PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney signed a pledge that promises more contracting opportunities to minority- and women-owned local businesses in the city.
The Equity in Infrastructure Pledge assures more infrastructure contracts will go toward historically underutilized businesses.
SEPTA General Manager Leslie Richards stood next to the mayor in City Hall on Tuesday as he added Philadelphia to the list. She signed the same pledge on behalf of SEPTA several weeks ago.
“Contracting is an opportunity to invest in our community,” said Richards. “Who we contract with to supply goods and services and fulfill construction projects is a reflection not just of our system needs but also of our values.”
The goal is to use more of those underutilized businesses for planned projects, thanks to infrastructure grants and money from the American Rescue Plan.
“With this new, enormous level of funding for construction projects across the city, the infrastructure bill not only represents a huge opportunity to improve our aging bridges and roads but also elevate minority businesses by ensuring that they get a fair, equitable shot at these projects,” said Kenney.
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City officials said projects of interest include ongoing construction of the King of Prussia Rail line, modernizations of trolleys and other critical infrastructure projects.
“It really is exciting not only to have the opportunity to fix our infrastructure, which is, in some cases, in extremely poor condition,” Kenney added, “but change the infrastructure of how we contract and how government money and government contracts are given to many more multi-diverse firms than has been done in the past.”