This year, the pace of construction abandonments is on a sharp rise as the industry absorbs blows ranging from higher insurance rates, persistently high interest rates and skyrocketing materials costs or delayed shipping times to labor issues and bad weather.  Putting the pieces back together and getting projects moving could take a year or more — if crews can be assembled quickly once conditions improve. And the bottom may still not have arrived, experts told Bisnow. “I think we're just starting a period of moderating nonresidential structural spending as broader economic impacts start to really take their toll on spending momentum in the construction segment,” said Associated Builders and Contractors Chief Economist Anirban Basu, who also serves as economist and CEO of Sage Policy Group. The “next 12 to 18 months may not look particularly good with respect to construction spending dynamism, though one suspects that we might see a quite formidable recovery in construction spending at some point thereafter,” Basu said.  As of July, construction abandonments were up 11% nationally for both public and private projects compared to the same time last year and up almost 49% for private projects alone, according to the latest Project Stress Index analysis by software firm ConstructConnect. The index tracks preconstruction projects that experienced a delayed bid date, were placed on hold or have been abandoned in the last 30 days, and it has consistently charted an increase in development delays for months. Alarm bells began ringing last year when a year-end member survey by the American Institute of Architects indicated nearly 30% of private and public construction projects had been significantly delayed, indefinitely stalled or abandoned altogether in the back half of 2023, up from 22% in December 2022 and 15% in September 2019, before the pandemic made an indelible mark on the economy." https://lnkd.in/e5XEhPat