21
On the recovery trail
REGIONAL REPORT: NORTH AMERICA
september 2013
international
construction
>
On the recovery trail
The North American construction market is continuing to grow, but a question mark still hangs
over the future of publicly-funded work, particularly highways.
Chris Sleight
reports.
T
his year has seen the US construction market continue to
recover. Data from the government’s Census Bureau shows
that for the 12 months to the end of June – the most recent
set of figures available – construction output was up +3.3% to
US$ 856 billion for the rolling year.
Admittedly, data from earlier in 2013 painted a brighter picture.
The January set of figures showed a +7.1% increase and it is fair
to say that the slowdown in June caught many commentators by
surprise.
However, the fact remains that the sector is back in a growth
phase that began in the second half of 2011. At the low point
during that year’s summer, US construction output stood at
around US$ 770 billion for the rolling 12 month period, so in
two years or so the market has bounced-back by some 11%.
It has been the private construction sector that has led the
charge. The residential sector has shown particularly strong
growth, but it also suffered the longest and deepest recession of
any part of the industry, having started to turn-down as the sub-
prime mortgage crisis started to bite in 2005 and 2006.
Elsewhere in the private sector, segments relating to power,
office construction, amusement & recreation and lodging have
performed well. However, the two largest segments of the market
– construction of commercial property and structures for the
manufacturing industry are flat or down slightly.
A 12.86 m diameter Herrenknecht tunnel boring
machine (TBM) has broken through on the construction
of a new 1.2 km twin-tube harbour crossing in Miami
after just 17 months to excavate both tunnels.
M
ay saw the topping-out of One
World Trade Center in New
York, US, with the placement of
the final section of the 408 ft (124 m) spire
set on top of the building that stands on the
site of the Twin Towers. The pinnacle is
mounted at a height of 1,250 ft
(381 m) on the tower’s observation deck,
and takes its full height to 1,776 ft (541 m),
making it the tallest building in the western
hemisphere.
Placing the spire and its pedestal was
carried out using the two diesel-powered
760 Favco tower cranes, which have been on site since the start of the project some
seven years ago.
The first sections of the spire were delivered to site in March and were craned to the
observation deck level by one of the 760s. The second tower crane was erected as a
freestanding unit at the top of the 1,600 ft (488 m) building and at a height of 180 ft
(55 m) itself, was able to erect the spire to its full height.
Topping out
New York tower reaches 541 m
