California construction booming for the state’s largest contractors: ENR

California contractors are “riding a tidal wave of plans and projects,” Engineering News-Record (ENR) reports. The engineering publication says in a recent story that the state’s top 75 contractors tallied $36.55 billion of work during 2017, and the top 10 companies alone posted $16.8 billion, a more than 8 percent increase over the top 10 in the previous year.

“The construction market in California continues to be white-hot and extremely active in multiple sectors,” ENR quotes Rich Henry, president of the Northern Pacific region for McCarthy Building Cos. as saying. “The availability of money and the need for investment in infrastructure is still servicing our building boom throughout the state.”

Henry said health care represents between 35% and 40% of the company’s California projects. “Sometimes sectors in one half of the state might be different, but for us as a firm we are as busy as we have ever been in the health care markets,” ENR reports him as saying.

As well, AECOM, listed for the first time on ENR’s Top Contractors list, is finding opportunities in residential, hospitality and sports.

AECOM is currently working on the 70,000 seat L.A. Stadium and Entertainment District at Hollywood Park and South Park 1, a tower project with more than 500 residences.

Another successful contractor, Webcor, indicates it is finding opportunities in northern California.

“One of the reasons is the technology boom in Silicon Valley, which is driving everything,” Tony Rango, the company’s COO and executive vice-president, told the publication.

The company is currently working on a $1-billion expansion at UC Merced campus and a $1.6-billion mixed-use development next to Transbay Terminal in San Francisco.