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66 • NOVEMBER 2014 • WORLD FENCE NEWS for much of 2014, up only 2% year- to-date, there have been a few months like August that featured the start of noteworthy healthcare construction projects. Educational buildings, the other major institutional category, receded 9% in August after July's 11% gain. Large educational building proj- ects that reached groundbreaking in August included a $120 million re- search lab at Michigan State Universi- ty in East Lansing, Mich. and an $84 million law school at Arizona State University in Phoenix, Ariz. Through the first eight months of 2014, the educational building catego- ry was up 8% from a year ago. The Dodge Report continued from page 55 The smaller institutional catego- ries revealed a mixed pattern in Au- gust. Gains were reported for public buildings and churches, up 27% and 17% respectively, as each showed im- provement from weak activity in July. Declines were reported in August for amusement-related work and trans- portation terminals, down 10% and 19% respectively. Nonbuilding construction, at $120.1 billion (annual rate), dropped 12% in August. The public works group as a whole was down 6%, due primarily to a 30% slide for the "mis- cellaneous public works" category. In July, the miscellaneous public works category included $1.2 billion for work on Phase 2 of the Dulles Corridor MetroRail project in north- ern Virginia. By contrast, the largest miscel- laneous public works project entered as an August start was a $267 million runway reconstruction at JFK Interna- tional Airport in New York, N.Y. Also losing momentum in August were river/harbor development, down 1%; and sewer construction, down 7%. On the plus side, the water sup- ply category grew 7% in August, and gains were reported for both high- ways, up 7%; and bridges, up 9%. On a year-to-date basis, highways and bridges together were down 15% from last year. Electric utility con- struction in August decreased 33%, resuming the downward trend that's been present for the past year-and-a- half. August did include the start of a $775 million natural gas-fired power plant in Maryland, a $260 million hy- droelectric power plant in Iowa, and a $222 million wind farm in North Dakota, but these were not enough to avert the month's downturn for elec- tric utility starts. Residential building in August grew 2% to $235.6 billion (annual rate). Multifamily housing provided the upward push, increasing 10%. The largest multifamily projects that were entered as August starts were the $718 million multifamily portion of the Nordstrom Tower in New York, N.Y., a $420 million apartment building in New York, N.Y., a $198 million con- dominium building in San Francisco, Calif., a $169 million multifamily building in Boston, and a $150 mil- lion multifamily project in Dallas in- volving the redevelopment of an office building into residential apartments. Through the first eight months of 2014, the metropolitan area with the highest dollar amount of multifamily starts was New York, N.Y., up 60% from the previous year. Rounding out the top five metro- politan areas for multifamily construc- tion starts (with the percent change from a year ago) were the following – Washington, D.C., up 47%; Los An- geles, up 55%; Miami, up 25%; and San Francisco, up 47%. Single family housing in August slipped 1%, staying basically flat with the level that was reached towards the end of 2013. In August, reduced single family construction was reported in the West, down 3%; and the South Central, down 2%; while slight 1% gains were reported in the Northeast, the Mid- west, and the South Atlantic regions. Murray noted, "The recovery for single family housing has now been stalled for two-thirds of 2014, and it remains to be seen whether the re- cent easing of lending standards for residential mortgages, as indicated by the Federal Reserve's survey of bank lending officers, will be able to help single family housing regain its up- ward track." The 4% increase for total con- struction starts on an unadjusted basis during the January-August period of 2014 was due to a mixed pattern by major construction sector. Nonresidential building year-to- date advanced 13%, with this per- formance by segment – commercial building, up 7%; manufacturing building, up 132%; and institutional building, up 1%. Residential building year-to-date increased 5%, with single family housing up only 1% while mul- tifamily housing jumped 19%. Extraordinary solutions. Accura ™ Internal Truck Assemblies and related hardware are also available. Accura ™ Precision Gate Hardware Better rollers – best value! 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