construction

Construction spending in Alaska this year will be around $7.2 billion, up 10% from last year. Excluding an estimated $200 million in spending attributable to the 2018 earthquake, spending will be $7 billion, up 8% from last year. The increase is primarily due to an increase in petroleum spending which will grow 13% to $2.7 billion and national defense spending which will also grow 13% to $700 million.

Construction spending in Alaska this year will be around $6.6 billion, up 4% from last year. But that overall increase is due just to a recovery in spending by the petroleum industry, which is expected to be up about 15%, to nearly $2.6 billion. Without petroleum, overall construction spending in 2018 is likely to be down about 2%, to $4.1 billion.

These estimates are from the newly released 2018 construction forecast, prepared by Scott Goldsmith, professor emeritus of economics at ISER, for the Associated General Contractors of Alaska and the Construction Industry Progress Fund. He has made these forecasts of construction spending every year since 2004.

Download Alaska's 2018 Construction Spending Forecast.

Total construction spending in Alaska will be about $7.3 billion in 2016, down 18% from last year’s $8.9 billion. That drop can be traced to the recent steep decline in oil prices, after several years of very high prices. Those high oil prices had stimulated construction spending throughout the state economy, especially in the oil and gas sector and in state government. Those are among the findings of the new 2016 Construction Spending Forecast, prepared by Scott Goldsmith and Pamela Cravez of ISER for the Associated General Contractors of Alaska.

Many sectors of the economy will see drops in construction spending, particularly the oil and gas sector, which had record spending in 2015. But spending in some sectors will be up or the same as last year. Spending for national defense projects will be up 27%, and spending by basic industries other than oil and gas (tourism, seafood, air cargo, and timber) will be up 39%. Spending for highways and roads will be the same as in 2015, as will spending by the mining industry.

Download the report, 2016 Alaska Construction Spending Forecast (PDF, 1.6MB). If you have questions, get in touch with Scott Goldsmith, professor emeritus of economics, at osgoldsmith@uaa.alaska.edu.

Construction spending in Alaska will be an estimated $8.5 billion in 2015, down about 3% from spending in 2014. That's according to the 2015 construction spending forecast, by Scott Goldsmith and Pamela Cravez of ISER. That forecast is done annually for the Construction Industry Progress Fund and the Associated General Contractors of Alaska, with funding from Northrim Bank. The authors find:

• Overall construction spending will remain strong in 2015, despite the recent steep drop in oil prices. That's partly because there is still a backlog of projects funded under large state capital budgets in earlier years.

• Forecasting how much oil companies will spend for capital projects in Alaska is especially difficult this year. The companies had earlier announced plans to increase spending 18%. But the low oil price will likely force some cutbacks, so spending is forecast to stay about the same as last year.

• Private spending for commercial and residential construction is likely to be down in 2015, in the face of slowing job and population growth and uncertainty about oil prices.

Download Alaska's 2015 Construction Spending Forecast (pdf, 1.8MB), by Scott Goldsmith and Pamela Cravez. If you have questions, get in touch with Scott Goldsmith at osgoldsmith@uaa.alaska.edu.

A presentation given by Mouhcine Guettabi and John MacKinnon in Anchorage on January 29, 2015 and Fairbanks on January 30, 2015 is also available for download (PDF, 1.8MB).

ISER publications are solely the work of individual authors and should be attributed to them, not to ISER, the University of Alaska Anchorage, or the research sponsors.

Spending for construction in Alaska—including both public and private spending—will be about $9.2 billion in 2014, up 18% from spending in 2013. Increased spending by the oil and gas industry will account for most of the growth in private spending, and a larger Department of Defense budget will lead growth in public spending. State-funded projects will also be a major part of construction spending, with a number of projects that were funded in recent large state capital budgets starting or continuing in 2014. 

The estimated value of construction spending in Alaska in 2013 will be about $8.4 billion, up 8% from spending in 2012. That's according to the 2013 Alaska Construction Spending Forecast, prepared by Scott Goldsmith and Mouhcine Guettabi of ISER for the Associated General Contractors of Alaska. More spending in the oil and gas sector will account for most of the growth.