Value of New Construction Awards Up 6%

Contracting for new construction rose 6% in January from a year earlier, a new privately financed study said Wednesday.

In its monthly report on construction contracting, the F. W. Dodge division of McGraw-Hill Information Systems Co. said the January total rose to $14.81 billion from $14.02 billion a year earlier.

Residential building fell 7% in January to $6.35 billion from $6.81 billion a year earlier, the report said.

In th non-residential building category, which includes commercial and industrial construction, Dodge said contracting rose 4% in January to $5.53 billion from $5.29 billion a year earlier.

Public works, utility and other non-building construction rose 53% in January to $2.93 billion from $1.92 billion a year earlier.

Dodge’s reports on construction contracting measure the value of contracts signed in a given month, not the value of actual construction.

Projected at a seasonally adjusted annual rate, January’s contracting value comes to $215.13 billion, Dodge said. That represents a 2% increase from December, 1984, when the projected annual rate was $210.85 billion.

The F. W. Dodge index, which measures the current rate of construction contract value based on 100 in 1977, rose to 153 in January from 150 in both the previous month and in January, 1984.

George A. Christie, vice president and chief economist for F. W. Dodge, noted that a January surge in home building from December’s level was “largely offset by a decline in contracting for non-residential building.”