Construction values in Kamloops keep getting bumped higher as building surpasses predictions made by City staff.

Development and engineering services director David Trawin said Thursday the tally expected by the year's end is now around $185 million.

That's a big leap from the $120-million or so Trawin predicted at the start of the year.

The trend in the last few years of construction values surpassing expectations could cause the City to change its historical averages, he said.

"If this continues for two or three years, we'll have to change historical average from $120 million to $140 or $150 (million)," he said.

October's numbers are down compared with last year, but then last year was "ridiculous" with $51 million in residential and commercial construction. Driving that big figure was a major multi-family project and $22 million for the House of Learning at Thompson Rivers University.

This year's October tally was $21 million - still a decent number, Trawin said, noting in recent years building stats for the month have hovered between $7 million and $28 million (except for last year).

The year-to-date numbers are better, showing $175 million in construction so far in 2010 compared with $145 million in 2009.

Trawin said there wasn't a big inventory of rental units, which has driven some of this year's construction.

"They're building for the demand," he said.

"I think it's a good pace right now."

Construction companies aren't so busy they can't get trades workers, which has happened at times in the past, he said.

"I'm hearing that they're steady. They're going at a decent pace."

Still, construction traditionally starts to slow down at this time of year. It'll really pick up in spring, when work on projects such as the downtown Sandman Signature hotel is expected to get underway.