Despite droughts that have affected crops this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced that the industry is in good shape. Specifically, the agency is forecasting a 5.1 percent increase in exports for the 2013 fiscal year, which marks a continuation of record-high export earnings. In total, international shipments of domestic goods are expected to amount to $143.5 billion in the next fiscal year, which begins on October 1, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is currently in the planning stages of construction on an addition of Route 460, which runs East-to-West along the southern region of the state. The 55-mile stretch of highway will reach from Petersburg to Suffolk, which will close a gap in the highway. Officials are hoping to begin bringing in construction equipment and getting the project underway by early 2013, according to TideWaterNews.com. There are three construction companies submitting bids to win the contract for this project, and VDOT officials will award the contract in mid-December.

A new waste water reclamation facility is being built just outside Dickinson, N.D., in order to accommodate a rapidly growing population in the southwest corner of the state. According to The Associated Press, there will be construction equipment on the site for the next two years as officials expect to complete the $30 million project by October 2014.

Ohio residents may have noticed they've been seeing more construction projects throughout the state in recent months, as business is picking up for the industry. The Community Press and Recorder reports there has been a boost in construction employment, with the addition of 1,900 jobs across the state, according to a report by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGCA). This growth makes Ohio the 17th-best state in terms of new construction jobs, which isn't bad considering 31 states saw employment decline in this industry.

The Los Angeles Community College District recently announced it would be resuming a $6 billion campus building plan. According to the Los Angeles Times, the education institution declared a moratorium last October in order to investigate spending and budgets to ensure the district had enough money in the budget to fund the project.

Road construction can often be a hassle for drivers and seems to always take longer than expected. However, that is not the case on Moana Lane in northern Nevada. General contractor Q&D Construction recently announced the completion date for the project is being pushed up more than five weeks, according to the Northern Nevada Business Weekly.

Caterpillar, one of the big names in the construction equipment industry, is building a new factory in Athens, Ga., and the project is on schedule. The Athens Banner-Herald reports the massive structure has come a long way since March, when workers broke ground at the site, just off the Atlanta Highway. Most of the walls have been erected and the roof installation is underway. Not surprisingly, the Gray Construction Company, which is in charge of the project, is using Caterpillar equipment for the job.

Downtown Memphis is usually filled with tourists, taxis and traffic, but construction equipment like backhoes, dump trucks and generators are currently more commonplace around Overton Square. This area of the city is currently the site of multiple construction projects, according to The Commercial Appeal. Local business owners and residents are not bothered by the work going on. In fact, they welcome the excess noise and disruptions caused by construction crews in the area, which was once a booming entertainment district.

Construction has been picking up speed since the economy began recovering from the recession that struck back in 2008, and the latest housing project to take place in Seattle, is a large one. Local developer Holland Partner Group is breaking ground this week on a new project to build a 40-story apartment tower in downtown Seattle, according to the Seattle Times.

A recent report by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGCA) examined the state of construction employment in the U.S., and some states are doing well while others are experiencing declines in the number of jobs in this industry. Specifically, 31 states saw their construction employment drop year-over-year.

In the summer, West Virginia University is not nearly as crowded with students as during the regular school year, which is why the school chose this period to finish a majority of the construction work completed on the renovation project at the Evansdale campus. In June 2011, university officials announced a $160 million project to renovate and replace old buildings on the grounds, according to The Charleston Daily Mail. The plan is to update older facilities to provide more space for students and spread the school's population out a bit to ease traffic congestion around the main campus.

The numbers are in for the construction industry progress during the month of July, and new-home construction is down, but industry experts don't believe this bodes poorly for the future. The Commerce Department is reporting that new home starts are down 1.1 percent from an annual rate of 754,000 in June to 746,000 in July, according to the Financial Times. The number of constructions jobs that got underway last month may have been less than expected, but this decline is not much to worry about, as new home starts rose 6.8 percent from May to June. The slight decline is more of a sign of the market stabilizing than a cause for concern.

Children in Marblehead, Mass., will soon be attending classes in an all-new, state-of-the-art facility. Glover Elementary was recently torn down to make room for a brand new building. Earlier this month, demolition crews used backhoes, excavators and other construction equipment to take down two buildings that had housed K-3 education since 1916 and 1948, according to WickedLocal.com.

Many people rely on the Mississippi River as their main source of drinking water, but salt water from the Gulf of Mexico is leaking into the river and contaminating it. In order to protect the water supply, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is constructing an underwater defense mechanism known as a sill, according to Fox 8 WVUE-TV in New Orleans. Drought issues in the South have caused many problems, including low river levels. This in turn has resulted in salt water from the Gulf streaming into the river and making the water unfit to drink for residents of the Plaquemines Parish in Louisiana.

Interstate-95, which runs along the East Coast, has been crowded with more than just everyday traffic, as drivers have likely seen excavators, cement mixers and other construction equipment in a few areas along the highway. The latest project to get underway is taking place on a 29-mile stretch of I-95 near Washington, D.C., where construction workers will be adding express lanes to the highway between Virginia's Garrisonville Road in Stafford County and Edsall Road in Fairfax County, according to Fairfax News.

Across the nation, construction companies are seeing more work, which means jobs are being created and construction equipment - such as backhoes, excavators and cranes - is being purchased. Some areas of the country are doing better than others, and Florida is one of the states experiencing a boom in the construction industry.

New legislation in the state of New Hampshire is about to go into effect, and public schools will be required to plead their case when they need construction work done on their learning facilities. Until now, the state government approved all requests for construction aid, as there have been no limits on this budget since 1955, The Associated Press reports.