Jennifer S. Altman for The New York Times
Ning Yuan, president of China Construction America, at the construction site for the Alexander Hamilton Bridge in the Bronx.
By KIRK SEMPLE
Published: August 10, 2011
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Ning Yuan, president of China Construction America, at the construction site for the Alexander Hamilton Bridge in the Bronx.
It is, perhaps, an odd juxtaposition: the construction company in charge of the $407 million renovation of the Alexander Hamilton Bridge, named after a founding father and the nation's first Treasury secretary, is controlled by the Chinese government.
The company, China Construction America, is a subsidiary of the China State Construction Engineering Corporation, China's largest construction conglomerate, and its logo is becoming a familiar sight at public works projects around New York City.
China Construction America won its first public works contract in the city in 2003, to renovate the West Eighth Street-New York Aquarium subway station in Brooklyn. Since then, the company has won several other contracts in New York, some in a consortium with Halmar International, an American company based in Pearl River, N.Y. It has also completed projects around the country and in Canada and the Bahamas.
The renovation of the Alexander Hamilton Bridge, which crosses the Harlem River between Upper Manhattan and the Bronx, is the company's largest current project in the region.
It is also working on the construction of ventilation shafts for the No. 7 subway line extension (a $57 million contract) and on the new Long Island Rail Road East Side access terminal beneath Grand Central Terminal (a $94 million contract), as well as on several public-housing projects in Manhattan and the Bronx.
The company, which moved its headquarters to Jersey City after the 9/11 attack destroyed its offices in the World Trade Center, is run by a mix of Chinese and American executives. It has more than 500 employees around the country and employs only union workers at New York City job sites, its president, Ning Yuan, said.
