Award Totals Slide

The volume of construction contract awards in the states of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota for the first four months of 2004 amounted to nearly $1.8 billion, a decrease of 7 percent when compared with the more than $1.9 billion in awards totaled in the January-through-April period of the

The decrease can be attributed to declines in contract awards for privately financed building construction and road and bridge work in the three states.

In April, the volume of construction contract awards in Minnesota and the Dakotas amounted to only $524.6 million, or 21-percent less than the $669.2 million in awards totaled in the same month of 2003.

Publicly financed building construction award totals, however, increased this April, thanks in no small measure to a large contract awarded for construction of a state of Minnesota project in downtown St. Paul.

For the first four months of 2004, the volume of contract awards for the construction of publicly financed building projects amounted to $563.9 million, up 28 percent from the $438.8 million in awards totaled in the January-through-April period of the previous year.

This April, the volume of construction contract awards for public building projects totaled $179.8 million, up a strong 35 percent from the $133.1 million in awards tabulated by this publication in this category in the same month of 2003.

Construction contract awards for major publicly financed building projects announced this April included:

• $68.9 million for a 599,500-square-foot, nine-story office building for the Minnesota Department of Human Services on 11th and Cedar streets in downtown St. Paul. General contractor — Knutson Construction Company, Minneapolis.

• A $27-million, 97,416-square-foot, two-story school building for Independent School District No. 138, North Branch, Minn. Construction manager — Kraus-Anderson Construction Company, Minneapolis.

• $14.8 million for a 110,000-square-foot, one-story community center building in Andover, Minn. Construction manager — RJM Construction, Plymouth, Minn.

• A $7.5-million remodeling and school building additions project for Independent School District No. 181, Brainerd, Minn. Construction manager — Kraus-Anderson Construction Company.

• $6.5 million for a 101,000-square-foot, three-story building on the campus of North Dakota State University in Fargo. General contractor — Meinecke-Johnson Company, Fargo.

• A $5.7-million, 60,000-square-foot, two-story vocational training building for Southeast Technical Institute, Sioux Falls. General contractor — Hoogendoorn Construction Company, Canton, S.D.

This year's volume of construction contract awards in the Tri-State Region for road and bridge projects continues to be a disappointment.

For the first four months of 2004, contract awards for road and bridge construction projects in the Tri-State Region was at $527.6 million, a sizeable 27-percent decrease from the $728.9 million in awards reported in this category in the January-through-April period of last year.

This April, the volume of construction contract awards for road and bridge projects in Minnesota and the Dakotas amounted to $182.1 million, or 23-percent less than the $236.2 million in awards awarded in April of 2003.

This April's contract awards for major road and bridge construction projects included:

• *$10.5 million for an unbonded concrete overlay and bridge project on I-35 in Rice and Scott counties of Minnesota. General contractor — Shafer Contracting Company Inc., Shafer, Minn.

• A $10.4-million excavation, grading and highway improvement project on Minn. Hwy. 55 in Wright County. General contractor — Hoffman Construction Company, Black River Falls, Wis.

• $7 million for an excavation, grading, bridges, culverts, utilities, and highway improvement project on U.S. Hwy. 14 in New Ulm, Minn. General contractor — Mathiowetz Construction Company, Sleepy Eye, Minn.

• A $6.9-million excavation, grading, highway improvement, and utilities project on Minn. Hwy. 27 in Douglas County. General contractor — Riley Brothers Construction Inc., Morris, Minn.

• $6.3 million for a pavement removal, excavation, aggregate base, curb and gutter, street improvement, and utilities project in Lakeville, Minn. General contractor — Progressive Contractors Inc. (PCI), St. Michael, Minn.

• A $6-million excavation, grading and road improvement project on N.D. Hwy. 32 in Gwinner. General contractor — Anderson Western, Bismarck.

• $5.7 million for a highway improvement, bridges and culverts project on Minn. Hwy. 100 in Hennepin County. General contractor — Hardrives Inc., Rogers, Minn.

• A $5.1-million excavation, grading, highway improvement, and utilities project on N.D. Hwy. 57 in Benson County. General contractor — Park Construction Company, Grand Forks.

• $4.7 million for an excavation, grading, road improvements, bridges, culverts, curb and gutter, sidewalks, and utilities project on Phalen Avenue in St. Paul. General contractor — Ames Construction Inc., Burnsville, Minn.

• $4.6 million for an excavation, grading and highway surfacing project on N.D. Hwy. 22 in Dunn County. General contractor — Anderson Western, Bismarck.

• $4 million for an excavation, grading, road improvement, bridges, and culverts project on U.S. Hwy. 2 in Williams County, N.D. General contractor — Anderson Western, Bismarck.

• A $3.5-million roads, sidewalks, and curb and gutter project in Bloomington, Minn. General contractor — Midwest Asphalt Company, Hopkins, Minn.

• $3.2 million for a roads, sidewalks, curb and gutter, and utilities project in Jordan, Minn. General contractor — Chard Tiling & Excavating, Inc., Belle Plaine, Minn.

• A $3.1-million concrete pavement rehabilitation project on U.S. Hwy. 59 in Murray and Noble counties of Minnesota. General contractor — James Cape & Sons Company, Racine, Wis.

• $3.1 million for an excavation, grading, PCC paving, signals, and utilities project on S.D. Hwy. 34 in Pierre. General contractor — T&R Contracting, Sioux Falls.

A dramatic fallback in privately financed building construction in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota was noted in the first four months of 2004.

The volume of construction contract awards for privately financed building projects (not including single-family home construction) began with a strong showing in the months of January and February, but tailed off noticeably in March and April.

Contract awards for private building projects amounted to approximately $401 million in the first four months of 2004, or 13-percent below the $461.1 million in awards announced in the January-through-April period of last year.

April, in particular, appears to have been a down month for privately financed building construction in the Tri-State Region with only $73.5 million in awards in the month, down from $129.4 million in awards reported in the same month of 2003, a drop of 43 percent.

Major privately financed building projects announced in Minnesota and the Dakotas this April included:

• $8 million for the Northern Itasca County Health Care Center construction project in Bigfork, Minn. Construction manager — Nor-son Inc., Baxter, Minn.

• An $8-million, 86,000-square-foot apartment building construction project in Woodbury, Minn. Design-builder — Goff Homes, St. Paul.

• $6.5 million for a 142,610-square-foot Wal-Mart department store in West St. Paul, Minn. General contractor — Knutson Construction Company, Minneapolis.

• $6 million for a three-story building for Nordian Mutual Insurance Company in Fargo. General contractor — Olaf Anderson & Son, Fargo.

• A $5-million Lowe's home improvement warehouse store construction project in Coon Rapids, Minn. General contractor — Skanska U.S.A. Building, Inc., Portage, Mich.

The volume of construction contract awards for sewer and water projects in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota for the first four months of 2004 totaled approximately $201 million, down 14 percent from the $233.9 million in awards reported in this category in the January-through-April period of the previous year.

Contract awards in the miscellaneous category, which encompasses light and power, dams, rivers, and airport projects, amounted to $99.8 million in the Tri-State Region in the first four months of 2004. This compares with $75.9 million in the corresponding period of 2003, an increase of 34 percent.