Construction crane count reaches all-time high in Q1 2023

Toronto, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Denver top the list of U.S/Canadian cities with the greatest number of fixed construction cranes on construction sites, according to Rider Levett Bucknall's RLB Crane Index for North America for Q1 2023.

Toronto had a whopping 238 cranes in place in the first quarter. Seattle had 51 cranes to lead all U.S. cities, followed by Los Angeles (47), Denver (36), and Washington, D.C. (26).

The RLB survey reports a nominal increase of 7.04% (34 cranes) from the Q3 2022 edition of the RLB Crane Index. Of the 14 cities surveyed, eight experienced
an increase in cranes, two decreased, and four held steady.

The three top sectors across all cities are residential (51%), mixed use (22%), and commercial (12%).

"Despite continued workforce challenges and economic uncertainties are still concerns for the coming year, we are continuing to see new projects break ground within our 14-key markets. This indicates that investments are continuing to be made into our cities," said the report's authors.

"Notwithstanding concerns for the housing market, residential and mixed-use projects make up 73% of the overall count. We anticipate the number of cranes to remain high into 2023. Despite uncertain market conditions, construction projects will continue to break ground, albeit at a cost," the added.

About the RLB Crane Index
Rider Levett Bucknall’s Crane Index for North America is published biannually. It tracks the number of operating tower cranes in 14 major cities across the U.S. and Canada. The index was the first of its kind, and unlike other industry barometers that track cost and other financial data, the Crane Index tracks the number of fixed cranes on construction sites and gives a simplified measure of the current state of the construction industry’s workload in each location.

Download DOWNLOAD THE REPORT

The Architectural Billings Index measures the general sentiment of U.S. architecture firms about the health of the construction market by measuring 1) design billings and 2) design contracts. Any score above 50 means that, among the architecture firms surveyed, more firms than not reported seeing increases in design work vs. the previous month.