The boom has spread to Indianapolis, where developer Buckingham Cos. is constructing 320 upscale apartments for CityWay, a $155-million mixed-use project currently under construction, and to Milwaukee, where the $52-million Moderne, a 30-story apartment tower, broke ground in February 2011.

Regional construction also continues to be buoyed by health care operators, which are upgrading or replacing facilities in order to remain competitive, even if their programs require them to borrow heavily.

"Only recently have we begun to see a return to the billion-dollar or multi-hundred-million-dollar hospital and medical campus building programs that were hot until 2008, when the endowment balloon deflated and the debt market froze up," says Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America, Arlington, Va. "Now, we're seeing the return of both. The debt market is wide open for enterprises that have the proven revenue streams to pay back their debt."

In addition to the infrastructure required to support advanced diagnostics and treatment, providers are introducing accommodations and finishes more reminiscent of hotels than hospitals in order to improve patient comfort, privacy and infection control. Space allocations also are changing, with more square footage devoted to diagnostics and treatment and less to overnight stays.

The regional outlook is spottier for civil works. In many cases, federal, state or local funding isn't in place to support highway, bridge and rail systems, a dilemma that in January prompted Ohio officials to declare that state transportation was in a state of crisis. Accordingly, state lawmakers are weighing proposals to privatize the Ohio Turnpike or implement more bridge and highway tolls in order to fund projects, a tact taken by Illinois lawmakers to finance a $12-billion toll road expansion and renovation plan and create 120,000 jobs.

Although Illinois continues to dig its way out of debt with employment programs that rely heavily on construction, including a $31-billion, multiyear infrastructure improvement program, state lawmakers and transportation officials fret that the U.S. House of Representative's federal transportation bill would eliminate the use of motor fuel tax money to support mass transit projects, which could jeopardize Chicago's transit system, the second largest in the nation.

As in 2011, regional builders may simply have to wait for recovery. While U.S. construction employment hit a two-year high in January, the industry's 17% unemployment is double that of the overall economy.

"Mild weather may have figured into higher January employment," says Simonson."I wouldn't break out the bubbly yet."