"All of our core markets are very active," adds Daniel M. Gilbane, senior vice president, Gilbane Building Co. "The corporate and commercial market continues to have significant growth, with much of that demand driven by the petrochemical and technology sectors and what has emerged as a battle for engineering talent in both of those arenas.

Health care has shown significant growth, with several large projects in Houston's market, Gilbane says.

"We have focused on growing our presence in the industrial and multifamily market and have grown our backlog substantially in both markets. If there is a market that is not as active it would the institutional/public sector, as the political environment has had a meaningful impact on funding," Gilbane adds. "Nonetheless, we have had several significant institutional market wins this year such as Houston ISD's Lamar High School and the Menil Drawing Institute."

Challenges Ahead

As in recent years, one of the major stumbling blocks for contractors moving forward will be skilled-workforce shortages.

"People are talking about the shortage of welders. In 1988 the American Welding Society said we had approximately 570,000 welders in the United States. Today, we have about 360,000," Toups says. "The average age is about 55. We've been our own worst enemy in many respects because we've stopped feeding the young people into the trades."

Meanwhile, Jones says "as the market continues to grow, and we continue to see demands on the workforce, we will also see an escalation in project costs."

"You're going to see some strange goings-on in this arms race to get people," Toups says.

The sheer size of regional projects and the evolving way they're contracted is also changing.

"The market overall seems to be challenged by the size of the projects and new contracting methods. This seems to be true for contractors of all sizes. For FAUS [Ferrovial] in particular, the challenge has been market capacity for both subcontractors and materials," says Daniel J. Filer, vice president of business development at Ferrovial Agroman US Corp. "With so much work happening in the same places at the same times, capacity is in the forefront of our concerns."

Tim Creson, president and CEO of Webber LLC, adds, "Our biggest challenge over the past year has been the increased competition due to the current economic windfall Texas is having in the oil-and-gas market. TxDOT continues to lead the nation in infrastructure spending and therefore has attracted additional contractors to enter the market."