BUSINESS MEMO: STATE CONSTRUCTION GROWS

Total construction activity in Missouri was up 14 percent last year.

Totals for the year were reported at $6,339,416,000, compared to 5,554,281,000 for 1994, by The F.W. Dodge Division of McGraw-Hill, an authority on the construction market,

Nonresidential construction was reported at $2.8 billion, up 41 percent from the $1.9 billion for 1994. Residential construction was reported at $2.3 billion, down 11 percent from the $2.6 billion of 1994, and nonbuilding was reported at $1.2 billion, 26 percent more than the $982 million in 1994.

Dodge, which issues monthly totals, reported December construction at $319,597,000, up 3 percent from the $309,498,000 for December 1994.

The state's nonresidential construction, which includes commercial, manufacturing and other buildings not designed for shelter, was reported at $106,082,000, down from the $139,224,000 figures of December 1994.

Residential construction for December was $146,433,000, up 4 percent from the $141,124,000 in December 1994.

Nonbuilding construction, which includes streets, highways, bridges, river and harbor developments, airports and a few other projects, was reported at $67,082,000, up from the $29,150,000 during December 1994.