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Show COillHAGIWOHK 1 SIIS ii;ck JVERM1 63 Per Cent Greater Than in First Quarter of 1929, Belief WASHINGTON. D. C. May II Evidence that the volume of legitimate legiti-mate contract construction, despite a decrease In gross dollar value for all building. Is now greater thai, at the same time In either 19:1 or 1929 la revealed In a statistical study Just completed by the Associated Asso-ciated General Contractors of America,- which also shows that a new sll time high record was established estab-lished In the total aweud of surface pavement eon tracts during the first three months of the year. - The total to-tal of these awards increased el per cent over that of the first quarter quar-ter of 19C9. ths study lndlcstes. Bearing out its earlier predictions that there Is to be an exceptionally large volume of engineering construction con-struction this year? the association's analysis discloses thst long term state and municipal bond Isaues for the firat quarter ran well in advance ad-vance of the same period last year, totaling tiorooo.ooo for March and averaging f9,700.000 monthly as compared with 181,200.000 during the first quarter of the previous year. STRIKINGLY MARKED According to E. J. Harding, assistant as-sistant general manager of the Associated As-sociated General Contractors, the, effect of this publlo works acceleration acceler-ation Is strikingly marked In ths phenomenal increase) In the total yardage covered in the pavement contracts. During the first three months of 1930 contract awards were made for 27.200.000 square yards, as compared with 11,700.000 during the first quarter of 1929. With contemplated work In this field continuing to come forward, 1 and with the Increased highway program msde possible by upward revision of federal aid appropriations, appropria-tions, Mr. Harding states that engineering en-gineering construction faces a banner ban-ner year. Although the first fourteen weeks of the year show a decline In the total value of contracts awarded for the various olasses of construction, construc-tion, this decrease is attributed wholly to the elimination of speculative specu-lative building, which In turn la spurring legitimate construction to greater and sounder actllvty. SUBSTANTIAL OECLINE Mr, Harding points out that the net decrease In the grand total embraces em-braces a substantial decline in commercial building and a larger drop In residential building the two fields In which speculative operations op-erations had been particularly rampantwhereas ram-pantwhereas In the unspeculative field of sll types of legltimste contract con-tract work a definite increase is Indicated. |