public construction projects booming nationally

Although private nonresidential construction projects nationally have been flat this spring, the numbers for public construction have rarely been stronger, with particular growth seen in  transportation projects.

“Public construction spending has increased strongly for the past nine months and is now at the highest levels since 2010,” Ken Simonson, chief economist with the Association of General Contractors, said in a statement as part of a report looking at the new public job numbers.

The boom is in part being led, added Simosnson, “by a rebound in infrastructure investment.”

Leading the public construction job sector is airport, transit, public rail, and port project work, which recorded a 9.1 percent jump between May of 2017 to May of 2018.

Conservation and development projects were up by 8.5 percent, with highway and street construction seeing a 5.8 percent jump over last year.

Overall public construction spending from May of last year to May of this year posted a 4.7 percent increase, while the numbers for spending on all construction projects, private and public, increased during that same period by 0.4 percent.

One of the lowest increases in public sector work was seen in educational construction projects, which improved by just 0.4 percent over last year for the same month.

By Garry Boulard