“By late this year, the airport project will be writing checks for $20 million a month, and as we move into 2016 and 2017, that will increase to $40 and $50 million,” she said. “And that is not from tax increases. The $1.8 billion for that project is coming from cash-on-hand, bonds that will be repaid from gate and rental fees and federal grants.”

Hale echoed Gochnour’s comments, saying companies locating in the state due to the efforts of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development have been or are in the process of major construction investments.

“The companies we’ve incentivized in the last five years have committed to build $5.1 billion in new infrastructure and facilities and you are the beneficiaries of that,” he said.

Edwards said the Economic Development Corp. of Utah is striving to ensure the work continues and the economy diversifies.
“Right now, we have eight key projects we are working on including deals with a large IT company, aerospace and some large food manufacturers,” he said.

New Leaders Installed

On the final day of the three-day event, Doug Watts of Watts Construction in St. George handed over the chairmanship of the Utah Chapter to Jeff Clyde of heavy civil contracting firm W.W. Clyde.

Watts said he was pleased with the work done in the past year, including meeting ambitious new membership goals for the association, the launch of new social media tools and nearly $50,000 in charitable disbursements to the community.

One unique donation helped construction of the Contractors Memorial Park in Springville, Utah, once home to more people employed in construction per capita that any city in the U.S.

“It has been great representing the association over the past year. Especially increasing the awareness of the market and the construction environment in St. George and the southern part of our state,” Watts said.

AGC Utah hosted the 2014 AGC Western Chapter meeting in St. George, drawing attendees from 17 neighboring western states, Watts said.