Texas & Southeast

Nonresidential Drops, But N.C. Contracts Eke Out 4% August Gain

Increases in the value of residential and infrastructure projects overcame a big drop in the nonresidential category, as new North Carolina contracts totaled nearly $1.2 billion in August, a 4% gain compared to the same period of a year ago.

Photo courtesy Lord, Aeck & Sargent

Lord, Aeck & Sargent was the architect for the recently completed Chidley North Residence Hall project at North Carolina Central University in Durham.

McGraw-Hill Construction estimated the state’s nonresidential contracts at nearly $287.4 million for August, a 40% drop compared to a year ago.

The nonbuilding category, which includes infrastructure projects, surged by 43%, however, resulting in a monthly total of $263.1 million in new contracts. And the company estimated North Carolina’s residential contracts at $647.6 million, or 32% better than last August.

On a year-to-date basis, North Carolina’s new 2012 construction contracts are estimated at nearly $10.3 billion, or 1% behind 2011’s pace.

Nonresidential is 5% behind last year’s volume, with nearly $3.2 billion in new contracts so far in 2012. Also, despite the August gain, the state’s nonbuilding category, estimated at $2 billion for the year, is now 36% behind the pace of a year ago.

Residential is the lone positive category so far in 2012, with its nearly $5.1-billion total representing a 30% improvement for the year.

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.