The redish hues you see on this map are underground oil shale and gas shale formations. And for the next 100 years or so these will be the country’s hot spots for energy development and the heavy construction that goes along with it. With housing, roadbuilding and most public construction in a deep funk, this industry is the one bright spot for anybody with dozers, excavators, wheel loaders and trucks.
If you want to drill into the details a little further, check out this specialty map store that can take you down almost to the street level. The the United States Geophysical Service also has some good, if somewhat less detailed maps on it’s website.
We’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating, our Contractor of the Year for 2011, Brian Force, built a $20 million construction company from scratch in just 10 years providing construction services for drilling companies working the Marcelleus shale. That’s the shaded region in the Northeast quadrant of the map above.
