Construction spending in Alaska will be an estimated $8.5 billion in 2015, down about 3 percent from spending in 2014. That’s according to the 2015 construction-spending forecast by Scott Goldsmith and Pamela Cravez of ISER. That forecast is done annually for the Construction Industry Progress Fund and the Associated General Contractors of Alaska, with funding from Northrim Bank. The authors find:

• Overall construction spending will remain strong in 2015, despite the recent steep drop in oil prices. That’s partly because there is still a backlog of projects funded under large state capital budgets in earlier years.
• Forecasting how much oil companies will spend for capital projects in Alaska is especially difficult this year. The companies had earlier announced plans to increase spending 18 percent. But the low oil prices will likely force some cutbacks, so spending is forecast to stay about the same as last year.
• Private spending for commercial and residential construction is likely to be down in 2015, in the face of slowing job and population growth and uncertainty about oil prices.

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