Construction activity surged in July as contractors broke ground on yet another round of massive megaprojects.
Total starts rebounded 25.6% month over month in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.79 trillion, according to Dodge Construction Network. The jumps followed June’s weaker numbers, when total starts fell 19.9%, due to a momentary pause in megaproject groundbreakings, according to Dodge. The down-and-up pattern reflects the disparity across building segments, said Eric Gaus, chief economist at Dodge Construction Network.
“Megaproject driven volatility headlines a disjointed construction market,” Gaus said in the release. “There is strength in pockets, multifamily within residential, data centers within commercial, energy within nonbuilding.”
But other verticals struggled to stabilize, Gaus said. For example, within the nonresidential sector, healthcare starts dropped 59.7% month over month in July. Elsewhere in the category, hotel groundbreakings also tumbled 51.5% during the month, according to the report.
Yet the nonresidential group as a whole improved, up 57.7% month over month in July. The growth stemmed largely from multibillion dollar starts, as data centers and manufacturing construction skyrocketed 107.9% and 277.8% month over month in July, respectively.
Within the nonbuilding category, highway and bridge starts fell 16.9% month over month in July, followed by a 7.8% decline in environmental public works. Strength in utility construction starts, which rose 44.7% month over month in July, managed to prop up the nonbuilding category as a whole over the period.
Through the first seven months of the year, nonresidential and nonbuilding construction remain well above last year’s pace, according to Dodge.
During that span, nonbuilding starts increased 29.8%, including a 94.1% jump in electric power and utility construction. Nonresidential starts in July also improved 21.9% year to date.
Residential groundbreakings also ticked up higher in July by 4.9% month over month. Single-family and multifamily construction increased 4.3% and 5.7% during the period, respectively.
However, residential construction starts as a whole were down 1.7% year to date through July, according to Dodge.
The largest projects to break ground in July included, according to Dodge:
- The $12.8 billion data center portion of the Project Jupiter data center and microgrid phase 1 in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.
- The $12 billion Micron semiconductor megafactory fab 1, phase 1 in Clay, New York.
- The $4 billion Amazon STACK Highway 3 data center in Benton, Louisiana.
- The $2.4 billion California High-Speed Rail’s new track and systems in Bakersfield, California.
- The $2.3 billion microgrid portion of the Project Jupiter data center.
- The $1.5 billion Transco Southeast supply enhancement pipeline expansion in Chatham, Georgia.
- The $535 million NY Vue-Harbor Station south residential tower and retail project in Bayonne, New Jersey.
- The $343 million ICON Beach condominiums in Hollywood, Florida.
- The $320 million 65 Franklin mixed residential and commercial building in New York City.
