Flights at Chicago Midway International Airport will continue to take off as usual, but a multibillion-dollar deal to privatize the airport will remain grounded, at least until the U.S. economy refuels. The sale, valued at $2.52 billion and set up for a 99-year lease, was scheduled for signatures on April 6, but Midway Investment and Development Co., a joint venture of Citi Infrastructure Investors, John Hancock Life Insurance Co. and Vancouver Airport Services, failed to come up with the capital needed to close the deal. MIDCo finally broke talks with the city in late April after it was granted a
The construction industry is surprisingly collegial, considering how competitive it is. Contractors, designers and subcontractors regularly talk to one another, even to their intense rivals. As people in the industry share insights with each other about their particular markets, firms often ask about broader market conditions or about markets beyond their focus or geographic locale to see if their experience matches that of others around the country. With this in mind, ENR is introducing a new Construction Confidence Index survey. Slide Show Image: Sue Pearsall/ENR How Different Groups View the Market The overall results should come as little surprise, as
Even with billions committed by the U.S. military to Guam infrastructure upgrades to support proposed troop redeployment there, the U.S. Government Accountability Office says the tiny island needs more U.S. government help to cover its required share of costs to expand ports and roads, the power grid and water-wastewater facilities needed to accommodate a projected 15% population increase. GAO says that the U.S. Defense Dept. is funding infrastructure costs on Guam “directly related” to the movement of 17,000 U.S. Marines and dependents from the island of Okinawa and from other locations, as well as providing “some funds toward civilian infrastructure.”
The value of new construction starts through the first two months of 2009 totaled just $52.7 billion, or 45% less than the opening two months of last year, according to McGraw-Hill Construction. However, the year-to-year declines are skewed by comparisons to five megaprojects started in the first two months of last year, which totaled over $12 billion. “If these five unusually large projects are excluded from the January-February 2008 statistics, the nonresidential building market for the first two months of 2009 would be down 35% [instead of 51%], while total construction would be down 37%,” says MHC’s chief economist Robert
The Environmental Protection Agency on April 15 announced its plan to distribute $600 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds for cleanup at 50 Superfund sites across the United States. The EPA says the funding will accelerate the hazardous waste cleanup already underway and fund new cleanup projects at the sites. Meanwhile, that same day, the Interior Dept. announced that it would distribute $260 million in economic recovery investments through the Bureau of Reclamation for drinking water projects to help address the devastating drought in California. Overall, BuRec will distribute $1 billion in ARRA funds for water project
More than 100 proposals for electric-transmission projects were submitted to the Western Area Power Administration by April 3, the deadline for applications to be funded with $3.25 billion in borrowing authority under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The Lakewood, Colo.-based marketing agency is reviewing the proposals, which are in various states of shovel-readiness, and will announce its selections by June.
The forecast shrinks the anticipated decline in 2009 construction starts to 15% from an earlier estimate of 20% or more. This is fueled by weak residential and commercial markets and the “emerging loss of momentum for institutional building,” according to the report. Projections say the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will hike public works project starts by 10%, “enough to cushion what was shaping up to be a particularly tough year for construction,” says the report by MHC, publisher of ENR. “The public works jump-start will be the saving grace for the year,” says Robert A. Murray, MHC
As the $787.2-billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) nears its two-month mark, federal agencies are picking up the pace in parceling out the measure’s estimated $130 billion for construction-related projects. The flow of funds, however, has been uneven. The Dept. of Transportation is in the fore-front obligating $4.7 billion in stimulus aid as of March 31. Most of that has gone to state highway agencies, which have begun to commit money and award construction contracts for specific projects. But other agencies, including the Dept. of Veterans Affairs and General Services Administration, only recently released lists of projects that they
The Dept. of Veterans Affairs has released its list of about 1,000 projects, totaling nearly $1.3 billion, that it plans to carry out using funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The vast majority of the projects on VA's list, dated April 2 and 3, are small, with many of them pegged at less than $1 million each. Under the economic-stimulus statute, the VA funds are available until Sept. 30, 2010. The projects are in three categories, the largest of which is $1.086 billion for 965 "non-recurring maintenance" and energy-related projects at VA facilities around the country. Energy-related projects,
Tough economic times around the world are taking a toll on global construction spending. Back-to-back annual declines have been reported for the first time in two decades, according to results of an annual survey of 69 construction markets. In its 2009 global construction outlook, IHS Global Insight Construction Services, Lexington, Mass., projects a 3.7% decline in total global spending this year, to $5.6 trillion. This dip would come on top of a 1.2% drop in 2008. The combined figures represent “the steepest decline in global construction spending in at least 20 years,” says Scott Hazelton, the research firm’s director of
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