Although residential construction often garners the most attention, nonresidential construction spending is a hugely important source of freight volume – particularly for flatbed trucking and bulk material movements. Overall spending has been fairly sluggish over the past couple of years after a downturn and then recovery coming out of the pandemic, but the sector continues to see pockets of strength.
Two specific areas of nonresidential construction have been strong in recent years, but one is still rising while the other is cooling rapidly. You might be surprised – or maybe not surprised at all – that the two sectors are closely related.
For the most part, the major subsectors of nonresidential construction have been stable for a couple of years, but there is one huge exception.
Manufacturing construction surged recently but is now cooling. Inflation-adjusted spending on manufacturing facilities fell 2.3% month over month in December and was down 13.4% year over year.
Real spending to build manufacturing facilities soared from the beginning of 2022 through the middle of 2024. This dramatic rise was no mystery; it was fueled by massive government investment in computer-related infrastructure through vehicles like the CHIPS Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
This rush of infrastructure spending obviously has begun to run out as real spending on manufacturing facilities is falling sharply as noted above and seen in the chart above.
We are not just guessing about the source of strength and then cooling in spending on manufacturing facilities. It jumps out when you analyze more granular Census Bureau figures. Manufacturing construction spending has been highly concentrated in one category: computer, electronics, and electrical equipment facilities.
Spending on computer-related manufacturing facilities surged by 373% from the end of 2021 through June 2024. Since then, though, spending has fallen steadily. It was down 5.4% month over month and 15.1% year over year in December. Even so, spending in December 2025 was triple that in December 2021.
While manufacturing construction is cooling, another sector continues to expand rapidly: data centers. This strength is less obvious than the swings in manufacturing construction spending when looking at the summarized data because data centers fall within the broader category of office construction. The broad office construction numbers look flat because while data center construction has been accelerating since early 2023, spending on general office construction has – not surprisingly – been falling since the beginning of the pandemic.
In fact, something notable occurred in November. For the first time, inflation-adjusted spending on data centers surpassed spending on traditional office construction.
Unlike general office construction and many other types of nonresidential construction, the investments that have driven construction over the past three or four years are more geographically concentrated, though perhaps less so than would have been the case a few years earlier.
Within trucking, the major beneficiaries have been flatbed and bulk. The construction of these facilities require large-scale earth moving and site prep, and the infrastructure requirements are substantial even before the large fixtures – data servers themselves and all the power and cooling infrastructure needed.
Because data center construction is linked mostly to commercial demand and not government spending, there's less of a worry of a near-term peak, and certainly it isn't happening yet. However, we do presume that a peak is out there, especially considering the costs involved and infrastructure needed, including for electric power generation to support these facilities. Just when that peak occurs, is a guess at this stage.
For full charts and supporting visuals referenced in this episode, download the accompanying slide deck here.
Trucking leaders — mark your calendars.
The Truck Track at the 2026 FTR Transportation Conference returns!
📅 August 31 – September 1, 2026
📍 Indianapolis, IN
Get updates on speakers, agenda releases, and registration details as they’re announced.
Sign up here to stay in the loop.