Rising costs and market volatility are shooting holes in highway construction budgets this spring, forcing contractors to find innovative ways of dodging bullets as they head into summer with many projects in full swing. Steady demand for highway construction is helping to ease contractors’ market anxieties and many say they can afford to carefully pick and choose projects.
“There is so much work going around and not enough contractors to do it,” says Frank Carlile, managing principal at Fort Worth-based Carter & Burgess Inc. “There is not so much competition for work right now, but materials is another story.” The rub is in getting projects to completion amid a minefield of budget pitfalls, and materials prices are one of the biggest.