With economic activity all but stalling in 2024, construction continues to provide employment and support a range of consulting businesses, said James Elliott from Red Dog Group, a leading Gold Coast construction and civil engineering company executing several large civil contracts in the region.

According to Elliott, infrastructure jobs from projects – both currently underway and in planning – will help underpin economic growth into 2025.

“Big ticket projects such as the Pacific Highway upgrade and the Light Rail Stage 3 are a large part of our workbook, but we’re also seeing a lot of work coming from local government and commercial developers,” he said.

“Things like boat ramps and foreshore upgrades are common, but also large industrial projects for warehousing and logistics are taking a lot of our resources.

“While the broader economy is on life support, these types of jobs should help pull us through the first part of the year until other sectors such as retail, services and tourism pick up.”

Spending on infrastructure usually foreshadowed growth in other areas as it set the foundations for future employment opportunities, Elliott observed.

“Public transport, roads and facilities that provide jobs are all crucial to the country’s next phase of growth and building them now will buttress any eventual upturn, which will eventually happen,” he said.

Based on his experience, Elliott described the situation as cyclical. “You could call it the calm before the storm, but providing the building block through infrastructure development has always created the right environment for the next stage of economic growth.”

Image: https://www.letsbuild.com/blog/types-of-infrastructure-on-construction-projects

Branko Miletic

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