I am in San Francisco this week for the MidWinter Conference of the American Bar Association Forum on the Construction Industry.  The topic this year is "Government Construction Contracting" and I will be tweeting under the hashtag #ABAConstruct.

Federal Contracting in San Francisco

In news relevant to Federal contractors, construction industry players and Californians, the San Francisco Business Times reported yesterday on the approval of a $171 billion federal loan for the construction of a new transit center in San Francisco.  The loan is earmarked to pay for ramps to the Bay Bridge, a bus storage facility and the design of underground transit facility.  Good for the construction industry in California.  Other states are supposed to get some of the $8 billion set aside by the Obama administration for high-speed rail.

What can we learn from this report?  Almost every "construction news" feed that I follow includes some news article about the sustained decline in construction jobs.  There are also many reports about the stagnant hold on residential building.  Here’s what I think:

  • Federal and state projects will continue to represent the primary areas of growth within the construction industry for 2010.
  • As those projects are the only ones available, there will continue to be increased competition for the limited work.
  • There will continue to be an increase in bid protests and disputes arising out of these projects.

What do you foresee?