Megaprojects Help Boost April Construction Starts, Dodge Data &amp; Analytics Says

Megaprojects Help Boost April Construction Starts, Dodge Data & Analytics Says

Construction starts rose 10% in April from March levels, thanks in part to two megaprojects that got under way during the month, Dodge Data & Analytics reports.

Dodge D&A’s latest monthly look at new-construction volume, released on May 21, showed that April starts climbed to an annual rate of $698.7 billion, seasonally adjusted.

But excluding $1-billion-plus projects, April’s volume was down 3% from the previous month, the company noted. (ENR is part of Dodge D&A.)

The April results received a major boost from an $8.1-billion Sasol petrochemical plant in Louisiana and a $1.2-billion mixed-use high-rise at Hudson Yards in New York City, both of which began last month.

Dodge D&A also said that, for the first four months of 2015, total construction starts soared 24% year over year, to $208.2 billion, not seasonally adjusted.

When megaprojects of more than $1 billion are excluded, the January-April total still was a 10% gain from the year-earlier amount.

April's starts brought the Dodge Index up to 148, compared with March’s 134. The 2000 figure equals 100 for the index. Last year’s index averaged 124.

The major-project starts so far this year have made the monthly swings in volume more volatile, Dodge D&A Chief Economist Robert Murray observed.

Still, Murray discerns some trends. He said in a statement, “For nonresidential building, the upturn is broadening in scope, with its institutional segment continuing the upward movement established in 2014.” Nonresidential surged 58% in April to a $288.9-billion annual rate.

But residential building edged down 3%, to a $245.1-billion annual rate and the nonbuilding segment dipped 17%, to $164.7 billion.

Murray said that within the nonbuilding category “the electric power and gas-plant segment has provided a substantial near-term boost that will soon recede, while public works is beginning to face constraints after surprisingly resilient activity in early 2015.”

Public works fell 17% in April to $164.7 billion, after a 33% rise in March, Dodge D&A said.

The U.S. Census Bureau, which tracks the montly levels of finished construction projects, reported on May 1 that the value of construction put in place dipped 0.6% in March to $966.8 billion, but was up 2% year over year.

Tom Ichniowski has been writing about the federal government as ENR’s Washington Bureau Chief since the George H.W. Bush administration, and he has covered at least five major highway bills. A recognized expert on government policy on infrastructure and regulation, Tom is also a Baltimore native and Orioles fan who grew up rooting for Brooks and Frank Robinson. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia’s graduate school of journalism, where he once used “unrelentless” in a headline.

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