Concrete Products covers the issues that attract producers of ready mixed and manufactured concrete focusing on equipment and material technology, market development and management topics.
Issue link: http://concrete.epubxp.com/i/442865
www.concreteproducts.com January 2015 • 57 FEATURE FORECAST portation Builders Association sees only modest gains for its mem- bers from 2014 to 2015. The U.S. transportation construction market will grow 3.1 percent from $185.9 billion in 2014 to $191.7 billion in 2015, according to a forecast by ARTBA Chief Economist Dr. Alison Premo Black. This is slightly above anticipated growth in the over- all economy, with a U.S. Gross Domestic Product expected to grow between 2.6 and 3 percent, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve. The ARTBA forecast for the largest segment—highway, street and related work—is tempered by two key factors: uncertainty over long- term federal funding, which represents 52 percent of state Depart- ment of Transportation capital outlays, and still-recovering state and local budgets. Outside of construction, state and local governments are expected to spend an additional $38.5 billion for maintenance work; $13.2 billion for in-house and consultant planning and design services; and, $7 billion for right-of-way purchases as part of their highway and bridge programs. Dr. Black's report predicts that the construction market for high- ways, streets and related work, private driveways and commercial parking lots will grow to $64.9 billion, up 2.1 percent from $63.5 bil- lion in 2014. This includes 1.2 percent growth in highway, street and related work, from $51.8 billion in 2014 to $52.4 billion in 2015. To put this market in perspective, the amount of work completed in 2009 was $67.3 billion. The market is expected to be uneven across the country, with highway investment up in 24 states, down in 19 states and Wash- ington, D.C., and within a plus/minus 5 percent in seven states. Approval of more than $17 billion for transportation investment through legislative and ballot measures in 2014 will help support the market in the coming years. State legislatures approved 14 measures in 2014 to increase investment, while voters approved 79 percent of the local or regional transportation funding measures on November ballots. The public private partnerships (P3s) market will also support new growth in 2015, with four states—Colorado, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania—awarding their first P3 projects last year. Contractors will have an additional $30 billion-$40 billion in business opportunities from private highway and bridge work that is complet- ed as part of housing developments and larger commercial structures, separate from parking lots and driveways. Contined on page 59