There can’t be any doubt there’s enough vitriol and pointed fingers out there for anyone who wants to promote the idea that there is a binary inevitability in our public life  where all members of that party/persuasion are bad people who are always wrong and everything is their fault and members of that party/persuasion who are the only hope for America.

A new Transport Construction Coalition survey of transportation contractors introduced at a press conference this morning contains some pretty gloomy predicitions for our industry in 2010. For example more than 40 percent of the surveyed contractors anticipate laying off non-seasonal (read ‘core’ and ‘skilled’) employees and less than 20 percent plan to purchase new construction equipment. Read the whole survey report in Marcia Gruver’s post on our sister blog Construction Pundit on this website.

The press conference featured leaders from the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, the Associated General Contractors of America, the National Stone Sand & Gravel Association, Terex head RonDeFeo and big contractor Dean Word from Texas.

All the people on the virtual podium are facing tough, tough, tough times. Yet there was no vitriol spewed and no fingers pointed. The dominant vibe was let’s figure something out and get rolling because America is in need and there’s no time to waste running screaming down non-productive alleys, so we’ll let others play the politics and we’ll do the work.

This is a very cool industry to be in and there are some very cool people in it.