Cover Letter to Respondents

C-700-L1B
(2-2004)

DC

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Economics and Statistics Administration

U.S. Census Bureau
Washington, DC 20233-0001
OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR

FROM THE DIRECTOR
U.S. CENSUS BUREAU
The U.S.Census Bureau produces monthly statistics on the value of construction put in place using data
obtained from owners or builders of sampled projects. These statistics provide the only comprehensive
measure of construction activity at the national level. The government and private industry use these
published statistics to analyze the movements and trends of this important segment of the economy.
These data also are used in the computation of the Gross Domestic Product.
The enclosed "Construction Project Report," Form C-700(SL), identifies and describes your project that
was sampled from published sources for inclusion in our survey. To limit cost and respondent burden, we
survey only a small sample of projects. Therefore, your cooperation in this voluntary survey is especially
important. This survey has been approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and given an
OMB approval number. This number appears in the upper right-hand corner of the form. If this number
were not displayed, we could not conduct this survey or request your participation.
We recognize that completing any report requires some work, and we try to reduce the reporting burden
on our respondents. On the initial report, we ask for the start date, total cost estimates, and monthly
figures on the value of work done from the start of construction through the previous month. It is
particularly important that you give us your best estimate for Item 5c. We estimate that it will take
approximately 30 minutes to provide this information. Thereafter, each month we ask for only a single
figure on the value of work done in the previous month. If this number is not readily available from your
records, your best estimate is acceptable. We estimate that this will require 10 minutes of your time. If
you have any comments regarding these estimates or any other aspect of this survey, send them to
Paperwork Project 0607-0153 (Form C-700(SL)), U.S. Census Bureau, 4700 Silver Hill Road, Stop 1500,
Washington, DC 20233-1500. You may e-mail comments to [email protected]; use "Paperwork
Project 0607-0153" as the subject.
Please complete and mail or fax (1–800–845–8245) the original form within 7 days,
even if the project has not started.
If you have any questions, call our toll-free number (1–800–845–8246) Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to
5 p.m. (Eastern Time). A supervisor may monitor the call to ensure accurate and courteous service. For
your information and use, already published construction spending data are available online at
www.census.gov/constructionspending.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Sincerely,

Charles Louis Kincannon
Enclosure

USCENSUSBUREAU
Helping You Make Informed Decisions •1902-2002

www.census.gov