Texas & SoutheastTexas & Southeast Construction News

Georgia's September Contracts Improve by 11%

Thanks to strong activity in the residential and nonbuilding categories, the value of Georgia’s new construction contracts improved by 11% overall in September, according to McGraw-Hill Construction. The jump resulted in an estimated $941.3 million in new contracts.

The residential market showed the greatest improvement for the month. The category registered nearly $335.6 million in new contracts, or 30% better than last September. The nonbuilding category, which includes infrastructure projects, recorded an estimated $110.2 million in new contracts, a 19% improvement over a year ago. The nonresidential category was flat compared to last September, with a roughly $495.6 million total.

The September increase helped improve the state’s year-to-date totals. Residential construction has improved the most, increasing by 10% compared to last year, for a $2.9-billion total through September. The nonresidential category is now 2% ahead of 2010’s pace, with more than $3.9 billion in new contracts to date. Meanwhile, the nonbuilding category, with nearly $1.2 billion in new contracts, is 37% lower than a year ago.

Overall, Georgia’s 2011 construction contracts are estimated at $8 billion, or 4% lower than the same period of a year ago.

Scott Judy is ENR’s Managing Editor. His roughly 34 years as a construction journalist began with an 11-year stint visiting and writing about construction projects in the Midwest region of Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska. Then, in 2000, Judy helped launch ENR Southeast, now known as ENR Texas & Southeast. After all these years, Judy says his favorite part of being an ENR editor is visiting job sites and learning how—and reporting on—a team’s approach to overcoming the project’s design and construction challenges. And Judy says he never turns down an invitation for a project visit.