Construction companies have been handed a bonanza of work by voters, who last week approved billions of dollars worth of bonds to finance public facilities construction throughout California.

“Certainly construction firms will be huge beneficiaries,” said Richard Lichtenstein, president of Marathon Communications, a Los Angeles-based public relations and advocacy firm. “This would include not only the construction firms, but designers, engineers, equipment suppliers and other subcontractors, as well as all the laborers hired for the projects.”

One firm eager to jump at the new opportunities is New York-based Bovis Construction, which currently holds contracts under Proposition BB to rebuild 77 schools in the L.A. Unified School District.

“The passage of these bond measures is good news for us,” said Jim D’Agostino, Bovis’ Western region director. “It helps offset the downturn that we are seeing in the private sector from the Asian financial crisis. I know lots of other firms are now clapping their hands at the prospect of more work.”

D’Agostino said Bovis has recently hired school construction specialists and held a two-hour meeting in the firm’s L.A. office to look at the new business opportunities presented by the passage of Proposition 1A, the $9.2 billion statewide school bond measure, and five local school-district bonds totaling an additional $256 million. “We know there is going to be a lot more K-12 construction and want to be poised to move into this market in a rapid way,” D’Agostino said.

He added that the firm is also looking at bidding on work that will now be done at the L.A. Zoo and at local libraries, thanks to last week’s passage of propositions CC and DD. He noted that Bovis was construction manager for the recent renovation of the Central Park Zoo in New York.

The spurt of new public facilities contracts to be awarded in the coming months could also be a boon to the lobbying industry, as companies jockey for the government contracts. However, Lichtenstein downplayed this secondary bonanza, saying that many of these contracts will be awarded purely on the basis of lowest bid and will need minimal help from lobbyists.

“There will be some opportunity for advocates, but it will probably be rather limited,” he said.