If you are revitalizing infrastructure, and as a small fraction of that investment you can correct engineering decisions that perpetrate immense tragic societal ills, you do it both morally and fiscally. Rebuilding cities to better suit the understood needs of their populations every few generations is a hallmark of civilizations that haven’t collapsed. If rerouting certain roads reduces hospitalization and incarceration in densely populated areas, spend big now so those savings can be realized going forward all the time until you need to do it again.
If you are hiring to revitalize infrastructure, you are managing streams of wealth and income to get it done. If you recognize systemic factors leading to de facto racial preferences in contracting, making it you policy to counteract that in your contracting choices is both good politics and good policy.
Austerity, denial of racism, sexism, insurrection, and anti-vaccine propaganda are all one great circle under Koch.