July 22, 2019 – The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) recently posted a first-quarter 2019 value for its National Highway Construction Cost Index (NHCCI), along with revised estimates for the second quarter through fourth quarter 2018. Prices fell 1.6% in the latest quarter, the first decline since the fourth quarter of 2017. But the year-over-year increase in the first quarter of 2019 was 10%. According to FHWA, the NHCCI “is a quarterly price index intended to measure the average changes in the prices of highway construction costs over time and to convert current-dollar highway construction expenditures to real-dollar expenditures. … The NHCCI covers the universe of the nation’s highway projects and arrive[s] at an average cost index for all highway construction.”
Highway Costs Keep Rising
