain projects, including the Fredrick Douglass Memorial Bridge, to be subject to a PLA.
The bridge was chosen to be a part of a Special Experimental Program (SEP) that stipulated 51% of new hires on the project had to be D.C. residents. The project documents demonstrate that, not only was hiring D.C. residents a priority, this was especially true for residents of Wards 7 and 8 in the District.
The data, however, show the Fredrick Douglass Memorial Bridge was not close to reaching its local hiring goals – a problem endemic to PLAs.
From 2021 to 2022 the percentage of new hires that were D.C. residents was 29%.
The project included only 19 total apprentices. Only 5 of the 19 were D.C. residents, and only 1 was from Ward 8, where the project was constructed.
