The Daily Reporter – WI Construction News & Bids Wisconsin's Construction Authority
Cranes tower over Portland, Oregon, recently. Seattle and Los Angeles share the national lead in construction cranes at 49 each, according to the latest index by Rider Levett Bucknall. (Photo by Sam Tenney)
By Josh Kulla
[email protected]
Seattle and Los Angeles share the national lead in construction cranes at 49 each, international construction consultant Rider Levett Bucknall announced recently.
Toronto is No. 1 in North America with 120 cranes deployed during the second quarter of 2019. It’s followed by Seattle and Los Angeles, and then Calgary, Alberta, with 34 cranes and Portland with 30.
New York City (27), San Francisco (23), Honolulu (4) and Seattle saw their crane counts drop, while Chicago (27), Toronto and Calgary saw theirs rise slightly. Counts for Denver (18), Boston (14), Los Angeles and Portland remained steady.
The report suggested the construction industry as a whole is strong with a healthy project pipeline in place. The monthly backlog of commercial, institutional, industrial and infrastructure projects rose 17 percent from 2011 through 2018, according to the firm’s latest Crane Index and Quarterly Cost Report for North America. And with a 9.15-month average duration during 2018, the backlog is the highest in a decade.
However, there are signs that the industry might also be headed toward the “valley” part or the construction cycle, according to Julian Anderson, Rider Levett Bucknall president of North America.
“As the industry continues to adapt to a chronic craft-labor shortage and on-again/off-again trade wars and tariffs, several markets appear to be softening,” Anderson stated in a news release.
Also, the national average increase in construction costs in the U.S. from Jan. 1 to April 1 was about 1.12 percent, according to the report. San Francisco (2.50 percent), Chicago (2.11 percent) Seattle (1.56 percent), Honolulu (1.53 percent), Portland (1.28 percent) and Phoenix (1.14 percent), showed the greatest cost increases during the second quarter. Only Los Angeles (minus 1.22 percent) saw costs decrease.
The biannual Crane Index is compiled with a one-day physical count of fixed-tower cranes on city skylines, a survey of Rider Levett Bucknall experts on the ground in each location, and interviews with local crane suppliers.
