Texas & Louisiana City Scoop: Oklahoma City
Total Construction Spending Expected to Climb by More Than 14% This Year
The residential and non-residential sectors will post strong gains, while non-building work retreats.
City Grill
Tim Morgan
Oklahoma Practice Leader, Associate Vice President
HNTB Corp.
Major infrastructure projects are visible across the Oklahoma City metro area, Morgan says. “The city is growing rapidly, and the engineering and construction industry has been working hard over the last decade to keep up,” he says. “A nearly $1-billion bond and sales tax initiative passed in 2017 that will focus on maintaining and improving infrastructure. In addition, the city has invested around $2 billion since the inception of the Metropolitan Area Projects (MAPS) program in 1993, focusing on transformational projects such as the OKC Thunder arena, a downtown Triple-A ballpark, recreational river improvements, schools, wellness centers, a new convention center and a downtown street car system.”
However, a major challenge will be maintaining a high level of investment, Morgan notes.
Three straight years of significant budget shortfalls have led to state funding cuts, so “fixing the state’s revenue problems would go a long way in helping to ensure sustainable and healthy growth of the city and state,” Morgan says.
