Nonresidential powers U.S. construction gains
New U.S. construction starts in May advanced 3% from April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $691.9 billion, it was reported by McGraw-Hill Construction.

Nonresidential building maintained the upward trend witnessed so far in 2006, and it was accompanied by growth for nonbuilding construction (public works and electric utilities). At the same time, McGraw-Hill said, residential building continued to "gradually settle back" from its record pace of the past year.

During the first five months of 2006, total U.S. construction on an unadjusted basis was $276.9 billion, a 9% gain compared to the same period a year ago.

"On balance, construction activity has held up quite well this year, making the transition from a housing-led expansion to one where growth is coming from other sectors," stated Robert A. Murray, vice president of economic affairs for McGraw-Hill Construction. "The plus for nonresidential building has been healthier market
fundamentals such as higher occupancies and rents. The rising costs of materials has led to the deferral and redesign of some projects, but at this point in 2006 not enough to derail what is still a strengthening trend for nonresidential building."

By geography, total construction in 2006's January-May period reflected the following behavior - the West, up 17%; the South Central, up 12%; the Midwest,
up 7%; the Northeast, up 5%; and the South Atlantic, up 4%.

AGC sponsors document exchange
Big tables of blueprints found in construction trailers may become a little more portable and exchangeable,.

The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) today last month that it has reached an agreement with The National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) for the development of a set of standard industry schemas for exchanging electronic data among computer software applications, in order to increase efficiency and collaboration among facility owners and design and construction professionals.

The development of the software, said AGC CEO Stephen Sandherr, 'has the potential of saving contractors countless hours of data-entry, which can lead to hard-dollar savings. This robust solution will also support the differing office applications employed by various segments of the construction industry."

Called AGCxml, it will be a document exchange standard to enable any software products or tools using AGCxml to exchange information in a manner that is recognizable between authors using different software systems. Included will be software designed for generating construction contract documents, project management, accounting or related construction work-flow systems.