“Projects are not being held back like they were a few years ago,” he says. Instead, “the inflation on prices has been astonishing and very difficult to get in front of. Trying to plan for that future inflationary aspect is really difficult.

“We’re probably being overly conservative on our costs,” he says, adding that there aren’t any “good answers.”

One potentially helpful strategy would be to “break down these projects into smaller pieces.”

Nevertheless, Thompson says, “It seems like people are trying to scramble and adapt and keep moving forward.”

Considerable staffing issues persist as well. “It’s amazing to listen to people and talk to them about their own struggles to find qualified staff and how to pull in staff from outside of the region here,” Thompson says. “Contractors are struggling to find enough people to do all the jobs that are being pushed here in the region.”