World Fence News

74 • JUNE 2015 • WORLD FENCE NEWS decline in March was warehouse con- struction, which fell 26%. Hotel construction, down 1%, held virtually steady in March, as it benefitted from the groundbreaking of the $203 million Fairmont Austin Convention Hotel in Austin, Tex. and a $67 million Courtyard by Marriott hotel in New York, N.Y. Store construction was the one commercial structure type able to re- port a March gain, rising 13% after a lackluster February. The institutional building group in March retreated 9% following its 20% jump in February. The healthcare facilities catego- ry plunged 40% after an unusually strong February, returning to a level more consistent with its sluggish per- formance of recent years. Educational buildings slipped 11% in March, although the latest month did include groundbreaking for Cornell University's first academic building on Roosevelt Island in New York, N.Y., as part of the Cornell NYC Tech campus development. Large public school buildings that reached the construction start stage in March included a $68 million K-12 fa- cility in Brooklyn, N.Y., a $66 million high school replacement in Federal Way, Wash., and a $50 million high school renovation in Chicago. For the smaller institutional cat- egories, weaker activity was reported by public buildings (courthouses and detention facilities), down 5%, while the remaining institutional structure types posted increases for March – transportation terminals, up 33%; amusement-related work, up 52%; and religious buildings, up 71% from a de- pressed February. Groundbrea k- ing for a $78 mil- lion church in Leawood, Kan. helped to lift the religious building amount for March. Nonbuilding construction, at $198.5 billion (annual rate), dropped 22% in March. A steep plunge for the electric utility and gas plant category, down 73%, was entirely responsible for the latest month's nonbuilding de- cline. In February, the electric utility and gas plant category had included the $8.4 billion Sempra LNG export terminal in Louisiana and the $1.2 billion Stateline Solar Farm in Cali- fornia. While there were several large electric utility and gas plant projects entered as March starts, such as a $500 million up- grade to a gas-fired power plant in Texas, they were considerably smaller in scale than the large projects entered as February starts. By contrast, the public works categories showed across-the-board gains in March. Highway and bridge construc- tion surged 30%, led by the start of the $2.3 billion I-4 upgrade in central Florida. For the first three months of 2015, the top five states ranked by the dollar amount of new highway and bridge construction were Florida, Texas, New York, California, and Illinois. The miscellaneous public works category, which includes such diverse project types as site work and pipe- lines, soared 86% in March, led by $400 million related to site work at the Sasol ethylene cracker and deriva- tives complex in Louisiana and a $300 million petroleum pipeline in Texas. For the environmental categories, the March increases were as follows – river/harbor development, up 33%; water supply systems, up 16%; and sewer systems, up 1%. Residential building in March was reported at $251.4 billion (annual rate), essentially even with the previ- ous month. Single family housing edged up a slight 1%, due to a mixed pattern by major region – the Northeast, up 19%; the Midwest, up 4%; the South Cen- tral, up 1%; and the South Atlantic and the West, each down 1%. In effect, there's not been much change from the flat pattern for sin- gle family housing at the U.S. level that emerged during 2014, following strong percentage growth in both 2012 (up 29%) and 2013 (up 27%). Multifamily housing in March re- ceded 4%, staying close to the height- ened amount achieved in February when a 45% increase was reported. There were nine multifamily proj- ects valued at $100 million or more that reached groundbreaking during March, with the top four located in the New York, N.Y. metropolitan area – two in Brooklyn valued at $385 mil- lion and $197 million respectively, and two in Manhattan valued at $168 million and $150 million respectively. The Dodge Report continued from page 72 continued on page 76 For the first three months of 2015, the top five states ranked by the dollar amount of new highway and bridge construction were Florida, Texas, New York, California and Illinois.

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