“While the national unemployment rate is 9 percent, the construction trades are suffering with an over 13 percent unemployment rate,” Neal Hall, business manager of the Building and Construction Trades, said in a release. “Our infrastructure is crumbling, and the people best suited to fix it are ready and willing to take on that job.”

The cross-country day of action is being spearheaded by a group called Rebuild the Dream headed by Van Jones. The group announced its Nov. 17 events months ago and latched onto Occupy Wall Street as that movement has persisted and grown. The groups join in demanding lawmakers prioritize the needs of the vast struggling middle class instead of more exclusively serving the interests of the nation’s top earners.

“We will all take to the streets… to declare an ‘economic emergency’ in every corner of the country, in all 50 states. We’ll gather in front of bridges that need work, understaffed schools, and other community sites that highlight our failed economy. Wherever you are, this is the day to declare an economic emergency in your community,” the Rebuild the Dream site declares.

At an event in October, Colorado Wants to Work was more specific in its policy goals. Leaders demanded Republican lawmakers sign on to the American Jobs Act proposed by President Obama, which has been rejected by Congress in the weeks since.

Meetings at or under bridges are planned in cities that include Chicago, Houston, L.A. and Philadelphia.

The day of action won’t just focus on infrastructure. Affiliated Occupy movement protesters are tying the problem of unemployment and Capitol Hill priorities to the finance sector. In Manhattan, demonstrators rallied outside the New York Stock Exchange this morning.

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Lakewood Gulch Bridge. (Photo/Jeffrey Beall, Flickr)

Calling the final figure “a moving target,” CDOT spokeswoman Stacey Stegman on Monday provided an analysis that showed the Senate version would make available $425.7 million for state transportation infrastructure projects, while the House version comes in at about $412 million.

Regardless, one state lawmaker said it isn’t enough to make a difference in Colorado, where 126 bridges have been deemed structurally deficient and the state’s engineers recently gave transportation infrastructure a near-failing grade of D+.

“Our federal funding was anticipated to be down about $400 million,” state Sen. Al White, R-Hayden, who sits on the powerful Joint Budget Committee, told the Colorado Independent. “Now they’re throwing us $400 million and asking us to feel grateful for it. So all they’re doing is returning the dollars that we would have had under last year’s funding, so it’s not a big windfall at all.”

Much of the stimulus money is “use-it-or-lose-it” funding that must be obligated to specific projects within 180 days or it goes to states with “shovel ready” road and bridge projects that qualify. CDOT has compiled a statewide priority list of projects that can hit the ground running.

But there is a growing chorus of criticism in the U.S. Senate that not enough money is devoted to transportation infrastructure spending. The House version calls for $30 billion in spending on highway projects, while the current Senate version comes in at $27 billion.

According to The Washington Post, there’s a bipartisan push in the Senate Public Works Committee to amend the bill to include another $5.5 billion in highway construction funding. The Post reports labor unions back that measure and generally would like to see an increase in infrastructure funding.

Another amendment would take approximately $50 billion from the estimated $280 billion that won’t be spent until 2011, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and put that money toward highway construction.

Meanwhile, a group of banks and private-equity firms last month made its case for more public-private partnerships on the infrastructure front. The Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported that a coalition including Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse has released a report indicating some $180 billion in private capital could bolster federal stimulus spending on transportation infrastructure.

But some Colorado counties and municipalities may be leery of such arrangements given ongoing controversy over contracts handed out to private companies for management of tolling on the publicly funded E-470 and the Northwest Parkway projects.

And the state Legislature isn’t waiting for Washington to provide much of a long-term fix for the annual $500 million shortfall in funds to repair and maintain the state’s current system of roads and bridges.

Dan Gibbs (D-Silverthorne) is pushing ahead with a senate bill aimed at providing $200 million a year through increased vehicle registration fees. So far that approach is not meeting with a great deal of Republican support.

The Colorado Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave the state an overall grade of C+ in 2008. The ASCE rated 13 infrastructure categories, including aviation, dam safety, energy, drinking water and solid waste management.

Developed by a group of infrastructure experts to update a similar report in 2003, the 2008 report card gave the state’s road system the lowest grade of the 13 categories and recommended the Legislature take steps to find permanent funding sources for more routine upgrades and expansions of the state’s crumbling road and bridge system.

Many state lawmakers are already on the record saying that finding funds for transportation infrastructure shortfalls will be a top priority this session, and Gov. Bill Ritter in December released a list of shovel-ready road projects (PDF) as part of the state’s wish list for president-elect Obama’s federal stimulus package.

“Addressing deferred maintenance is critical. Much of Colorado’s infrastructure is wearing out, neglected, or simply insufficient,” ASCE Colorado Section President Jeff May said in a release, adding that federal and state gasoline taxes to pay for road improvements have not been increased since the early 1990s.

The ASCE is urging the Legislature to enact a Colorado Infrastructure Improvement Act to establish a Colorado State Commission on Sustainable Infrastructure that would provide comprehensive infrastructure planning so that maintenance and upgrades become a matter of routine, like “an oil change” for your car, May said.