The construction industry will continue to boom in the next one to two years, with longer term projects on the horizon which could keep the sector busy for the next five to ten years, according to the Chamber of Commerce.

Alan Burland, president of BCM McAlpine and chair of the construction division of the chamber, said yesterday that there were plenty of construction projects in the pipeline ? and there were so many jobs both large and small on the go that he estimated that employment in this area had risen to an all-time high of 3,000.

And he knocked back the idea put forward by Bermuda Container Line in its financial report earlier this month that it was expecting a slow-down in the sector.

?There is quite a bit of major work going on at the moment,? said Mr. Burland. ?And we see the industry being steady for the next year or two.?

He said it was quite hard to quantify how much work was going on because of the large number of small projects, such as houses and renovations which were under way and planned for the near future.

And he said that there was still plenty of mopping up to do from Hurricane Fabian and cited the school at St. George?s as being in need of extensive repairs.

He also said that there was a large number of townhouses being built with the prospect of more city apartments being built in Hamilton in the wake of the success of Sir John Swan?s Atlantis building on Parliament Street.

These views were echoed by Dennis J. Fagundo of D&J Construction Co Ltd., who said that as far as he could see there was more than enough work going around.

?The construction industry does not appear to be slowing down, however I cannot comment on the number of containers arriving that are destined for the industry.

?I would assume that BCL would have numbers available to support such a claim. The construction industry seems to be maintaining a fairly high level of activity.

?There is a concentration on residential units with more condo-style projects coming online. This is starting to be balanced with a few commercial projects looming on the horizon and of course the tremendous amount of work required to restore the hospitality sector post Fabian.?

He said that he was aware of some large commercial projects being worked on, but could not reveal what they were due to confidentiality agreements.

Mr. Burland pointed to projects already under way, such as the Renaissance Re building on Crow Lane and the Maxwell Roberts Building on Par-la-Ville

?Crow Lane will be finished by the end of the year as there is quite a lot of work to be done inside, and then refurbishment of the building next door,? he said. ?Then there are the big jobs like Berkeley, which will have to be going full tilt to be completed, but that is a very political football. There is also quite a lot of work going on at Belmont and Sonesta and there is work planned at Elbow Beach and hopefully the Lantana project will get off the ground soon, plus the planned expansion at Ariel Sands.?

He said that schools were also giving the industry a lot of work, with a new gym and changing room and classrooms at Warwick Academy plus extensions at Saltus and BHS in the works.

Mr. Burland also said that there were plans for work in other Government schools which was coming up shortly plus repair work on Government buildings which had not been fixed from Fabian.

?There is still extensive work from Hurricane Fabian ? there is quite a lot of repair work to do,? he said.

And while big projects such as the ACE and XL buildings were finished as well as offices such as the PXRe building on Pitts Bay Road and the Renaissance Re building on Crow Lane were coming to an end, there were new projects coming up all the time.

?There is also another large office building planned by AIG, which is going through planning,? he said.

The offices are planned for the car park behind the AIG building.

He said that there was in fact so much work, that more workers were needed than could be found on the Island.

He said that normally there were between 2,000 and 2,500 workers in the sector, and in the last Government figures available for 2001, there were 2,794 working in construction.

?That figure must be more like 3,000 now,? he said. ?But there are too few Bermudian students looking to construction as a career, and we would like there to be a major shift in this outlook.?

And he said that the industry would sustain this growth as in the longer term there was the Baselands,Southside and Morgan?s Point and Dockyard housing schemes, with the planned condo development in the Victualling Yard.

?If any of these projects come up, they will offer real, long term work for the industry. And they will happen at some point. We think it is going to be pretty busy in the next few years. After that? We don?t have a crystal ball, but Bermuda does seem to keep on growing.?