Highway, Street & Bridge Construction NAICS 237310

Sep 9, 2025 - Civil Infrastructure Backlogs Slowing

• Construction firms that work on civil infrastructure projects are holding steady as they manage uncertainties, including waning backlog growth and weaker margins, according to FMI’s third-quarter Civil Infrastructure Construction Index (CICI) survey. The CICI reading for the third quarter was 50.8 compared to 52.2 in Q2 2025 – on a 100-point scale. Any CICI reading above 50 indicates that more civil infrastructure contractors see conditions as good than poor. While about 52% of firms surveyed said their work backlogs had risen in Q3 2025 compared to a year earlier, only 25% expected backlog growth in Q4. While civil infrastructure firms expect backlogs to ease, margins remain under pressure from competitive bidding and higher costs. FMI expects firms to focus on project selection and cost controls to improve margins, as higher work volumes are a less reliable profitability boost.
• Nearly a third of US construction firms have been impacted by intensified immigration enforcement in the last six months, according to a recent report by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) and the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER). More stringent enforcement has slowed project delivery and left 88% of firms with craft worker vacancies. One-fifth of construction firms surveyed reported that subcontractors had lost workers, 10% reported increases in absenteeism due to actual or rumored enforcement actions, and 5% said jobsites had been visited by immigration agents. Only 10% of firms use visa programs like H-2B due to approval challenges, leaving many vulnerable to enforcement actions. Industry leaders are urging Congress to increase funding for career and technical education and to create a construction-specific visa program to stabilize the workforce and support long-term growth.

• The total value of US highway and street construction put in place fell 0.2% in July 2025 compared to the prior month, according to the US Census Bureau. The value of US highway and street construction increased 0.7% compared to July 2024. In a news release, Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) Chief Economist Anirban Basu said, “Nonresidential construction spending fell for a third consecutive month in July and is now down 2.5% from the December 2023 record high. Of course, that’s in nominal terms. With construction materials prices rising rapidly in recent months and set to continue as higher tariff rates go into effect, the recent decline in construction activity is even larger than this data series suggests.”
• A third of US states may not meet their funding needs for achieving their highway and bridge maintenance goals, according to a new report by The Pew Charitable Trusts and reporting by Smart Cities Dive. Partly due to $1.2 trillion in funding through the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, US states increased transportation’s average share of their budgets to 8% in 2024 compared to 6.8% in 2022, according to a recent report by the National Association of State Budget Officers. However, 24 states reported a combined transportation budget shortfall of $86 billion over the next 10 years.