8 Business View - February 2015
Opening
Lines
Rider Levett Bucknall’s inaugural North American RLB
Crane Index measures construction activity in major
cities across North America and predicts the health of
the U.S. construction industry.
The Crane Index tracks the number of fixed cranes on
construction sites in major cities across North America.
The biannual report surveys activity in Boston, Chica-
go, Denver, Honolulu, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix,
San Francisco and Seattle. Additional cities, including
Washington, D.C., will be added in future editions.
According to the first issue of the Index, the residential
market – specifically condominium and apartment de-
velopments – continues to lead the U.S. construction
recovery. The commercial, healthcare, hospitality, and
education sectors have also started to see increases
in crane activity.
“Unlike other forms of data, cranes are observable
and recognizable icons of major construction activity.
Therefore, they are an extremely useful measure of
the changing pace of the construction industry,” said
Julian Anderson, president of Rider Levett Bucknall
North America. “We’ve always seen them rising in ma-
jor cities. Now, with the RLB Crane Index, we have an
interesting new way to quantify this information and
turn it into a metric that is useful to our clients and
industry leaders across the continent.”
Rider Levett Bucknall’s local offices gather data and
More Cranes in Skyline Mean More
U.S. Construction in 2015
