As private developers struggle through the global economic crisis, builders and designers continue to tap publicly funded projects to keep pipelines full. Although infrastructure has garnered a large portion of the available government-backed work worldwide, institutional opportunities in education, health-care and government facilities have kept the base-building divisions of many firms active.
Johan Karlström, president and CEO of Stockholm-based Skanska, says he expects public spending will continue to fill some of the void left by the absence of private work, but recognizes the trend can’t continue for long.