The cost of building things in the U.S. is still trending upward, and at a rate greater than overall inflation, Skanska executives said in a recent webinar.

Interest rates, tariffs and now diesel costs spiking amid the war with Iran can be expected to raise costs, the executives said in their 2026 briefing on Thursday.

“We think cost escalation in construction is going to outpace U.S. inflation, and fairly significantly,” said Steve Stouthamer, Skanska’s executive vice president for project planning.

Skanska’s composite cost index in the past year has risen 6.8 percent, which Stouthamer called “very significant.” Most markets will see inflation between 4 percent and 6 percent this year, he said.

Spiraling prices for diesel and regular fuel can be expected to reverberate through the construction industry, the executives said. On Monday, diesel averaged $4.91 per gallon in Oregon, up 66 cents in the past week, according to AAA.

Tariffs continue to boost costs, despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down some of the Trump administration’s levies on trade.

“It’s just the reciprocal tariffs that have been struck down — all of these other ones remain,” said Rob Cantando, Skanska’s director of strategic supply chain.

The duty paid on aluminum has risen 3.5 times since early 2025 when President Donald Trump first instituted a series of tariffs.

“This really shows how aluminum pricing has escalated in the U.S. above the rest of the world,” Cantando said, adding that it’s sending prices upward for curtain wall and storefront extrusions.

Copper and other building materials also remain elevated.

It’s not all bad news on costs, however. Manufacturers are beginning to catch up on demand for some building systems, including heating and cooling units.

“We are expecting lead times for HVAC equipment and electrical gear to fall this year, and that’s really due to expansions — (manufacturers) continuing to ramp up,” Cantando said. “There have been significant investments by many manufacturers in this area.”

Costs for plumbing fixtures, HVAC and electrical gear should begin to moderate due to the elimination of some tariffs, he said.

Activity in the construction industry is being propped up by massive tech projects — data centers and other tech-related megaprojects, driven by demand for artificial intelligence, data and cloud restructure.

Data center developers are expected to build 8 gigawatts of infrastructure this year, totaling 32 million square feet. In monetary terms, that’s a spend of an estimated $40 billion to $80 billion.

An estimated 50,000 to 75,000 electricians are working exclusively on data center construction, Skanska officials said.

“A few years ago, we had a number of regions in the country that could probably hide from what the data center impact was doing, but now that demand is spreading across the country to locations where there is power capacity (and) land availability,” Stouthamer said. “Most markets around the country are feeling the impacts of the significant growth in the data-center market.”

In contrast, traditional residential and commercial construction remain soft, the Sweden-based global construction giant reported last month.

“Interest rates have led to reduction in commercial work,” Stouthamer said.

Recovery in housing and other private sectors is likely to be gradual, hinging on further interest rate reductions, improved consumer demand and reduced input costs, Skanska stated in its winter 2026 report.

“More optimal conditions may not materialize fully until 2027, but even that is highly speculative,” the report stated.

Skanska officials recommended contractors forecast budgets to the midpoint of construction, not just the procurement stage. Other cost-conscious measures they recommended include having flexibility in project specifications, early planning with project partners and producing more frequent budget updates.

The post Construction costs rise sharply in U.S., Skanska reports appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

By CLAIRE RUSH
Associated Press/Report for America

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The U.S. government has agreed to help restore a sacred Native American site on the slopes of Oregon’s Mount Hood that was destroyed by highway construction, court documents show, capping more than 15 years of legal battles that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a settlement filed with the high court Thursday, the U.S. Department of Transportation and other federal agencies agreed to replant trees and aid in efforts to rebuild an altar at a site along U.S. Highway 26 that tribes said had been used for religious purposes since time immemorial.

Members of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde said a 2008 project to add a turn lane on the highway destroyed an area known as the Place of Big Big Trees, which was home to a burial ground, a historic campground, medicinal plants, old-growth Douglas Firs and a stone altar.

Carol Logan, an elder and member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde who was a plaintiff in the case, said she hopes the settlement would prevent the destruction of similar sites in the future.

“Our sacred places may not look like the buildings where most Americans worship, but they deserve the same protection, dignity, and respect,” Logan said in a statement shared by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represented the plaintiffs in their lawsuit.

The defendants included the Department of Transportation and its Federal Highway Administration division; the Department of the Interior and its Bureau of Land Management; and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.

The Federal Highway Administration and the Department of the Interior declined to comment on the settlement.

In court documents dating back to 2008 when the suit was filed, Logan and Wilbur Slockish, who is a hereditary chief of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, said they visited the site for decades to pray, gather sacred plants and pay respects to their ancestors until it was demolished.

They accused the agencies involved of violating, among other things, their religious freedom and the National Historic Preservation Act, which requires tribal consultation when a federal project may affect places that are on tribal lands or of cultural or historic significance to a tribe.

Under the settlement, the government agreed to plant nearly 30 trees on the parcel and maintain them through watering and other means for at least three years.

They also agreed to help restore the stone altar, install a sign explaining its importance to Native Americans and grant Logan and Slockish access to the surrounding area for cultural purposes.

The post US government agrees to help restore sacred Native American site destroyed for Oregon road project appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

While public-sector unions may have taken a hit from a recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, legal experts say ramifications of the court’s decision in Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees are not likely to extend to private-sector trade unions.

The court ruled 5-4 on June 27 that compulsory public-sector “fair share” or “agency” labor union dues for non-members violate the First Amendment and are unconstitutional. With the decision, the court upheld a challenge to the legality of such dues brought by Illinois state child support specialist Mark Janus.

Private-sector unions, by contrast, don’t normally face this issue. As such, legal professionals say Janus should not have much impact on the numerous trade unions that work with local contractors.

“Legally, I don’t see a whole lot in the opinion that suggests immediately we’re going to have some private-sector employers say that Janus should be extended to the private sector,” said Dan Rowan, a Bullard Law attorney who specializes in labor law. “There are some arguments to be made, but those arguments have been made before in the private sector, so that’s how we have the current state-by-state system.”

Many states, including Oregon and Washington, have public-sector collective bargaining statutes allowing agreements that require all employees within a bargaining unit to pay fair share fees toward the union’s costs related to collective bargaining. In the 1977 case, Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court held that such agreements are constitutional.

Janus, however, undoes that earlier precedent.

Portland attorney Todd Lyon, a partner at Fisher & Phillips, said the court’s decision could have lasting effects on public-sector unions.

“It’s, frankly, huge,” he said. “A union is, in many ways, a business. They depend on accounts receivable in the same way other businesses do. And their accounts receivable is in the form of due money or fair share fee money coming from employees.”

Not being able to compel non-members to pay those fees, Lyon said, will inevitably erode the services that unions currently provide their members.

When it comes to trade unions, however, Lyon agreed with Rowan’s analysis.

“I would say that the chances of this having any impact on the private sector are practically zero,” Lyon said. “The only way that this would have any traction, it seems to me, is if in light of this decision members of Congress would decide to make a right-to-work law nationwide.”

In Oregon, the effect on public-sector unions remains uncertain. ORS 292.055 allows employees to authorize wage deductions for union fees and others. In the wake of Janus, however, the legality of this statute is now under review.

“We’re still evaluating whether Janus is going to pre-empt those authorization forms by saying even those authorization forms are now illegal in light of this decision,” Lyon said. “We’re still kicking that around and trying to determine the impact.”

Oregon public-sector unions remain relatively strong compared to those in many other states, Rowan said. He expects that to continue, particularly among public-safety unions that traditionally have the highest memberships.

“I think the consensus is it will vary from union to union and employer to employer,” he said. “The public-sector unions are well supported and involved in politics as compared to some states where the labor movement is not as strong. In Oregon, I think the public-sector unions will continue to have a strong presence and play an important role.”

The post Attorneys weigh in on potential impacts of Supreme Court ruling appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.