The Daily Dig
The Dodge Momentum Index slipped 0.4% in August, landing at 282.0. That's down from a downwardly revised July reading of 283.0. Blame data centers.
Commercial planning fell 3.0% for the month. Institutional planning climbed 4.9%. The split shows exactly where the soft spot sits.
Power Down
Data center planning cooled off in August. Retail stores and warehouses cooled with it. Office buildings, parking garages, and hotels picked up the slack instead.
"Strength in planning momentum remained relatively broad based in August," said Sarah Martin, Director of Economic Research at Dodge Construction Network. She noted weaker data center planning drove the flatter trend, while most other sectors accelerated.
On the institutional side, education, recreational, and public buildings all strengthened their planning pipelines. Healthcare cooled slightly after four straight months of growth.
The year over year numbers tell a more interesting story. The index is up 4.2% compared to August 2025. Commercial is up 2.3%, institutional is up 7.8%.
Strip data centers out of that commercial number and it flips hard. The segment would be down 18.9% from a year ago, reflecting how much the late 2025 surge in data center activity has been carrying the number.
August still produced volume. A total of 31 projects valued at $100 million or more entered planning during the month.
The largest commercial entries were two EdgeConneX data centers in Bastrop, Texas, each valued at $462 million. Behind those sat the $378 million Bitdeer Data Center in Shalersville Township, Ohio, and a $358 million data center in Secaucus, New Jersey.
Virginia had a big month on the institutional side. The $350 million Colosseum Sports Resort in Stafford, the $350 million Commonwealth Courts Building in Richmond, and the $350 million Holistic Health and Fitness building in Newport News all entered planning.
Snapshot:
Index: Dodge Momentum Index (DMI)
August 2026 Reading: 282.0 (2000=100)
July 2026 Reading (Revised): 283.0
Monthly Change: -0.4%
Commercial Planning Change (Monthly): -3.0%
Institutional Planning Change (Monthly): +4.9%
Year-Over-Year Change: +4.2%
Commercial Year-Over-Year: +2.3%
Institutional Year-Over-Year: +7.8%
Commercial Ex-Data Centers Year-Over-Year: -18.9%
$100M+ Projects Entering Planning (August): 31
Largest Commercial Projects: EdgeConneX Data Centers (Buildings 31 & 32), Bastrop, TX, $462 million each; Bitdeer Data Center (Phase 1, 150 MW), Shalersville Township, OH, $378 million; Data Center, Secaucus, NJ, $358 million
Largest Institutional Projects: Colosseum Sports Resort, Stafford, VA, $350 million; Commonwealth Courts Building, Richmond, VA, $350 million; Holistic Health and Fitness Building, Newport News, VA, $350 million
Source: Dodge Construction Network
Report Date: September 8, 2026
TheJobWalk Thoughts
A flat headline number is masking a real dependency. The math is stark: commercial planning is up 2.3% year over year with data centers included, but down nearly 19% without them. That's not a diversified pipeline, that's one sector doing the heavy lifting.
The bright spot is real. Office, parking garage, and hotel planning all accelerated in the same month. For GCs and subs who've leaned hard into hyperscale bids, that's a signal worth watching alongside the data center numbers, not instead of them.
The DMI leads overall nonresidential construction spending by a year to 18 months, but that's an index-wide relationship, not a guarantee for any one sector. August's data center pullback is a planning-stage signal worth tracking, not a fixed forecast for when hyperscale bid volume shows up on job sites.
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