The results are in. The fourth annual CalAPA "Better or Worse" survey is showing a clear upswing in optimism, even though there still remains a healthy dose of skepticism about prospects for 2014.
The single-question, non-scientific poll of more than 2,300 "Asphalt Insider" newsletter subscribers, conducted last week, found a surge in positive feelings for the coming year, with 34 percent of respondents saying that 2014 will be better than 2013. That compares to 25 percent of respondents last year and 20 percent in 2011. A record 222 people took the survey.
The percentage of respondents who predicted next year will be worse 
than this year inched down slightly to 19 percent, from 21 percent last year and 22 percent in 2011. The highest percentage of "worse" votes, 25 percent, occurred in 2010 when the state was mired in the depths of the Great Recession.
Still, the plurality of results continue to fall into the "about the same" category, with 42 percent predicting that 2014 will be about the same as 2013, compared to 41 percent last year and 53 percent in 2011. The percentage of respondents who said they didn't know or did not have an opinion reached an all-time low this year - 3 percent.
The survey question is purposefully vague - "For your company or organization, how do you think 2014 will compare to 2013?" - but most of the voluntary comments offered up by survey respondents centered around how much work is expected in the coming year. The answer varied by company, agency and region, reflecting the size and diversity of California's economy.
"Our clients seem to have more work on the books for 2014 compared to 2013, which will translate into more work for us," one CalAPA associate member wrote. Offered a CalAPA paving contractor, "We have a better backlog going into 2014 and I have hopes for continued improvement in private-market construction."
Nevertheless, there was plenty of evidence of lingering trauma to both the industry and agencies as a result of the recession.
"Until the residential and commercial markets improve everyone will still be competing for the agency work, hence, more bidders less chance of getting a job," one paving contractor wrote. "Also, from what I understand, the forecast is that agencies will have less money to work with this next year so there may be even fewer jobs to bid on."
Agency responses were similarly mixed. "I work for a county agency," one respondent wrote, " and we pretty much have all of our funding for next year's projects confirmed and ready to go," while another lamented, "Funding for pavement rehabilitation, maintenance and capital improvements are down."
Industry and agency representatives both worried about the loss of experienced workers, either through layoffs or retirements, and the high cost of doing business. Still, the lingering effects of the recession, or fears of a new downturn, was the most common theme among the comments.
"A long, slow crawl out of the hole we are in," said one paving contractor, while a local agency representative observed, "Barring macro economic bad news or another crash, the economy is slowly picking up steam." A much more blunt assessment was put forward by another local agency representative: "2013 was a year where budget deficits resulted in significant staff reductions."
About one-third of survey respondents were agency representatives, and most of the responses came from California, with a few notable exceptions. A local agency representative from Nevada wrote: "Our Board of County Commissioners has allocated more funds to road maintenance in the coming years, which will allow us to perform more chip seals, slurry seals, overlays and reconstruction."
To read the story about last year's survey results, click HERE.
maintenance of transportation infrastructure in California supports the equivalent of 348,024 jobs. These workers earn an annual payroll of $14 billion. An additional 7.7 million jobs in key industries such as tourism, retails sales, agriculture and manufacturing are dependent on the state's transportation infrastructure network.