Transportation remains one bright light in a bleak construction employment picture.

Transportation remains one bright light in a bleak construction employment picture

Los Angeles County construction companies are gearing up to bid for pieces of one of the few sectors of the industry still prospering -- transit-related public works projects still popular with the voter.

"Those public construction projects which are self-funded [through bond issues] are guaranteed, but projects funded out of the general revenue on the local level will have problem during the recession," said Bruce DeVine, chief economist at Los Angeles-based Southern California Association of Governments.

In the next seven years, $1 billion will be spent on freeway, street and bridge improvements with Proposition 116 funds and $1.9 billion will be spent on commuter and urban rail projects through Proposition 108 funds. These projects will supply hundreds of contracts for local construction companies, who are now looking for new projects as private construction projects have slowed down.

However on the Los Angeles County level, financing for infrastructure repair for county buildings, hospitals, jails and schools is not as certain, said Norman Murdoch, the county's director of economic planning.

"Over the past few years, the ability of the county to fund capital improvements projects has been reduced because it's under a financial squeeze due to Proposition 13 limitations on property tax increases," said Murdoch.

Because of tax revenue decreases, explained Murdoch, the county has shifted funds to day-to-day expenses that it would have used for public works improvement projects in the past.

DeVine said that a slump in sales taxes will also hurt new county-funded capital improvement projects because the county depends heavily on revenue from sales taxes. "County projects that have not started might not receive financing," he said.

But Los Angeles construction companies are focusing on receiving contracts from the well-funded, large transportation projects such as rail projects, toll roads and High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes.

"We are now focusing on public works because that is where the money and funding is," said Alice M. Wilson, director of business development at Swinterton & Walberg Builders, Los Angeles County's sixth largest contractor.

"A few years ago Swinterton & Walberg identified the public works/government facilities (i.e. prisons, educational facilities, courthouses), seismic renovations, building enhancements . . . as the strong markets for the early 90's," she added.

Company employees are now completing work on Santa Monica's 1.2-million-square-foot Water Garden commercial office and retail center. But Wilson said "we have now hit a cycle" of increased public works projects which will last for the next three to five years.

Wilson said the company now receives 50 percent of its projects through placing bids with public agencies, a 30 percent increase from just a few years ago. She also explained that the company has transferred its chief estimator from its Fresno office to the Los Angeles office to help formulate bids for public projects.

At Tishman Realty & Construction Co., the company will be "actively pursuing those types of projects," said Judy Johnson, spokeswoman for the construction management firm. The company's consultants just assisted in the construction of the Ronald Reagan State Building in downtown Los Angeles.

The Parsons Corp., a privately held construction company based in Pasadena with 1990 of $890 million, has obtained several contracts for public works projects. They include work on the $3.3 billion Metro rail Red Line project, which involves five underground stations and twin 22-foot diameter tunnels beneath the business district.

A joint venture, headed by Parsons' divisions The Ralph M. Parsons Co., Parsons and De Leuw, Cather & Co., is providing general construction management for the Red Line project, said spokeswoman Debra Williams.

Other Parsons public transportation projects include work on a $1.2 billion, 85-mile toll road in Northern California and work on a $1 billion repair of the Cypress Viaduct in Oakland, destroyed by the 1989 San Francisco earthquake.

At Irvine-based Fluor Corp., a publicly-held construction company with 1990 revenues of $7.4 billion, company spokeswoman Deborah Land said her company has a national and international focus so with 50 offices worldwide it has not seen a decline in private sector jobs.

But she said her company has recently received some Southern California public works contracts including work on the Los Angeles County Fire Department Command and Control Center and a new Orange County toll road.

Land said that her company has seen a shift in the type of private sector contracts to more industrial projects such as adapting refineries to new federal clean air act laws.