$7.7 billion construction forecast: increased spending expected in 2012.

• Author: Harrington, Susan
• Position: FROM THE EDITOR

Missing breakfast doesn't usually upset me. I hardly ever make time for it, except on weekends. However, I was dismayed to discover one morning last month that I'd completely forgotten to attend the early morning annual AGC/CIPF Construction Spending Forecast presentation. I read about the $7.7 billion announcement online. I got the forecast in the mail the next week. I devoured it, reading about all the money that's hitting the street this year.

Every year for the past nine years, the Construction Industry Progress Fund (CIPF) and the Associated General Contractors of Alaska (AGC) have teamed up to produce "Alaska's Construction Spending Forecast," an appraisal of expectations for the coming year. Economists Scott Goldsmith and Mary Killorin of the Institute of Social and Economic Research at the University of Alaska Anchorage compiled and wrote the $7.7 billion forecast of what is to be spent on construction in 2012. The new figure represents a 3 percent increase of about $200 million over last year's revised estimate. The forecast was underwritten by Northrim Bank.

The biggest spender is, of course, the oil and gas industry. Construction related work in Alaska's oil patch, the North Slope and Cook Inlet, accounts for 41 percent--a hefty $3.2 billion. The authors cited "regulation, litigation and taxation issues" as factors keeping Point Thomson, Alpine West, Liberty and offshore Chukchi and Beaufort seas projects out of the mix this year. The big three--BP, ConocoPhillips, Exxon--are sustaining, maintaining and developing what they've already got and spending less doing it. No exploratory work planned--again.

Drilling and feasibility work is planned by Eni, Pioneer, Linc, Anadarko, Brooks Range Petroleum, Savant, Great Bear, Repsol, the North Slope Borough, and possibly Shell. That's all up north. In Cook Inlet, where spending is up, the list of companies with planned construction activity includes Furie (formerly Escopeta), Buccaneer, Linc, Nordaq and Apache.

The other $2 billion categorized under private spending is listed as utilities $794 million (up 29 percent), followed by residential $400 million, mining $340 million, health $325 million, other...