State Sewer Construction Well Ahead of Last Year’s

California sewer construction in the first six months of this year amounted to $392 million, nearly double the $199 million spent in all of 1984.

Robert Kruse, president of the Associated General Contractors of California, announced the increase and commented: “We’re pleased to see California start to rebuild one element of its infrastructure.”

And Ben Bartolotto, director of the Burbank-based Construction Industry Research Board, pointed out that an exceptionally low level of sewer construction last year accounted for the huge percentage jump. He added that this year’s first-half expenditure creates 4,300 construction jobs and adds a total of 13,000 jobs to the state economy.

Los Angeles County’s expenditure for the first six months of this year was $56.9 million, up 35% from $42 million in the same period of 1984. Orange County’s increase for the same two half-year periods was 208%, up from first-half 1984’s $5.9 million to $18.1 million, but San Bernardino’s expenditure dropped 33%, from $14.3 million in the first half of 1984, to $9.5 million this year.

Other major California projects include Riverside County, $20 million, and San Diego County, $15 million.

Last November California passed a $325-million bond issue and in Washington the House and Senate have passed separate versions of the federal Clean Water Act to continue funding water pollution control at about $2.5 billion annually.