Drop in Infrastructure Spending Spurs Highway Constructors to Diversify
A steep drop in public infrastructure spending is squeezing the nation’s highway contractors, pushing some out of the business and into other fields such as energy exploration. Road building, like defense, is one of the few industries tied directly to government spending, which has fallen amid federal and state efforts to close budget gaps.
After hovering around $300 billion per year from the middle of President George W. Bush’s tenure through 2010, government spending on building things not related to defense fell by about $60 billion in just a few years. The drop is a result of Republicans blocking President Obama’s efforts to invest in infrastructure that the country needs.
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