![]() In the wake of Democrat presidential nominee Joseph Biden securing enough electoral votes to become the next U.S. president, a new emphasis is expected to be placed on tackling the country’s ongoing infrastructure challenges. In a statement, Stephen Sandherr, chief executive officer of the Associated General Contractors, remarked: “We are ready to work with the incoming administration and Congress to help craft an agenda that is focused in rebuilding infrastructure and reviving the national economy.” Thomas Donahue, chief executive officer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, remarked that “modernizing our infrastructure has broad support and can drive growth.” Continued Donahue: “If the Biden administration prioritizes something that can, and must, be done in a collaborative manner, it can set the tone for good governance on other priorities essential to rebuilding our economy.” During the campaign Biden said he was committed to investing up to $2 trillion to pay for transportation infrastructure projects across the country, as well as new affordable housing. But in an interview with the publication Construction Dive, Jay Hanson, executive vice-presidency for advocacy at the National Asphalt Pavement Association, noted that a Biden administration will also most likely also usher in a new set of challenges for builders. Noting that Biden said he will be committed to seeing federal infrastructure projects using only American-made materials, Hansen additionally noted: “Disadvantaged Business Enterprise labor agreements and those kinds of programs will get tougher.” By Garry Boulard
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![]() The City of El Paso may receive up to $4.5 million in support for an enhanced arroyo project that will include the expansion of a pump station and building of pipelines to move river water for use by city residents and the Army’s Fort Bliss. Upon completion, what is called the Enhanced Arroyo Project will be capable of handling 15,000 acre feet annually, an amount triple the size of water currently used by the base. The project is especially important because, according to city documents, it will serve to prevent the intrusion at Fort Bliss of “brackish water into wells that provide water to the installation, extending the useful life of those wells and ensuring the supply of water for missions, soldiers, and military families.” If approved, funding for the project will come through the Texas Military Preparedness Commission in the form of a Defense Economic Assistance Grant. That grant will provide another $4.5 million for the El Paso Water utility company to help complete the project. By design, the project will stabilize and increase levels in the Hueco Bolson aquifer, which serves as the primary source of water for both the city and the military base. First phase of the work will see the excavation and building of infiltration infrastructure running along a just-over 1–mile stretch of the arroyo. The project is eligible for Defense Economic Assistance funding due to the fact that Fort Bliss, which underwent a $6 billion expansion 15 years ago, has experienced the largest population growth of any base in the history of the Defense Department, jumping from more than 9,300 people to around 40,000 today. Army policy dictates that Fort Bliss must have in place modern utility infrastructure designed to satisfy both its current and future growth needs. By Garry Boulard ![]() The City of Fort Collins has issued a Request for Proposals for a consulting firm to study whether or not the city’s current impact fees adequately fund transportation infrastructure projects. The Fort Collins Transportation Capital Expansion Fee Program has been in place since 1979 and renewed and revised as recently as 2017. According to city documents, the TCEF Program has been a “stable long term funding source for the construction of transportation infrastructure” across Fort Collins. The fees help fund everything from new road construction to road system improvements and multimodal projects. The RFP is specifically looking for a consulting agency to “review the current fee collection methodology against industry best management practices,” while also determining how such fees can most efficiently be used to “ensure proportionality between future development and needed improvements.” The consultants will additionally be tasked for establishing a nexus between anticipated future development in the city and needed infrastructure improvements. Submission deadline for the RFP is November 19. By Garry Boulard ![]() While any sort of political uncertainty is almost always a bad thing for business in general and Wall Street in particular, a statement issued by the respected Moody’s Investors Service is suggesting that a delayed result in the presidential election is nothing to get excited about. A note issued by a Moody’s spokesperson asserted that “while the lack of an immediate conclusion to the election process may increase financial market volatility, our assumption is that US institutions will eventually resolve the delays in vote counting.” The statement adds that Moody’s expects imminent disputes over the results of the election to be handled in a “manner that is consistent with the established frameworks around the rule of law without causing any meaningful, enduring credit impact.” The Moody’s release comes as counting in five states - Alaska, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania - remain incomplete, depriving both President Trump and former vice-president Joseph Biden of an electoral majority. Despite some market trepidation, investor activity since the end of voting on Tuesday has been largely positive, with the Dow closing up by more than 1.3% on the day after the balloting, and the Standard and Poor’s Index increasing by 2.2%. That S&P increase was the largest one-day gain in five months. Some analysts even suggest that the prospect of a Biden presidency with the Senate still in the hands of the Republicans was being viewed as a good thing. “It’s unlikely that Mr. Biden will be able to get his planned corporate tax hike through,” reports the Wall Street Journal, speculating on the probability of a divided government. “Stock market investors often prefer gridlock,” agrees the Investor’s Business Daily. Taking note of the very close results and the potential for one party being in control of the White House and another of the Senate, Thaddeus Swank, an editor with the U.C. Chamber of Commerce’s strategic communications, wrote: “Overall, this election shows that the American people want and expect cooperation when Congress convenes in January.” “And that’s good,” Swank added, “because we have lots of work to do.” By Garry Boulard ![]() The El Paso City Plan Commission has approved site plan modifications for the sprawling Vista Del Norte Estates on the northeast side of the city. The El Paso-based architectural and engineering firm Conde, Incorporated submitted information to the El Paso Plan Commission asking for a modification in the previously approved subdivision code for the site. Located west of the Patriot Freeway and to the east of Dyer Street, the 129-acre estates will see the development of 607 individual single-family lots. Those lots would vary in size between 4,700 square feet and just over 10,000 square feet. The project, owned by Rancho Real Developers, also of El Paso, will also include the building of two neighborhood parks ranging in size between 85,000 to just under 214,000 square feet, and three drainage ponds. As proposed, the site will also see the building of 10 to 15-foot pathways and a 64-foot right of way, made up of one roadway and two parkways. City Plan staff recommended approval of the site modifications, subject to the developer having in place plans for a water and wastewater system for the project, while also agreeing to landscape the rear of all double frontage lots. The commission approval was unanimous. By Garry Boulard ![]() Built in the late 1930s with New Deal funding, the Finley Gym in Socorro, New Mexico is a part of the city’s historical fabric. For 30 yeas it was a part of the larger Socorro High School, then was used by a middle school after the high school opened at a different location. More than two decades ago, the city took possession of the structure, with the gym now connected to the City of Socorro Youth Center. Long serving not only as an athletic facility with a popular weight room but also a place for community meetings, art events, and the local Youth on Stage performance theater, the Finley Gym additionally hosted boxing legend Muhammad Ali when he stopped by for a visit one day in the spring of 1976. Now Socorro Mayor Ravi Bhasker, backed by other city officials, says he wants the gym, described by the local El Defensor Chieftain newspaper as a “community treasure,” to have a new life. Noting that the facility, at 202 McCutcheon Avenue, has been in neglect for several years, Bhasker is hoping to spirit an effort to substantially update and renovate the structure. It is thought that it will probably cost around $5 million to return the Finley Gym to its former glory. Funding for that effort may come for a number of different sources at both the state and local level. Some public input, with the Albuquerque-based NCA Architects and Planners serving as a consultant, was received late last year by the city. Additional input will undoubtedly be invited in the months to come as the city firms up more detailed renovation plans for the gym. By Garry Boulard ![]() An unprecedented gap between residential construction growth and a lack of it in the nonresidential section is proving stubbornly steady, according to a new study released by the Associated General Contractors of America. “The September spending report shows the gulf between housing and nonresidential markets is growing steadily wider,” Ken Simonson, chief economist with the AGC, said in a statement. While residential projects have increasingly picked up steam in the late summer and early fall weeks, some 75% of nonresidential respondents are reporting a postponed or outright cancelled project. Those numbers, notes Simson, are “up from 60% in August and 32% in June.” Altogether, construction spending was up by 0.3% in September over the August numbers, for a total of $1.4 trillion. That figure was surprisingly 1.5% greater than September 2019’s numbers. Private residential spending continues to prove the real star of the national building business with a 2.8% increase in September, and a 9.9% gain over last September. The numbers are all in the other direction in private and public nonresidential spending, which saw a 1.6% decline between August and September of this year, and a 4.4% drop from September 2019. Private nonresidential construction, in fact, has been down for three months in a row, with the sharpest reduction at 2.2% seen in the power construction segment. Commercial construction, taking in retail and warehouse work, was off by just under 2%, while manufacturing work dropped 2.1%. In the public construction arena, highway and street construction, often the most resilient sector, saw a significant 5.4% drop in September, with transportation building off by a smaller 0.3%. Stephen Sandherr, chief executive officer of the AGC, pointed to the effects of the pandemic for “suppressing demand for new office buildings, hotels, and shopping centers even while it inspires many people to build bigger homes.” Despite the strong residential construction numbers, Robert Dietz, chief economist with the National Association of Homebuilders, noted that new building continues to lag behind new home sales. “Combined with the low level of inventory at a 3.6-month supply, the September data indicate growth opportunities for home building,” said Dietz in a press release, adding that the NAHB’s latest survey reveals that home builder confidence has reached “a new, all-time high.” By Garry Boulard ![]() At least six new hospitals will be built in different parts of Arizona, according to an announcement made by a major healthcare provider group based in Dallas. Exceptional Healthcare Incorporated says it plans to spend up to $150 million to build the new hospitals, which will go up in the cities of Bullhead City, Flagstaff, Kingman, Maricopa, Prescott, and Yuma. The company, which has an operational partnership with US Assets, Incorporated, also of Dallas, has a large footprint in the Lone Star state with locations in Brownsville, Harlingen, and Port Arthur, among other cities. It says it will spend around $25 million to build each of its new Arizona facilities. The hospital planned for Maricopa will be the first hospital in the city’s history and is expected to measure around 20,000 square feet. That planned facility at 19060 N. John Wayne Parkway on the west side of the city will house a 24-hour emergency department, ten inpatient rooms, as well as a laboratory and digital imaging suite. Site plans for the new Maricopa hospital were approved last month by the Maricopa Planning and Zoning Commission, with work expected to start later this month. A construction schedule for the other five facilities has not yet been announced. By Garry Boulard ![]() Six separate park and outdoor infrastructure projects have been announced as the first-ever recipients of state funding through a new program overseen by the New Mexico Economic Development Department. The initiative, according to a statement released by the development, focuses on “conservation-minded shovel-ready programs that are open to the public and demonstrate a clear benefit to the community, either by attracting and retaining residents and/or attracting visitors.” As previously announced, grants range from $5,000 to $25,000 and require a 50/50 matching component. What are being called Special Projects and Outdoor Infrastructure Fund grants are being administered by the Economic Development Department’s Outdoor Recreation Division. Recipients for this first round of funding include the Silver City-based Southwest New Mexico Arts, Culture and Tourism group for the building of a pavilion measuring around 35 feet in diameter as well as the building of a trail connecting the historic Silver City Water Works building with the city’s Penny Park roughly half a mile to the south. The Santa Clara Pueblo is receiving funding for the building of three picnic sites that will be Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant at the Santa Clara Canyon. Those sites will include barbeque stands, benches, tables, and permanent overhead shelters. A complicated rail-to-rail conversion project taken on by the Santa Fe Conservation Trust is also receiving support. The La Tierra Chili Line Trail project tracks the famous Chili Line narrow-gauge railroad running through the northern part of the state for six decades leading up to World War II. The construction of new signs and banners, as well as half a dozen fence gates, is receiving funding through the Continental Divide Trail Coalition, which has offices in Golden, Colorado. The additional trail enhancement and infrastructure work will take place entirely in the Lordsburg region in southwest New Mexico. The Village of Taos Ski Valley is getting support for the construction of a bathroom that will go up in the parking lot leading to the state’s highest peak. That new facility will include passive solar and evaporative toilet systems, among other features. Some 25 miles worth of signs running along the Zuni Mountain Trail will be replaced through funding support to the group Adventure Gallup & Beyond, whose offices are in Gallup. New signage will also be built on a 5-mile stretch of the Pyramid Rock Trail. In a statement, Axie Navas, director of the Outdoor Recreation Division, said the six grant recipients “stood out for their creative approaches to developing outdoor recreation access in their communities, attracting jobs, talent, and visitors, and overall increasing their residents’ well-being.” By Garry Boulard ![]() For the fifth straight month in a row, personal consumption spending showed an increase, despite the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak and national economic shutdown. According to the latest numbers released by the Commerce Department, personal consumption expenditures registered a 1.4% gain in September, the most recent month analyzed. The increase comes as personal income levels also saw a slight improvement of 0.9% over August, when they were down by a substantial 3%. Analysts generally regard the new spending numbers as good news: “Consumers doled out more on autos, clothing, and footwear, continuing a trend of robust outlays on goods due to pent-up demand from pandemic-related economic disruptions,” notes the Wall Street Journal of the Commerce report. “Consumers bought new cars and trucks in September, purchased new clothes for the start of the school year and cooler fall weather, and spent more on recreation such as gym memberships and park fees,” observed the financial news service Market Watch. “This once again proves that people are gradually showing faith in the economy,” asserted the site Nasdaq.com. But the site was quick to add: “However, fears have once again started gripping the nation with a record jump in daily coronavirus cases, which may compel people to stockpile on necessities again.” The same Commerce Department report explained the rise in personal income as due to “increases in proprietors’ income, compensation of employees, and rental income of persons that were partly offset by a decrease in government social benefits.” In fact, overall government wages and salaries were off by a large $7.4 billion in September, a loss partly attributable to a decline in both unemployment insurance as well as pandemic unemployment compensation. In a separate survey, the Bureau of Economic Analysis is reporting that the nation’s gross domestic product increased by 33% in September, a significant improvement over 31.4% decline earlier this summer. The BEA report noted that the strong GDP increase is reflective of “continued efforts to reopen businesses and resume activities that were postponed or restricted due to Cobid-19.” By Garry Boulard |
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