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A national economic indicator for the construction industry fell in September, according to the Associated Builders and Contractors Inc.

ABC‘s Construction Backlog Indicator tracks the amount of backlogged work that will be performed by commercial and industrial contractors in the coming months. Though September’s numbers were well above the index’s historic low of 5.5 months in January 2010, the CBI declined 3.3 percent in September to 6.7 months.

The cause of the dip, according to ABC’s chief economist Anirban Basu, is the stimulus-funded infrastructure projects that have driven the backlog higher for many months are no longer expanding and private construction hasn’t picked up enough to show growth.  Still, September’s numbers saw an increase of nearly one month compared to the same time in 2009.

In Oregon, several large construction projects are on the boards or underway, including the rebuild of the Oregon State Hospital, Portland Community College’s Rock Creek construction bond improvements and Intel’s recently announced prefab projects. The presence of these large projects, according to John Killin, president of ABC’s Pacific Northwest chapter, could mean more recovery for the industry in 2011, with or without another infrastructure bill.

“I have a lot of hope looking at 2011 for the industry,” Killin said. “There’s a lot of large public and private work about to start and still occurring. If there were another stimulus infrastructure bill approved, we certainly would have a hard time saying it a bad idea.”