Money matters

China State Construction Engineering Corp entered the US market in 1985 and its US operation China Construction America is well known by locals.

In New York, CCA is renovating Alexander Hamilton Bridge (between Manhattan and the Bronx) and reconstructing the Staten Island Expressway. It is also building North Charleston Coliseum and River Bluff High School in South Carolina.

Welders work on a piece of steel for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The fabrication work is being done by Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries at its site on Changxing Island. A legislator in California has claimed that awarding the project to a Chinese company damaged California's economy. Gao Erqiang / China Daily

Its parent company recently announced a plan to invest $2 billion in the next few years in PPP infrastructure projects, mergers and acquisitions, and residential projects.

Joe Catapano, a project manager for CCA working on the Staten Island Expressway, said Chinese companies offer capital and expertise.

"The key issue is money. It doesn't seem the US government is willing to spend money (on building infrastructure)," said the engineer, who has 12 years of experience working in New York and California. "There isn't financial support for a lot of the infrastructure work that needs to be done.

"High-speed rail is definitely something we can learn from China. We don't have any of that," he added.

The first US high-speed rail line is likely to be in California, with delayed construction of a 350 km/h system to begin in Fresno this year.

California is home to six of the country's 10 most congested metropolitan areas, while the state's population is predicted to grow by more than 20 million in the next four decades.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority estimates that without the new rail system, the state would need to invest $171 billion to acquire the equivalent transport capacity 2,300 miles of new highway, 115 new airport gates and four new runways.

Many American scholars say the Chinese government makes decisions quickly on infrastructure construction and acts effectively.