Sewerage and Waste Disposal Projects Are the Single Bright Spots in an Otherwise Declining Construction Spending Picture

National spending on sewerage and water disposal projects saw a healthy 4.3% increase in September, according to a new survey just issued by the Associated General Contractors.

But that category increase as the country enters the final quarter of 2021 represented the only good news as spending on highway and street construction saw a 1.3% decline over last year, and public transportation construction was off by nearly 7%.

“Spending on projects has been slowed by shortages of workers and materials, as well as extended or uncertain delivery times,” Ken Simonson, chief economist with the AGC, said in a statement explaining the lower numbers.

“And the extreme rise in materials costs is likely to mean some infrastructure projects will no longer be affordable without additional funding,” Simonson noted, referencing the stalled infrastructure funding package currently in Congress.

Additional segment declines were seen in public water supply projects, off by just under 1%, and conservation and development construction, down by a significant 19.5%.

Commercial construction, long a gainer in the market, witnessed a 1.7% drop in September. This big category, which includes farm, retail, and warehouse structures, saw mixed results with an increase of 12% in warehouse projects offset by a 13.2% drop in retail projects.

Spending on office projects, which has been mostly lagging throughout the months of the pandemic, was down by 9.2%, although that same sector has seen renewed activity in data center construction.

​By Garry Boulard

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