OAKVILLE, ONT. — Toronto remains dominant in the latest biannual Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB) Crane Index, which tracks the number of construction cranes in 14 North American cities where RLB does business.
The index provides a simplified snapshot of the current state of the construction industry’s activity in each metro location, states a release. Toronto’s 240 cranes far outdistance second-place Seattle, which has 45, and Los Angeles, with 30.
The other cities documented in the index are Denver, 24 cranes; Boston, 20; Calgary, 19; Washington, D.C., 18; Portland, 14; Honolulu, 12; San Francisco, 11; Chicago, nine; Las Vegas, nine; New York, eight; and Phoenix, seven.
The crane count is conducted twice yearly. The first tally of 2023 indicated Toronto had 238 cranes on construction sites; in Q3 2022 the total was 230; in Q1 2022 it was 252; and in Q3 2021 there were 225 cranes on the job in the city. No other city has ever had more than 60 cranes on site since the crane count was launched in 2018.
The data was collected in August.
The index also chronicles the project sectors where the cranes were employed. Toronto boasted 146 cranes employed on residential projects, 35 on commercial, 31 on mixed-use and seven on public or civic jobs.