Tune Your Energy by Rindi White

Buying America—But Not Yet by Jamey Bradbury

Bridge to Success by Kevin Klott

Victaulic Company by Rachael Kvapil

Carpenter Contracting by David A. James

Fairbanks Block & Building Materials by David A. James

Leveling Up by Amy Newman

President’s Message by Sarah Lefebvre

Executive Director’s Message by Alicia Amberg

Calendar of Events

New Members

2022 CLC Grill & Chill

2022 Sporting Clays Shoot

2022 Anchorage Golf Tournament

Human Resources Update by Stephanie Haydn Buchanan

2022 Fairbanks Golf Tournament

Occupational Health by Brian Horner

Financial Services & Contractors by Chris Yelverton

Taking Pride in What We Do

Contractors & the Law by Sydney M. Sullivan

Member News

Advertisers Index

Jenith Ziegler
ChemTrack Alaska Inc.

David Haynes
First National Bank Alaska

Pearl-Grace Pantaleone
Cornerstone General Contractors

Sarah Lefebvre
Exclusive Paving

Alicia Amberg
Associated General Contractors of Alaska

Christine A. White
R&M Consultants, Inc.

Heather Sottosanti
Big State Mechanical, LLC

Rindi White
Editor

Monica Sterchi-Lowman
Art Director

Fulvia Lowe
Art Production

James K Brown
Graphic Designer

BUSINESS STAFF
Charles Bell
VP Sales & Marketing
907-257-2909 cbell@akbizmag.com

Janis J. Plume
Senior Account Manager
907-257-2917 janis@akbizmag.com

Christine Merki
Senior Account Manager
907-257-2911 cmerki@akbizmag.com

The Alaska Contractor is published by Alaska Business Publishing Co. Inc. for the Associated General Contractors of Alaska. Contents of the magazine are not necessarily endorsed by AGC of Alaska or Alaska Business Publishing Co. All rights reserved. Copyright 2022 by the Associated General Contractors of Alaska. For information about articles in this edition or for permission to reproduce any portion of it, contact Alaska Business Publishing Co.

Speak Up

AGC is a better organization when we each engage

By Sarah Lefebvre

y mom never learned to swim or ride a bicycle. These were activities that fascinated her while also instilling a certain amount of anxiety. As children, we could barely grasp the idea of not being able to do either one, and we would pester her over and over about whether she was sure, and why not, and maybe she should learn how.

When any of us think back to our childhoods we can remember what my mom felt—before we learned ourselves. These were skills that were not easily attained and required persistence, and even more exciting, the concept of DANGER! Remember the thoughts of possible drownings (or at least getting water up the nose) and the certainty of scabbed knees and abraded palms? And yet most of us did learn, can do both with confidence, and have only a dim memory of how it came to be.

he leaves are turning, the air is crisp, and college football is in full swing. These are tell-tale signs that election season is underway here. This year, Alaskans will notice major changes to the ballot and the names appearing on it as we enter an election unlike any before it.

n a state with few roads, bridges become a crucial connector. A closed or damaged bridge can cut off an entire community. Compounded by Alaska’s challenging environment and short construction season, the need for bridge construction or repair to happen quickly is critical.

That’s how Hamilton Construction Alaska Co. made a name for itself in the ’70s, when the company installed more than 450 bridges throughout Alaska, using accelerated construction techniques and Hamilton-patented prefabricated bridges, or “EZ Bridges.”

n Alaska, there are two types of communities: those that are road accessible and those that aren’t. Of the other forty-nine states, Hawaii is the only one familiar with this situation. Yet, even road-accessible communities in Alaska face natural disasters that temporarily turn them into remote communities, as it did when a significant landslide created a three-week traffic closure for an area south of Seward. To reopen the road quickly, multiple companies pulled together to remediate the landslide and keep people moving.

Landslides along Lowell Point Road are not unusual. Cole Petersen, owner/operator of Associated General Contractors of Alaska member company Metco Alaska, LLC, says football-sized rocks frequently come down in small batches off Bear Mountain; however, nothing indicated the mountain would produce a major slide like it did on May 7.

Inlet Mechanical, Inc. worked with Victaulic on a pre-fabricated boiler piping package for a remote Alaska school.

t is often said that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but thanks to Victaulic, its products hold many “whole” projects together.

Though most people never see the pipe joining systems created by Victaulic, they are vital in creating infrastructure worldwide every day.

Ernest Tribe, who was in the Royal Engineers’ Trench Warfare Division in World War I, started Victaulic in 1919. Tribe’s experience inspired him to invent a new kind of pipe coupling that was safe to use and quick for operators to assemble and take apart. With help from Henry Selby Hele-Shaw, a British research engineer, they invented the Victaulic Coupling, which got its name by combining the words “victory” and “hydraulic.”

eams were shooting in the rain, but they didn’t let that throw off their aim. The 2022 Associated General Contractors of Alaska Sporting Clays shoot was held August 19 at Birchwood Recreation & Shooting park in Birchwood. Nearly 100 shooters attended.

In the individual rankings, Rod Miller won with a score of 93, John Carlson took second with a score of 91, and it was a three-way tie for third place between Guy Miyogishimi, Chad Schonbeck, and Dave Cross, all of whom scored 90.

n June, Associated General Contractors, or AGC, of America led forty-one national organizations to call on the US Department of Transportation, or US DOT, to delay enactment of requirements under the Build America Buy America Act, or BABAA.

“AGC supports domestic manufacturing and buying American-made products,” clarifies Alex Etchen, senior director of government relations for AGC of America. “But we are experiencing an unprecedented supply chain constraint. That’s why we’ve encouraged US DOT to ensure that enacting the BABAA won’t wreak further havoc on the supply chain.”

Carpenter Contracting set up this camp while working on the Tevyar’aq Railway Tram in 2013.

f you live in Alaska, chances are you’ve stood on something Wayne Carpenter built. His Delta Junction-based Carpenter Contracting, Inc. has—among its many jobs—worked on the missile defense facility at Fort Greely, built the Dot Lake washeteria, revamped part of a veterans’ center in Anchorage, removed asbestos from Eielson Air Force Base, built a wayside at Chitina, constructed the Birch Lake campground, and remodeled part of the Alaska Vocational Technical Center kitchen in Seward.

Carpenter’s work ethic and insistence on building things to last has taken him from Alaska’s largest city to its smallest villages.

“We went from right-of-way clearing and slowly worked into the building trades,” he says. “We do heavy construction, dirt work, and a wide variety of projects.”

The entire UAF Steel Bridge team sits on the bridge after competing at the regional competition at University of Nevada Las Vegas. From left: faculty advisor Wilhelm Muench, Brandon Hansen, Heather McKenzie, Cynan Hellman, Haylie Cortez, Lucas Gomes, Porter Baffrey, Jenna Hernandez, Ben VanderHart, Zach Miller, Zach Stanish, and Mady Weeks.

s a kid, Ben VanderHart fondly remembers building imaginary worlds with his brothers inside their Delta Junction home.

“We had a whole room of our house covered in LEGOs,” he says. “We would go in there for hours and build all sorts of things.”

VanderHart is a recent graduate of the civil engineering program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, or UAF, where he led a team of engineering students to competitively design one of the best steel bridges in school history—and the United States.

rom oilfield supplies to building blocks for F-35 hangars, municipal sidewalk tiles, home foundations, and landscaping solutions, Fairbanks Block & Building Materials strives to be the first place customers think to go.

“We have a retail store here in Fairbanks, and we stock a wide array of products,” says store manager Scott Frarey. “I would consider us the one-stop shop for finishing tools for finishers and masons.”

This means stocking a lot of products. “We supply sacked goods, concrete mixes, mortar mixes, aggregates. We do concrete restoration products, decorative concrete, grouts, cures, sealers,” he explains. “Everything from geotextiles if you’re building a road to block if you’re building a foundation—if you’re building a house.”

n July, Anchorage-based general contractor UNIT COMPANY, an Associated General Contractor, or AGC, of Alaska member company, completed a two-year renovation and upgrade to the Airborne Warning and Control System, or AWACS, alert hangar at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, or JBER. The renovations, which expand the Air Force’s operational capabilities and better accommodate the facility’s mission, included structural and mechanical upgrades to the existing hangar and construction of a new 14,000-square-foot crew facility.

The US Army Corps of Engineers, or USACE, which acts as a one-stop-shop construction agent for its military partners, is also busy awarding contracts and preparing requests for proposals, or RFPs, for upcoming projects.

he Great Resignation is cited for much of the skilled labor and trade shortages facing not only Alaska but the entire United States. While the post COVID-19 resignation phenomenon may have highlighted the shortage, skilled labor deficits have been an industry topic for more than a decade.

With an emphasis on academic pursuits overshadowing the possibilities of lucrative careers in trade and labor professions, young adults continue to overlook this career path. Skilled labor is now at a critical shortage.

Following the pandemic, the United States continues to pour money into infrastructure, but who will do the work? Employers struggle to find labor that is either interested or skilled enough to perform the work. Across all fifty states, money for infrastructure is left on a table because the projects cannot be completed. For Alaska this is a significant challenge. In a state that already lacks some modern conveniences, like roads and sanitation in rural communities, infrastructure funding is crucial to modernization.

he 43rd annual Associated General Contractors of Alaska Fairbanks Golf Tournament kicked off July 14 with a pre-event Kick-off Par-Tee at the AGC of Alaska office in Fairbanks. The golf tournament was held July 15 at Chena Bend Golf Course on Fort Wainwright.

It was a great event, AGC of Alaska Fairbanks Office Manager Michaella Anderson says. The golf tournament was a sold-out event with 180 participants, good weather, and an abundance of volunteers.

Thank you to all the golfers, sponsors, companies, and individuals who donated door prizes.

he COVID-19 crisis has succinctly identified a medical threat to our lives and—inherently—our occupations. Most of the successful COVID defensive strategies have been based on workers and managers becoming more knowledgeable and educated in risk potential, medical conditions, and PPE procedures. This educational enlightenment has saved lives.

This same type of medical enlightenment occurred at the 2020 National Association of Tower Erectors, or NATE, Conference held in Raleigh, North Carolina, when twenty-six NATE members had the unique experience of attending the first ever Tower Medical Responder, or TMR, program.

Learn to Return, or LTR, an Alaska-based training company, has been educating occupational workers in remote medical response for more than thirty years.

etirement planning can be confusing: Which plan is the best investment, which provides the least risk and the greatest reward? For many companies, the question is how to provide this benefit to a small pool of workers while remaining cost-effective.

Associated General Contractors, or AGC, of Alaska partners with the Northwest Chapters of AGC to offer a retirement plan to AGC members large and small. The idea of pooling with other companies to lower overhead and provide the kind of plan benefits that come with larger companies is good, but pension board members found the website for that plan was less useful and less inviting than Northwest Chapter members wanted. In fact, they worried it was a barrier to plan involvement—simply getting a quote was not possible through the site.

hat does data theft look like, really? Is it a black-hoodie-clad villain tapping away at a laptop while ominous green code streams across their monitor? Not usually. In fact, a huge portion of cyber-security breaches occur through social engineering. So, often data theft looks like a customer or employee who is enticed to act in a way they shouldn’t.

Through social engineering—using interactions online or information available on LinkedIn or other social media platforms—scammers identify targets such as employees who may have access to a company’s network or financial systems. They send phishing emails that may look like they’re from a financial institution, vendor, customer, or other trusted sources. These emails will include a link or download that installs malware on the recipient’s computer.

s the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic fades, construction work has begun to surge in Alaska. While the construction industry recovers, it is important that contractors stay abreast of what warranties are applicable to the work they are contracting to perform, as well as how warranties can provide additional sources of compensation and recovery on construction projects.

This article provides contractors with a brief roadmap to better understand express and implied warranties in construction contracts. Specifically, the article discusses the similarities and differences between express versus implied warranties, the contractor’s ability to modify or disclaim implied warranties or include express warranties in contracts, and a few of the most common legal remedies arising from express and implied warranties in construction contracts.