Transportation Construction Value Drops 10.6% in Past Year

Total spending on transportation construction in the United States has dropped 10.6% in the past year, according to data the Associated General Contractors of America reported Tuesday in an analysis of new U.S. Census Bureau figures.AGC noted that growing declines in public-sector activity continue to offset modest increases in private-sector demand for construction. Overall spending by governments on construction is down 9.2% compared to last year, according to AGC, reflecting waning projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and state and local budget tightening. Private-sector construction spending, on the other hand, is up 3.9% compared to last year.

The seasonally adjusted annual transportation construction spending rate this September was $104.3 billion, a decline from the September 2010 rate of $115.4 billion, according to AGC. Those numbers take monthly construction expenditures and project how much spending would occur at that rate over an entire year.

Transit spending has suffered especially hard, tumbling 19.2% in September compared to the previous year. Highway and street construction was down 6.3% in the same period.

Instead of cutting infrastructure investments, AGC leaders said, federal officials should work to shore up, or create new, trust funds that finance federal construction programs. They noted that Congress is more than two years late in passing long-term surface transportation reauthorization legislation.

“We don’t have to choose between balancing the budget and allowing infrastructure to fall into disrepair,” AGC CEO Stephen Sandherr said in a statement. “The good news is there is a fiscally responsible way to repair infrastructure and rebuild our economy.”

The Senate considered a bill this week that would boost transportation infrastructure funding $50 billion and start a national infrastructure bank with $10 billion in money to loan. Senators voted 51-49 Thursday to proceed to a full debate on the measure, falling nine votes shy of the 60 required. (see related story)