As President Barack Obama prepares to deliver his much-hyped “jobs” speech this Thursday night, Bronx Congressman Eliot Engel says that investing in transportation construction is the key to creating more jobs.

In a statement released last week, Engel urged his colleagues in Congress to cooperate with President Obama to pass a federal transportation bill that funds roads, railways and transportation construction, something the president has been pressing as one solution to the nation’s high unemployment rate.

‘The best way for us to create immediate jobs is to rebuild our infrastructure,” Engel said in a press release.

“It is a win-win for America,” he added. “For example, the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities says that a $50 billion investment in school renovation could create half a million jobs in one to two years.  If we fail to reauthorize the transportation bill, we would lose 4,000 jobs instantly, $1 billion in revenue in the first 10 days, and approximately one million jobs in the first year.”

Engel said he recently toured his district — which includes parts of the Bronx and Westchester — to survey the damage caused by Hurricane Irene.

“Bridges were knocked down and entire chunks of pavement were washed away, leaving municipalities with hazardous conditions, massive cleanup and logistical nightmares,” Engel said. “This just proves that we need to pay much more attention to our national infrastructure than we have in recent decades.”

Obama has said he is committed to rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure as a means of reigniting the nation’s stalled economy, and is expected to address this in his speech to Congress Thursday night.

The unemployment rate in the Bronx is the highest of any county in New York, according to the Department of Labor, at 12.3 percent in July.