Tag Archives: construction

Religious construction spending in the US up in recent years

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According to the Census Bureau, spending on religious construction has increased in the last few years after dropping in the 2000s. Here is the graph of monthly spending on religious construction from January 2002 to August 2026:

Two features of this graph stand out to me.

  1. There is a decline in spending from a peak in late 2003 to less construction from roughly mid-2010 to late 2023.
  2. Spending is back up since 2022.

I can guess at a big reason for the decline in construction. Real estate crisis. Uncertainty. Not the time to start large building projects, especially if funded by congregations.

The uptick in construction is more interesting. Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, what is driving more religious construction spending? New congregations? Growing religious traditions? A lot of repairs to religious buildings that had been put off since the late 2000s?

Part of the reason I ask is I have seen construction spending figures cited to help show the growth of religious activity in the United States after World War Two. After the war ended and the population started growing amid prosperity, religious construction spending went up. Numerous religious buildings were constructed as religious activity increased.

What story will be told in a decade or two about the spending graph above? What data will it be put alongside to describe and explain religious activity in the United States?

Americans spend $83 billion annually on underground infrastructure issues

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Beneath American communities are mazes of pipes, wires, and fibers. This leads to costly problems:

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According to Common Ground, such incidents cost the US about $83.2 billion per year, roughly as much as we invest in public transit annually nationwide. But the actual financial toll may be even higher, because every time a crew stumbles across a mislabeled power line or a gas pipe everyone else forgot about, it can delay construction for months on end. As Magruder Lyle put it, “if they get out there and they find something that they’re not supposed to, you have to go back and reengineer the whole project.”

This is a large number. But it makes sense when you consider all that is required for daily life in American cities. More and more layers keep getting added below cities to keep activity going. And it gets more and more complicated to address the built environment with all of this set underground.

While the rest of the article goes on to describe a possible solution – accessible underground tunnels or corridors that organize the infrastructure – it is always interesting at what point major infrastructure changes can take place. This raises several questions:

  1. Is the $83 billion figure widely known? If so, how do people respond? If not, would it help prompt action?
  2. If there was a collective will to act and bring organization to the underground maze infrastructure, who could make it happen?
  3. What would it cost in terms of money and time to make underground more accessible and better for the future?

The idea presented in the article is that intervening now to clean up this mess would make it much easier for projects in the future. But the short-term costs could be high; limited roadways, lots of construction, the use of resources. Infrastructure should be considered with a long view in mind but who keeps this long view in mind and will act on it?

The thrill of excavating and then naming a 50 ton rock

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During construction at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, a contractor found a large rock:

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In June, Pitelka was on the job for Walsh Construction, working on an early-stage project for O’Hare’s multibillion-dollar terminal modernization project when he, together with bulldozer operator Matt Tracy, dug up a boulder weighing 50 tons…

Often, he says, contractors ask construction workers to bury boulders or break them up into little pieces — it’s cheaper, he says, than moving them. “It makes me sick to my stomach,” Pitelka said, recalling a particularly beautiful set of blue granite boulders in Plainfield that ended up buried under a residential job site…

A lot of excavators, he says, dream of one day digging up a dinosaur. As for himself, he’d love to find a meteorite.

The rock was then placed elsewhere on the O’Hare site:

The rock is now on public display, having been moved to the airport’s Multi-Modal Facility — home to airport rental car operations, a people mover stop and Metra and Pace connections — at 10255 W. Zemke Boulevard…

The Aviation Department has launched a naming contest for the rock and is soliciting submissions from the public. Early name proposals — of which the city has received more than 2,300 — have included Da Layover, Jean Baptiste Point du Pébble, Ferris Boulder and The BaRock Obama Presidential Memorial Airport Boulder, according to CDA spokesperson Kevin Bargnes. Aviation Department staff will choose finalists, and the final choice will be made by public vote.

I do not think often what might be underground. The most I see around is a little bit down in our garden or in recently digging down to put in a new mailbox post. Occasionally a pipe might burst or road need repairing and people then get to look into a large hole or trench.

Putting this large rock aboveground provides people a hint of what is underground. Yet, the public display does not help us know if such rocks are part of ridges or are just singular rocks occasionally present. Could there be large rocks under my house or school or local library or under a pond?

If there were more ways for people to visualize what is underground or what is in the sky, I wonder if this would lead to acting differently. It’s one thing to say don’t pour wastewater or oil in sewers or on the ground and another to consider how this could affect what is underground (including groundwater and creatures). Or what goes on with birds and particles in the sky when people release items that float upwards out of their hands. They may not be excited as this contractor about rocks but knowing how what happens above them and below them affects their well-being could be helpful.

57+ years to build a highway ramp

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A significant construction project means a new interchange will be open between I-294 and North Avenue. It was supposed to happen decades ago:

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The tollway collaborated with Cook County on a broader North Avenue interchange project. Along with the ramp, it includes realigning County Farm Road and rebuilding and reconfiguring North Avenue, Lake Street, Northwest Avenue and I-290 Frontage Road.

“I’m surprised (the ramp) was never built originally when they built the tollway seeing as North Avenue is so busy,” Sherwin said.

A major hotel was built in Northlake near the Tri-State in 1968 “on the promise that they were going to get the ramp. The ramp didn’t come (and) the hotel went bust,” Sherwin recounted, adding the site is currently home to Concorde Place seniors residence.

“Here we are 57 years later; we finally got the ramp open.”

The best time for a lot of infrastructure improvements is in the past, before there is significant need now. This particular interchange has always had a weird convergence of roadways. Perhaps a ramp built decades ago could have made traffic flow better.

But this is easy to say in the present. What stopped the ramp from being constructed in the past? Money is often an issue; who will pay for the road improvement? Or the possible money needed to be spent elsewhere on bigger issues. Maybe the issue was land. Highway interchanges can be limited by the space they have. It is easier to construct interchanges when there is plenty of room for ramps and land is cheap.

And what happens if the ramp is a success and more and more people use it? Building more lanes and road capacity can lead to more use. Those who got on and off the highway elsewhere or who used alternate roads may now choose this improved interchange. The new interchange will alter the dynamic traffic conditions…hopefully for the better.

How many data centers does the United States have, want, and need?

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Datacentermap.com says there are 4,287 data centers in the United States.

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How do they know how many data centers are in the country? Their explanation:

Our data originates from multiple sources, primarily:

  • Operators: Data center operators and service providers use Data Center Map as a marketing tool, to promote their data centers, networks and services to potential clients. They have direct access to add and update listings.
  • External sources: We monitor multiple external databases, to identify missing or changed listings. They are automatically queued for manual review.
  • Manual sourcing: We manually identify operators that we are missing and manually add them to our database.
  • End-users: End-users send us tips and requests, about missing or outdated listings, that we manually handle…

As there are no regulatory requirements to register data centers in a central database, there are no complete resources available. All databases are based on voluntary data submissions and/or collecting data from providers or other sources.

How many data centers are needed for the United States? From what I have read, data centers are under construction in order to meet the current and future needs of AI technology. The future needs might be hard to forecast. Within a few years, what newer tech and AI products will be considered essential?

How many data centers are wanted? I am thinking of two possible scenarios. First, tech companies might want a certain number of data centers to meet needs and have extra capacity. But, they can only build so many and they can meet needs and maybe only a little more.. Second, communities and residents may not want some of these data centers. While this opposition often occurs community by community, this could add up to limit the number of data centers throughout the country.

It will be interesting to see where this number ends up. And if the number keeps going up, how many people living around them or driving by them will know and/or care they are there?

The amount of building going on in the US to support AI

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Perhaps contrary to those who argue the United States struggles to build, an AI construction boom is underway:

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Many people believe that growth will only continue. “We’re gonna need stadiums full of electricians, heavy equipment operators, ironworkers, HVAC technicians,” Dwarkesh Patel and Romeo Dean, AI-industry analysts, wrote recently. Large-scale data-center build-outs may already be reshaping America’s energy systems. OpenAI has announced that it intends to build at least 30 gigawatts’ worth of data centers—more power than all of New England requires on even the hottest day—and CEO Sam Altman has said he’d eventually like to build a gigawatt of AI infrastructure every week. Other major tech firms have similar ambitions.

Listen to the AI crowd talk enough, and you’ll get a sense that we may be on the cusp of an infrastructure boom.

Throughout American history, growth is good. Construction is a sign of growth and provides jobs. A new industry is underway. Society is progressing. Data centers are all over the place (and will end up somewhere even if some communities do not all them). Americans are used to booming construction as this happened across housing and numerous industries throughout the country’s history.

What that growth might lead to is another matter. How do these data centers contribute to communities and landscapes? Do all the data centers in suburbs transform suburban life? When the growth slows, what happens then? Will the data centers still be there in 50 or 100 years or will they be vacant properties?

All this is a reminder that while many Americans will encounter AI through devices and data going through the air, it has a significant physical footprint. To power real-time AI responses to whatever we as users need requires buildings, land, resources.

The inefficiency of the construction industry

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One issue that affects American housing is the lack of efficiency in the construction industry:

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Companies like Reframe are trying to solve a conundrum scholars call the construction crisis. Although most sectors of the economy have gotten more efficient over time, construction has moved in the opposite direction—construction sites are less productive today than they were 50 years ago. It’s a genuine mystery, and everyone has their own pet theory about what’s to blame.

Efficiency is the answer to numerous perceived social issues in the United States. Make government more efficient. Make the distribution of resources or services more efficient. Get things done faster and at lower cost. And in the business world, who would be opposed to more efficiency?

I also recall some of the concerns expressed by critics about efficient home building operations. Take the Levitts mentioned in this article. Amid the various concerns expressed by many was a concern about the quality and character of homes that were mass produced. Would such homes stand for a long time? What does it do to community life when there are so few models available?

The example given in the article of efficient housing is modular housing. Part of this involves logistics; can it be produced at particular quantities and price points that makes it viable. But there will also be architectural and community questions. Will neighbors want to live next to it? Do early residents find it comparable to housing built by other methods? How does it stand up over time?

It would be interesting to ask Americans if they want “an efficient house.” Is the opposite of this “an inefficient house”? I’m not sure many think about in terms of efficiency when thinking about their residence.

Why American elevators are the size they are

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Here is the story of how the size of American elevators came to be:

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Two decades ago, the fire marshal in Glendale, Arizona, was concerned that the elevators in a new stadium wouldn’t be large enough to accommodate a 7-foot stretcher held flat. Tilting a stretcher to make it fit in the cab, the marshal worried, might jeopardize the treatment of a patient with a back injury. Maybe our elevators should be bigger, he thought.

The marshal put this idea to the International Code Council, the organization that governs the construction of American buildings. After minor feedback and minimal research (the marshal measured three stretchers in the Phoenix area), the suggestion was incorporated into the ICC’s model code. Based on one man’s hunch, most of the country’s new elevators grew by several square feet overnight. The medical benefits were not quantified, and the cost impact was reported as “none.”

It is one of the many small rules that have divorced our national building standards from the rest of the world. According to research by the building policy wonk Stephen Smith, who recounted this story in a report last year, changes like these are one reason it now costs three times as much to install an elevator in the U.S. than in Switzerland or South Korea.

Someone – individual or group – have to come up with the standards and then another organization implements them and advocates for them in the future. If this particular standard seems odd to people, what would stop others from proposing a different standard and working to get that implemented? How exactly is such a decision adjudicated?

I imagine most elevator users would not think about this when stepping into or stepping out of a larger elevator. It may seem spacious. They may notice when the elevator can hold a lot of people and/or items (suitcases or household goods on moving day). Would anyone lay down in the elevator and realize they can fit?

Implementing a new standard today would take a while to work through the system as new elevators start showing up. Thirty years from now, someone could look back and mention the day when the standard changed (and perhaps give the reasons why it changed). Until then, we have a certain elevator size that can accommodate a seven foot stretcher.

Argument: construction and traffic on highways in Chicago leads to suburban growth

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A Chicago Tribune editorial concerned with multiple years of construction on the Kennedy Expressway in Chicago ends with a claim that the traffic issues bolstered suburban businesses:

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Kennedy problems, or at least the perception thereof, certainly helped bolster a lot of the growth this past couple of years in suburban business districts like those in the likes of Naperville, Glencoe, Wheaton and Aurora, as suburbanites and exurbanites looked beyond Chicago to avoid the Kennedy at all costs.

Good for those suburbs for jumping on an opportunity. But Chicago got a “lanes closed, expect delays” warning for years — a handicap it most certainly did not need.

How might we know that this construction on a highway leading northwest out of Chicago boosted business in suburban areas (including several that are different directions from the Kennedy)? Some possibilities:

  1. A rise in the number of visitors or patrons in these suburban businesses and a decline in visitors or patrons in Chicago. These might not be causing each other but trends going different directions might be taken as evidence for this argument.
  2. Survey or interview data that suggests suburbanites factor in traffic in Chicago when making decisions about where to go. It might go something like this: “The drive into Chicago just takes too long…let’s go somewhere that is closer and easier to get to.” Anecdotal evidence might point in this direction but how often does this happen?
  3. Changes in commuter patterns and/or the presence of entertainment and business centers in the suburbs. As metropolitan areas have expanded, how many people find jobs, shopping, and cultural opportunities in other suburbs rather than in the big city? (This has happened already in American metropolitan regions but some Chicagoland specific data would be interesting.)
  4. Evidence of direct efforts from suburban communities or businesses to attract people by referencing the issues present in going to Chicago. For example, do any suburban downtowns tell people they do not need to go to Chicago to find X? Or do businesses make this argument? Or suburban shopping malls?

The gang nail plate and McMansions

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I have seen gang nail plates before but did not know their name nor consider their possible contribution to the rise of McMansions:

The more that I think about it, the more that I come to believe that this invention is responsible for the suburbs as we know it. This unassuming little piece of metal, it’s called a gang nail plate or a truss plate, and its job is to affix pieces of wood together at their joints.

What’s really unique about it though is that it can securely connect wood members positioned at almost any angle. With the aid of these plates houses made of standard 2×4 studs can have open floor plans, cathedral ceilings, and complicated roof shapes all constructed with ease. You might recognize all those three traits as the common features of modern suburban homes, especially the so-called McMansions. Yeah, these things make McMansions possible.

One feature of many McMansions is a roof line with numerous gables. The front may have multiple gables popping up above windows. Or there might be gables pointed different directions. The roof line might mix several architectural styles. These options give McMansions a distinct profile, one that critics often note is odd or garish.

The argument of this video is that this is made possible by the gang nail plate. Without it, the roof is more expensive and not as strong. The big spaces that Americans expect in their single-family homes are more difficult to construct.

This reminds me of the importance of other construction techniques that enabled suburban housing. Balloon framing. The systems developed in mass suburbs, such as Levittown, to build homes in stages and with a set number of floor plans.