Raising the Bar

or more than two decades, Alaska Crane has been a cornerstone of the state’s heavy-lift industry. Since the company was established in 2001, Alaska Crane company leaders have dedicated themselves to meeting the needs of the company’s Alaska clients, specializing in high-quality crane service.

“We’ve been pulled into many different projects over the years, from railroad bridges to lifting ships out of the water, showcasing the versatility and importance of our work across the state,” says Brennan Walsh, president of Alaska Crane and STG Incorporated, both of which are owned by Calista Corporation.

With a fleet capable of handling loads ranging from 28 to 660 tons and crane boom lengths exceeding 400 feet, Alaska Crane prides itself on its robust arctic-grade capabilities, which allow its equipment to perform under the most extreme conditions.

“Our entire fleet of arctic-tough cranes can brave temperatures as low as -40°F,” says Walsh, “making these winter workhorses ideal for year-round, cold-weather operations across Alaska.”

Although it operates out of Anchorage, Alaska Crane serves every region in the state. It’s equipped to tackle both contract-based projects and call-out services that are tailored to client needs. The company employs a small but highly skilled team, averaging between six and ten employees, which allows for a personalized approach to each project, Walsh says.

“I’m always impressed with the skill sets and capabilities of our team,” says Walsh. “Being a small crane service company, they are exposed to a wide array of projects and challenges.”

Above, Alaska Crane’s equipment stands ready to support renewable energy efforts at the Fire Island Wind project.

Reflecting on his journey, Dooley notes, “It’s been a long career path for me, but I think I’m finally in a position where I could stay at home.”

“Our role was to provide the crane support for GE’s technicians to perform maintenance on two turbines, including replacing gearboxes to prevent potential internal failures,” says Dooley.

Alaska Crane mobilized in August and faced multiple weather days due to 25 to 30 mile per hour winds, which created hazardous conditions for moving equipment across the Cook Inlet.

Despite the challenges, Alaska Crane completed the project by mid-September, which demonstrated its adaptability and commitment to safety, says Dooley.

“Working closely with Fire Island Wind, GE, and Alaska Crane, we maintained constant communication to ensure everyone was on the same page, working towards completing the job efficiently,” says Dooley.

Chris Jimenez, senior operations manager at CIRI, had nothing but positive feedback for the work Alaska Crane performed on Fire Island.

“Alaska Crane’s team and equipment were essential to the success of the Fire Island Wind project, handling large, heavy components with ease,” says Jimenez.

Despite high winds, Alaska Crane’s careful planning and execution ensured minimal impact on the project timeline. Jimenez praised Alaska Crane’s strict protocols.

“Alaska Crane’s strict safety protocols created a secure environment on-site and kept the project on track without delays. Working with Alaska Crane’s operators and riggers was a positive experience. Their high level of professionalism and flexibility made a real difference in project execution.”

The company’s focus on safety earned it an Excellence in Safety award at the 2024 Associated General Contractors of Alaska annual convention in November. Read more about the award on page 50.

“Our commitment to skill sets and safety has allowed us to thrive for over twenty years,” says Walsh.

Some key projects include extending the Sitka Blue Lake Dam in 2013, installing railroad and highway bridges, lifting ships out of the water for inspections, helping recover aircraft that traveled off runways, and changing out jumbo jet engines at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. Sometimes Alaska Crane sets down hot tub units, too, Walsh says.

“It’s a pretty wide variety of projects we get involved with, but we try to approach them all the same, whether it’s a hot tub unit or a bridge girder. From a planning and safety perspective, we try to get in, get out, and bring value to the customer and the job.”

n 2024 the Alaska Statewide Transportation Improvement Program, or STIP, was initially rejected by the federal government, a rare and unanticipated roadblock as the state and contractors were prepping for upcoming public projects. While the STIP was later approved, this early difficulty led to a lower-than-anticipated August Redistribution, funding that the Federal Highway Administration, or FHWA, distributes each August.

To respond to construction industry concerns, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, or DOT&PF, updated Associated General Contractors, or AGC, of Alaska members at the 2024 AGC of Alaska Annual Conference about the STIP process in the future, construction projects in the coming year, and other project opportunities on the horizon.

It covers all system improvements for which partial or full FHWA funding is approved and expected to be received within the duration of the four-year plan. The STIP doesn’t fund airports or non-ferry-related ports and harbors that receive dollars from other sources.

In most years, the STIP is submitted and approved with findings or corrections. This year, the process didn’t go as smoothly. Though DOT&PF presented the STIP in the same format as previous years, the plan was initially rejected in February. After DOT&PF made corrections to its initial submission, the plan received partial approval in March, but DOT&PF says FHWA did not process the amendment fully until September, after funding decisions for the annual August Redistribution were already made. That delayed decision left Alaska with only $19 million in the August Redistribution, much lower than the $71.4 million the state would have been eligible to receive had the amendment been approved prior to the August Redistribution.

The catch is that the funds have to be obligated by the end of September, and the funding is only approved if the request fits into one of about sixty-five “pots” of money, each pot representing different spending eligibility criteria.

The process gives states a chance to fund additional projects, and generally Alaska does well, DOT&PF leaders say, typically even outperforming many other states. But this year, DOT&PF Administrative Services Division Director Dom Pannone told AGC members, eleven of the projects submitted to use the August Redistribution funds were rejected: seven of those because the project budgets had increased enough that moving forward on the project now required a STIP amendment.

Alaska had submitted the amendment requests, Pannone said, but they had not yet been approved in August.

Ryan Anderson, DOT&PF commissioner, attributes the difficulties with STIP funding and the August Redistribution to federal staff changes, additional scrutiny of Alaska’s transportation spending, and lack of clarity on federal requirements.

“You can read all the correspondence online and the progress we made,” says Anderson. “But some projects like the Chena Flood Plain Bridges were cut because we don’t interpret boundary regulations the same way as our federal partners. We’re struggling to get the details and descriptions we need to resolve things.”

It’s a balance, Anderson told the audience of contractors.

“We definitely don’t want to delay projects over fights with the federal government, but there are certain things that, we believe, if we don’t stand up for ourselves and say, hey, we have to have a certain amount of flexibility in the state of Alaska… it’s going to affect us in the future,” he said.

Anderson says many contractors feel like they aren’t seeing the backlog of work for next year, or they worry about further delays to existing projects due to funding. However, funding for DOT&PF projects includes other programs and grants outside the STIP. Though the August Redistribution was only $19 million, this is just a piece of the overall $650 million in federally funded highway projects Alaska acquired in fiscal year 2024. And $300 million more from the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, was awarded for aviation projects, with other projects receiving funds from the State of Alaska capital budget.

Anderson says $100 million in new projects is a good start. “We want to deliver more projects earlier in the year, prepare better bids, and stay focused to get project work to the street as early as possible.”

“We’ve asked AGC leadership to give us some targets as we look at these challenges and program by year,” said Anderson during his presentation. “We’re looking for input on what types of projects, how to manage the geographic spread, and what size is preferable. What’s the right spot for the industry?”

Though the STIP has taken the spotlight recently, FAA funding also experienced disruption as the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 ended in fiscal year 2023, the new Reauthorization Act was delayed and has been funded with continuing resolutions, which slows down the roll-out of the program.

Troy LaRue, DOT&PF operations manager for the Division of Statewide Aviation, told AGC members that without reauthorization funding the entire program, the FAA relied on continuing resolutions. That made it difficult to determine when money would be available for projects.

“If you look at the grant timeline, you can see that we were really hit hard by how the FAA soft-rolled them out,” said LaRue. “We’re talking to them at great lengths and seeing how we can change that.”

According to LaRue, another source of recent funding restriction is the Airport Improvement Program, or AIP, Handbook. The handbook provides guidance to FAA staff about administering the AIP program. He said revisions rendered several previously accepted projects ineligible and put more of the funding burden on the state programs. Since the changes were made without public process, DOT&PF is working with FAA to make corrections.

LaRue says the next two years of the Airport Capital Improvement Program, or ACIP, look solid, but the third year will depend on the bid openings from the first two seasons. DOT&PF attempts to program the Airport Capital Improvement Plan five years out. Overall, he told AGC members that he feels the department has a fairly good grasp of where it’s going with statewide aviation.

“We did open up a project for over $3 million each year to put back into transportation workforce development,” reported Keith. “We will continue to have conversations with AGC, and we look forward to discussing what we can do together to increase our workforce.”

To better keep contractors informed about DOT&PF projects, the department has developed an online dashboard that displays a tentative schedule. It allows users to search projects by cost, region, and time. To view the schedule, visit dot.alaska.gov/tasdashboard/.

Regional leaders wrapped up their look forward by highlighting projects slated for 2025, an outlook that included more than 100 road, airport, facility, and Alaska Marine Highway System projects in the works or scheduled to come up for bid in the next year to year and a half. Chris Goins, Southcoast Regional Director, also thanked contractors who helped clean up the more than twelve disasters over the last year, particularly a spate of recent disasters in Southeast that included a landslide, office fire, and significant culvert collapse, all of which occurred in the span of just a few hours.

“Contractors like you showed up. Some of you, I didn’t have to call. You just showed up with equipment and said, ‘I’m ready to work, what do you need me to do?’” said Goins.

“We all know how important this program is for the construction industry,” says Anderson. “This is a two-way partnership with AGC. We aren’t shying away from this issue even when things are tough and complicated.”

Alicia Amberg, Executive Director for AGC of Alaska, says AGC members appreciated the entire DOT&PF leadership team taking the time to present on upcoming challenges and opportunities while answering some tough but valid questions from members on the overall program.

“We continue to engage in dialogue with the administration and DOT to understand better the construction program in the upcoming year, as well as concerns surrounding FHWA and the STIP,” she says.

ivil and government jobs provide the bulk workload for many contractors. From infrastructure projects to office buildings to waste management and more, federal, state, and local governments are forever in need of getting projects done. And for construction and contracting firms, being able to successfully execute these jobs requires completing a lot of paperwork.

This is where Tamie Taylor, founder of Taylored Business Solutions, steps in.

“Government jobs are paperwork intensive,” Taylor says. “It is imperative that your pre-con submittals and buy-out [are] completed timely to successfully kick off a project. You’ve got to have somebody preparing and reviewing those submittals and making sure that they’re done. Because you can’t start digging until you have a plan that is submitted and approved. That’s the part that I was wanting to take off of their plate and/or help guide them.”

Taylor also helps contractors obtain the staffing they need to keep the job going. “If you don’t have the people, I can temporarily supplement and assist you in hiring them, so that you know we can put them in the plans that have to be submitted.”

Taylor doesn’t stop there. She says she often finds herself guiding clients long after they have broken ground and started work. “If a project is in trouble, then I’m going on site,” she says. “I’m being the project manager, superintendent, or QCM (quality control manager) and digging into the project to figure out how we’re going to get the work done.”

“I had a boss that saw my ability and basically came up to me and said, ‘You can do whatever you want to in this industry. You just tell me how I can help you get there’,” she recalls.

She told him she wanted to be on location at construction projects, so that’s where he sent her.

“I was in the field being a laborer and then was in the job site trailer, being like a project engineer or a contract administrator, doing submittals, helping the project manager,” she says.

By making herself available, she became indispensable, and her knowledge of the industry grew rapidly.

This brought her north in 1989, when the same contractor took a job here and asked her to come work as a contract administrator.

“He called me when I was in Colorado and said, ‘How can I get you to come to Alaska?’”

She stayed and founded Taylored Business Solutions in 2013.

“I felt that there was a need in small businesses helping them navigate the government contracting world,” she explains.

She saw contractors struggle with the paperwork and process necessary to successfully start and manage government contracts and decided with her knowledge and experience that she could help. “I saw the need and wanted to be the fixer.”

The business took off immediately. “When I put the word out there that I was willing to do this, I had contractors calling me all the time.”

Jim Bennett, a project manager with M2C1 Construction & Engineering, has worked with Taylor and says she “brings an incredible blend of skill and dedication to every project. Her attention to detail and collaborative approach make working with her a rewarding experience.”

Taylor describes herself as a fixer and, through Taylored Business Solutions, she negotiates the byzantine world of government projects for clients, then assists them to the finish line.

She says, “That seems to be a forte that I got into—helping contractors actually get projects completed and hopefully saving them time and money.”

n November 2024, Aaron Bartel and Kris Jensen stood before a group of 500 students at West Anchorage High School, myth-busting misbeliefs about the construction industry and highlighting all the career possibilities the field provides. The presentation was the realization of a dream three years in the making.

Associated General Contractors, or AGC, of Alaska’s Workforce Development Committee has launched its Contractor Classroom Playbook, an online guide and resource for industry stakeholders to connect the field of construction to Alaska’s schools. The Playbook is based on work by Jensen, Bartel, and others.

At a time when trades all over Alaska face a critical shortage of qualified workers, the Playbook is a practical tool for encouraging students to explore construction jobs. It’s also a resource that other AGC chapters are hoping to use as a blueprint.

“We would make headway, but it felt like one step forward, two steps back,” admits Bartel, vice president of BC Excavating. “Every time we would connect with the right people and make progress, that person would leave their job, or we’d get roadblocked, and we’d have to start over again.”

The committee also recognized that contractors wouldn’t want to waste time with untested methods.

“It’s hard to dedicate time if something’s not productive,” Bartel explains. “I already have a thousand things I’m not doing, so to walk away from the job to do something else—I’m going to need some kind of return on investment to do that.”

Bartel and the other committee members wanted to set contractors up for success inside the classroom. What was needed, the committee decided, was a comprehensive guide for making inroads at schools: making first contact with the right person, creating presentations and talking with students, and developing job-shadow and internship programs. The aim was to create a straightforward and repeatable process for contractors wanting to engage with classrooms from Anchorage to Bethel and beyond.

Don’t be intimidated by the number of pages, though. Each section in the Playbook provides three primary website resources for each topic. The appendices are supplemental and are a living document that will change over time with feedback from contractors and educators.

Kris Jensen, area manager for QAP, says the Workforce Development Committee thoroughly researched and curated the websites they chose to include.

“There’s so much information out there, it can be so daunting that you just don’t start,” he says. “You could Google a thousand sites to learn about job shadowing—so we researched websites and really found the three that we felt were most useful and engaging and helpful.”

“If you’re just up there delivering a PowerPoint, you’re going to lose them,” he advises. “If you’re unpracticed at telling your story of how you got into construction, they can see through it. You get the best reaction from students when you’re just open and honest.”

The Contractor Classroom Playbook offers tips like passing around photos or tools during a presentation so students can have a tactile experience; it encourages contractors to come up with hands-on activities that engage kids in interactive learning.

Keeping students interested can be as simple as a quick math lesson. One trick Jensen uses happens when a student inevitably asks how much money can be made in construction.

“I get them to pull up the calculator app and make them do a math problem,” he describes. “How many hours in a week is a full-time job? How many weeks for a year? What’s the wage? We multiply it out, and that helps get them into it—rather than me just telling them a number.”

It’s no secret that the state—like much of the nation—has experienced a deficit of workers. The hope is that talking directly to students will show them how many different opportunities the construction industry offers, sparking an interest in at least some young people to pursue construction careers in Alaska.

Around the time the AGC committee was starting to develop the Playbook, the Anchorage School District, or ASD, launched its Academies Pathway program, which uses workforce-focused curricula in the classroom. When AGC of Alaska saw that the curricula for construction wasn’t Alaska-specific, it worked with ASD to refine the career tree in the Academies program to reflect career paths in the state.

Likewise, We Build Alaska, which promotes the various career opportunities in the state’s construction industry, is another resource that goes hand-in-hand with the Contractor Classroom Playbook.

Together, Jensen says, these initiatives have the potential to “move the needle” on Alaska’s qualified workforce.

“We know it takes years and years to make something fully happen, but if we can just keep moving the needle a little bit, at least we can feel like we’re doing our part,” he says.

“Everybody was going, ‘How did you do this? What are you doing?’ There was nobody at AGC National that knew more than us about this,” says Bartel. “Which, to me—we’re just little Alaska. That was one of the turning points where I realized, wow, we’re kind of trailblazing, here.”

The digital nature of the Contractor Classroom Playbook means it can easily be shared, not only among Alaska contractors but nationally. Jensen envisions creating a “national push,” where AGC of Alaska’s Playbook is distributed to all AGC chapters.

“We’re hoping it grows and that we can exchange ideas,” he says. “Because if we’re all doing this individually, we’re siloed, and we’re not getting the message out. But if we come together nationally, we can move that needle even more.”

stablishing a good safety record takes planning, open communication, and often a lot of retooling. The Associated General Contractors, or AGC, of Alaska recognized four companies and one individual with its ConocoPhillips Excellence in Safety awards on November 7 at the AGC of Alaska Annual Convention for going beyond the basics in developing a culture of safety while on the job.

The company is using technology to change its safety management processes, adopting a cloud-based platform that uses real-time updates, such as safety reports, hazard assessments, and incident documentation, allowing for immediate review and action.

The “Blue Card” system is a hazard reporting tool that empowers employees to identify and easily report potential hazards on site, either on paper or using a mobile device. The hazards might include potential risks, unsafe conditions, or near-miss incidents. Once reported, the system allows employees to track each card from submission to resolution. It also offers space for employees to submit suggestions for improved safety practices, opening up a continuous feedback loop between workers and managers.

“It’s a new program for us. Internally we’ve been working on it for two and a half years, so to get recognized is validating,” says Alaska Crane President Brennan Walsh. Walsh is also president of STG, Inc., which he said uses the system, too.

He says having a strong safety record helps the company in several ways.

“It helps with recruiting. It shows our commitment to safety, shows our commitment to our employees and to our customers,” Walsh says. “It means something to us.”

Read more about Alaska Crane in this edition on page 18.

The extensive orientation and training program provides a foundation for a safety-conscious culture at Brice.

Brice Project Engineer Ariana Noel says she helped develop a safety program this year that the company has been using, and plans to tweak it to better fit Brice’s needs in 2025. Having a strong safety culture is important, both on the job and off, she says.

“Safety makes the job environment better; it makes people happier when they go home to their families, and it opens communication,” Noel says. “It leads to open communication in other areas and more engagement, for sure.”

“We doubled down on it, hired some additional safety professionals, and took some more time to get out to the field and inspect the jobs,” Davis Vice President Jed Shandy says.

The hard work is paying off. Davis won a safety award last year and continued its efforts to hone its safety protocol this year. Shandy noted that, in addition to building a strong internal culture of safety, Davis became early adopters of the new international standard of hard hat, handing them out to employees this year. Davis leaders, in the safety award submission, noted that safety training never stops.

“Davis is lucky enough to have many seasoned workers onsite, but like every construction company, we have also had an influx of new-generation field hands. With this mix of personalities and experiences, there have been many positives, such as new perspectives, insights, and methodologies of doing things. This unique blend of personalities on the jobsite has made us look inwards. Instead of saying, ‘This is the way we do things,’ we have been looking at our protocols and what has made our safety program award-winning and have taken note of what works in this new generation of construction and what we need to improve,” company officials noted in the submission.

Shandy says winning the award “establishes to our subcontractors and clients that we have a track record of safety, that we take it seriously.”

The company also incorporated a QR code system for near-miss or safety concern reporting that, when used, automatically sends an email to its safety consultant and to the ChemTrack Safety Committee chair, Alaska Office of Safety and Health Administration reporting staff, and the company vice president. The code is at every jobsite, home office, and shop and is included in every job folder and on every daily safety checklist that each crew member signs, ChemTrack officials said in the company’s safety award submission.

“Once a report is made, the ChemTrack Safety Committee Chair reaches out to the concerned party, provides resources as necessary, and adds the incident to the Quarterly Safety Meeting Agenda,” the submission states. ChemTrack President Carrie Jokiel says company leaders are really excited about the reporting system and has seen positive change.

ChemTrack Vice President Jenith Ziegler says keeping a good safety record also affects the company’s bottom line; having a poor safety record can affect a company’s ability to get jobs.

“So, it just helps keep everybody busy, keeping a good safety record,” Ziegler says.

“It’s nice to be rewarded for doing the right thing,” Jokiel adds.

Davis—and Parmenter—have worked steadily on different projects at Providence Alaska Medical Center. In that time, Parmenter has come up with “best practices” that have been so well-received by Providence that the hospital now requires all contractors working on the campus to adhere to them.

Parmenter says the effort was very organic, developed project by project over the span of nearly fifteen years.

“We just figured out over time what needed to happen,” he says.

“In order of the magnitude of concerns, on the low scale, a simple handprint of dust in the wrong department would be cause for concern, as that could be immune-compromised. It could be the precursor to someone’s infection,” Parmenter says. “At the same time, we have worked next to the neonatal intensive care units—and built one—and next to the intensive operating units.”

In those situations, he says, the crew had to come up with ways to reduce vibration and noise, as well as keeping dust and other effects away.

“There was no handbook when we started here. We had to learn a lot of this stuff on the fly, either through self-education or learned experience,’” he says.

Parmenter doesn’t work exclusively at Providence; as superintendent, he oversees multiple projects at the same time, Davis leaders noted in the award submission. “He manages a fleet of subcontractors and trade workers, ensuring that they understand and adhere to Davis’s safety program, meet quality standards, and keep projects on schedule.”

Despite a lengthy list of other duties, Parmenter is the primary contact for after-hours construction emergencies for Anchorage and Eagle River. He’s the first person on site for issues related to infection control, mold, lead, asbestos, and other concerns within hospital settings, as well as facility failures.

“A prime example is when Mike got a call from the Eagle River Providence’s Medical Center facility manager. They had a power outage and lost heat to the entire building. It was in the dead of winter and one of Mike’s only off days that week. Despite that, he drove from his house in Anchorage to Eagle River to see what he could do to help. He ended up figuring out how to get the heat working for the whole facility and did this all before their on-call service technician could make it out to help,” Davis leaders noted in the award submission. “Becoming the primary emergency contact for Providence was never in Mike’s ‘job description’ but rather something he naturally settled into with his dedication to the Providence team.”

Parmenter says, looking back, he’s kind of amazed at the knowledge he’s picked up. The award, he says, is validating.

“It’s come to the point of, ‘Hey, I actually did that,’” he says.

like to say we’re a civil company that backed into the marine part of it,” Toby Drake says, explaining how his business came to include government contract projects as well as moving aggregates and equipment by sea and river.

For more than forty years, Kotzebue-based Drake Construction has been expanding its operations from working on sewer and water projects into one of the leading builders of infrastructure, concrete pads, facilities, and more in one the most remote regions of Alaska.

“In rural Alaska you end up knowing how to do a little bit of everything,” Drake says. “Over the years we’ve picked up a lot of different trades.”

“I grew up helping in the summers and learning to operate equipment and some of that at a pretty early age. I liked seeing things get completed, so I ended up sticking with it.”

After learning the trade from his father as a youth, Drake attended college in his late teens, taking classes in construction and accounting and laying the foundation for his future. Returning to Kotzebue, he joined his father’s firm for a brief period before starting his own company, Pacific West. As an Alaska Native, he was able to acquire 8(a) status for his business. The 8(a) program assists minority and disadvantaged entrepreneurs in obtaining federal contracts and helped Drake secure contracts for public projects.

After working in tandem through the 1990s, father and son merged their operations in 1999 under the name Drake Construction. Two years later, the younger Drake became president, a position he has held ever since. And when his parents retired in 2006, Drake purchased the company.

From its founding, Drake Construction has continually expanded its operations, moving rapidly into road building and maintenance, airport runways and facilities, underground sewer and water utilities, bridge rehabilitation, and more.

Today, Drake says, “We not only haul gravel for ourselves, we haul aggregates and materials and equipment for other companies and other customers around the region.”

Drake Construction specializes in civil jobs over a broad swath of the region, working as far afield as Grayling, Nome, Ambler, Cape Lisburne, and even Fort Yukon, where the company provided sewer and water for the home of an elder. That’s a job Drake is particularly proud of.

Dealing with the difficult soil conditions in Northwest Alaska is a critical aspect of Drake Construction’s work. When laying foundations for any project, Drake explains, “You’re trying to make it as stable as you can.”

Neil Strandberg, project engineer at the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities, or DOT&PF, Northern Region, Western District, notes that Drake Construction is stable, both in terms of setting a good foundation and being a reliable partner in the region.

“They really set a good example of how to build projects in the northern region in difficult conditions,” Strandberg says. “Drake Construction performs a fundamental role in the Kotzebue community, keeping the community alive, maintaining infrastructure, and providing materials for earthwork projects—and they also perform heavy civil construction work. They’re great to work with and have always impressed me with how well they work together as a team.”

Drake Construction’s skills were essential in Fall 2024 when Kotzebue flooded during a brutal coastal storm October 20, 2024. An important road providing access to the city’s landfill, sewer lagoon, and a Coast Guard hangar sustained significant damage. Drake says DOT&PF reached out before the storm had even passed: “I put a small crew together, and, within a couple days, we were out there fixing it back up and getting it passable.”

Drake says the company’s future is bright, and his plan is to keep expanding the sorts of jobs it’s able to perform.

“I think there are going to be more and more as we head forward.”

t takes a different approach to work in construction in Alaska. The challenges that roads, facilities, or environmental remediation present are unlike those in any other state. Weather, geography, and a lack of basic infrastructure requires innovation, resilience, and a unique set of skills.

“Any successfully completed construction project is monumental these days in its own right. You have to deal with workforce challenges—[that’s] probably one of the biggest things we hear about; weather events—that’s getting more and more unpredictable—and obviously, schedule delays invoked by others. Those are probably the biggest things I have heard in the last couple of years that you all deal with on a daily basis,” said Lynne Seville, vice president and account executive of Parker Smith & Feek, on November 8 as she prepared to announce the winners of the Excellence in Construction awards.

ASKW-Davis, LLC, a joint venture between ASRC SKW Eskimos and Davis Constructors and Engineers, received the “Meeting the Challenge of a Job, Over $15 Million: Vertical Construction” award for building the Yukon-Kuskokwim Qavartarvik Customer Lodging Building. Alcan Electrical & Engineering won the “Excellence in Construction Award for a Specialty Contractor for a Job Over $5 Million” award for its work installing state-of-the-art electrical systems in the facility.

The project is important to the region. With limited housing available in Bethel, patients and family members from neighboring villages have few options for housing while they’re being treated. This facility, with 109 rooms, a restaurant, and other support functions, quadruples the hospital’s capacity to house patients and family members and is designed with future expansion in mind.

Kevin Clark, Davis project manager for the customer lodging building, says the project was unique in that it was built with heavy gauge metal studs and floor joists, coupled with steel brace bays and support columns, which afforded very little flexibility in terms of coordinating the work.

“ASKW-Davis decided that not only would we need to generate a 3D coordination model for the MEP (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing) systems but also every single metal stud, floor joist, and framing member. We then worked to design all of the wall and floor sections into manageable panels that could be prefabricated onsite. We constructed an onsite prefabrication building out of 40-foot containers and recycled roof trusses, complete with fabrication tables and a tracked hoist assembly. Not only did this allow us to accelerate the schedule by being able to build these sections concurrently with the pile installation, but significantly reduced safety risks from stick framing these components at height and in inclement weather,” Clark says.

Clark says winning the award “provides recognition for the efforts and sacrifices made by all parties involved to bring this project to fruition.”

“Everyone on the project team worked hard to provide the highest quality project for our client and the Western Alaska communities the facility now serves,” he says.

Chrys Fleming, president of Alcan Electrical & Engineering, says the unique challenges of Bethel required his company to design an advanced energy-efficient system and backup power, which made the project “technically innovative and impactful.” The project included energy-efficient lighting, emergency power systems, and advanced electrical panels that can withstand the harsh environmental conditions in Bethel.

Fleming says Bethel’s remoteness added logistical and climate challenges to the project, “but strong coordination with ASKW-Davis allowed us to keep everything on track.”

“Winning this award is an honor that showcases Alcan’s commitment to high-quality work in Alaska’s toughest environments. It strengthens our reputation and motivates us to continue innovating,” Fleming says.

The Shageluk project was initially intended to be a small-scale resurfacing project, but site observation showed the airport access road had recurring flooding and erosion problems. Additional study resulted in significant change orders, leading to the project cost increasing by more than 40 percent. Undocumented pit homes were discovered near the project, requiring cooperation with the community and archaeologists to identify, delineate, and protect the sites during construction. In addition, what began as a “recondition and resurface” job became much more intensive upon discovery that the previous alignment was built with organic materials, clay, silt, and sand.

“Cruz’s articulated 6-wheel drive haul trucks were barely able to operate, sinking into the flooded surface without sufficient subgrade to drive on,” Cruz officials noted in a narrative about the project, which led to a new embankment design. Then a spring flooding event kept the site submerged for several weeks at what would have been the start of construction. Cruz pivoted and used the Innoko River’s high water level to its advantage, creating new barge access points along the project route to stockpile aggregates and explosives that the contractor would need throughout the construction project. Ultimately, Cruz delivered more than twice the expected cubic yards of borrow for the project, among other changes, and left the community with three new river access points, along with a one-acre staging pad for local use and a small approach to a community garden that had become unreachable due to flooding.

The Atqasuk Airport project, located on the Meade River about sixty miles south of Utqiaģvik, posed a whole different set of challenges. There, the harsh winter had led to additional maintenance that scraped away the runway’s surface, leaving the village’s 5,000-foot runway uneven and exposing the unstable subsurface.

Lacking any suitable material sites nearby, Cruz barged aggregate and E1 gravel to Nome and then hauled it to the site using specialty 40-ton dump wagons fitted with low ground-pressure tires, traveling over winter trails. Although the company expected to need two winters to haul the roughly 35,000 tons of aggregate, equipment, materials, and fuel, Cruz was able to complete it in one with no reports of tundra damage and no need for permanent infrastructure. The company delivered gravel unusable for the project to the community landfill, where it was used to cover waste. Six local residents were hired for the project, and Cruz partnered with Atqasuk Corporation to rent and improve existing housing in the village, reducing the need for temporary facilities and expanding the village corporation’s ability to offer lodging to visitors.

“Our mission statement states: ‘The core foundation of Cruz Construction has been to honestly outwork the competition, as we humbly empower those around us and hold each other accountable.’ Excellence takes a daily grind as it requires every one of us to own our responsibilities while we help our brother and sister out,” Miller says.

Cruz is honored to be recognized by AGC, an organization the company is proud to be part of.

“Through AGC we have gained valuable relationships and friendships that help make us a more informed and a better Alaskan contractor. So, to win an award pertaining to ‘Excellence in Construction’ amongst a group of over 100 of Alaska’s best general contractors is a very high honor,” Miller says.

“It was challenging because we had to replace the CT machine, so we had to facilitate getting that out of there and getting the new one in,” said Roger Hickel Contracting President Sean Hickel. “The MRI had to be left in place, and we didn’t deenergize it until a certain time, so working around a big magnet can be fun. You can’t have any metal tools.”

Hickel says the team left the MRI machine until last so the hospital could leave it in use, then quickly got the new one in place.

The work environment—a busy hospital—posed another significant challenge.

“The most challenging aspect of this project from a management perspective was the sensitivity of working simultaneously with hospital staff and patients to limit disruptions to their daily operations during construction activities,” Roger Hickel Contracting officials wrote in the award submission. “To be as minimally invasive as possible, RHC constructed temporary walls and dust barriers around the tight working quarters and set up air hogs to scrub the dirty construction air, clean it, and discharge it outside of the critical hospital patient zones.”

Hickel says he enjoys the friendly competition the Excellence awards provide.

“We’ve been an AGC member for a long time, and I think the Excellence in Construction and safety awards are a really positive thing to get awareness of projects and the struggles we go through and all the work we’ve put in to these projects,” he says.

Cape Prince of Wales is the westernmost point of land in North America, forming the western tip of the Seward Peninsula. The Naval Field Station there was last active in 1978. The buildings on the property were abandoned in 2000. ChemTrack was hired to remediate, demolish, and remove the structures for the global engineering firm Jacobs on behalf of the US Navy. It did so, encountering several problems along the way, from a road to the site that was impassable upon arrival to a temperamental loader that slowed the process of moving materials from the barge delivery point about 10 miles from the project site. Unanticipated subsurface cables were found on the site that, left intact, posed a health hazard to the locals who use the beach regularly. The cables, World War II submarine trackers, were followed to the ocean and cut during low tide, with the ends buried. ChemTrack found asbestos in the floor of a building that was presumed to have a dirt floor, so the company sought and received approval to perform abatement without losing time on the primary project. ChemTrack discovered asbestos and lead-based paint in several of the buildings—it recorded more than 23 tons of lead-based paint or wood debris removed from the site and more than 4 tons of asbestos-containing material debris.

“I think that’s the biggest reward for everybody. The part that I love is, our people love it—the people who work for us, the site super, they request these projects, they want to go and see the difference it’s made. And it’s very satisfying at the end, to see the before and after, both for the community and for our folks as well,” she says.

In May 2022, a fire started in the old generator house for the school. It spread to the principal and teacher housing, ultimately destroying three buildings and leaving smoke residue throughout the school.

Ahtna secured the contract to clean up the extensive fire damage. Ahtna was also asked to strengthen the roof, which had been affected by heavy snowfall, and later to demolish and rebuild the gym to make it usable for the following school year.

Ahtna officials, in the award submission, said well-timed material deliveries made a big difference for the project. The school, in Kasigluk, is at the end of the 55-mile ice road from Bethel. The project site superintendent, having grown up in Bethel, knew the road would be in its best shape for a basketball tournament, so they used that timeframe to bring equipment to the school site. To stabilize a crane without damaging sensitive tundra, the superintendent tasked the crew to create a foundation for the crane by stacking heavy oak mud mats on top of insulation pads. The team later installed the mats in the children’s play area to increase their play space. Other community benefits included creating a “reclaim/reuse” area for leftover material from the demolition, and Ahtna crews offered transport to teachers to Bethel when room in company vehicles was available.

“As an Alaska Native-owned firm, Ahtna understands and honors the cultural significance and importance of this facility,” Ahtna officials wrote in the award submission. “Schools are the center for most community activities. The community embraced our presence because they knew Ahtna was there to restore their school.”

About winning the award, Ahtna Senior Business Development and Marketing Group Manager Lori Kropidlowski says it’s a good boost for the crew that worked on the project.

“It takes a solid staff to execute these challenging projects in remote locations. We’re really proud that our team pulled it off,” she says.

“The project was originally slated to be a March installation, but because of permits it got pushed until June, but we needed to achieve freeze-back for the pilings. That’s harder to do in the summertime, so we worked with our design team and came up with installing dry ice in the bottom of [each] pile. It froze back extremely quickly. To our knowledge it’s the first time that’s been done. We have not used that [technique] before and it worked really well,” STG, Inc. President Brennan Walsh says.

Walsh says it was a solution with a ticking clock: dry ice only has about a four-day shelf-life. STG, Inc. coordinated with Airgas to fly the solidified carbon dioxide to the site. The foundations were prepared and ready, and dry ice was added to the slurry backfill, providing the freezing needed to stabilize the piles, keeping the project on track.

STG, Inc. then took the project a step further. The project scope was initially just to install the new tower, and at a later time the client would put the new tower into service and remove the old tower. However, STG found a way to keep the communication service working while taking down the old tower.

“This is known as a ‘hot’ crossover, without losing service. STG’s value-added solution expedited service delivery for the client while also saving time and money,” STG officials noted in the award submission.

These innovations won STG, Inc. the “Excellence in Construction Award for a Specialty Contractor for a Job Under $1 Million” award for the Utqiaġvik Airport New Telecommunications Tower Facility.

The project objective was to install new culverts at three stream crossings along Skilak Lake Road, while also improving road alignment and stabilizing the road bank. However, the work needed to happen while the one-lane road remained open to the public throughout construction.

“In the summer, it’s very busy with fishing. We were obligated to keep the road open for the duration of the project, and it’s already a one-lane project to begin with, with wetlands on both sides, so you’re trying to replace a culvert—which basically displaces the entire road section and then some—and then build it all back, all while people were trying to get through,” STG Pacific Preconstruction Manager Chase Swalling says.

Further complicating matters, he says, the crew realized that materials at site were unsuitable, so a plan to re-use them was scrapped. STG Pacific trucked in three times the amount of material that was anticipated to an already congested work site.

In short, it was a difficult project, but the team persevered. Swalling says receiving an award for the effort is a nice bonus.

“I think it’s encouraging because the team goes through the challenges of having a grueling season. To be able to overcome that and have it be recognized by others outside the group, I think it really helps to challenge them to do more of that difficult, challenging work,” he says.

The project faced several challenges, from mobilizing equipment to managing personnel. But one of the most significant was the need for the required project materials. Brice crews developed the Pilcher Mountain Quarry about 65 miles upriver from St. Mary’s, where company officials say all surface course materials were produced and shipped by barge to the airport site.

Read more about the St. Mary’s Airport project on page 92.

Brice, Inc. Project Engineer MaLinda Malenfant says winning an award for the two-year project was satisfying.

“Personally, and for the team, it makes you feel good, validated, more confident in our project, our results and in our team,” she says.

n April 29, 1974, work crews began building the Haul Road— a gravel highway from the Yukon River to Prudhoe Bay where the largest oil field in the United States had recently been discovered.

In a rush to accommodate construction of the Trans Alaska Pipeline System, or TAPS, the road was completed in just five months and served as a vital corridor for delivering equipment to the North Slope. Known today as the Dalton Highway, this invaluable roadway provides the only gateway to the Arctic and continues to support ever-expanding work on the North Slope.

“Two years ago, we formed the Alaska Oil and Gas Historical Society to begin collecting artifacts to preserve and share the history of the oil and gas industry in Alaska,” says Rebecca Logan, CEO of the Alaska Support Industry Alliance and one of the society’s founders.

Edna Arend Witcher, an engineer who worked on the project, wrote the book Alaska’s Last Great Gold Rush: 1974 Haul Road Diary—Alaska’s Arctic Road documenting the five months it took to build the North Slope Haul Road where no roads previously existed.

“The exhibit was born out of that, and we began discussing what we could do to share that information and honor the anniversary event,” Logan says. “We used the ‘Diary of the Haul Road’ as the theme and began compiling pictures, newspaper articles, artifacts, and stories from individuals who have worked on and driven the Dalton Highway.”

Among the artifacts is a 1974 Chevrolet Suburban, the first vehicle to traverse the entire length of the North Slope Haul Road.

A monumental achievement in the history of Alaska’s infrastructure, the Dalton Highway today stretches 414 miles from Livengood to Deadhorse, on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. The historic exhibit honors the visionary leadership and commitment of Nate Bauer and the individuals who worked alongside him to complete the extraordinary engineering feat, which continues to be the lifeline of the North Slope.

The traveling exhibit concluded at Fairbank’s Westmark Hotel in late October.

“One of the things we are working towards is having an Alaska Oil and Gas Museum where we can permanently display these artifacts and others,” says Logan.

Santos has the tremendous Pikka project on state and Alaska Native Corporation lands; ConocoPhillips has the Willow project; and there are a number of other explorations and pilot projects going on that are expected to boost Alaska oil production.

The success of these projects depends heavily on the state of the Dalton Highway. Moving goods and equipment up to the slope in a timely, efficient, and safe manner is a priority for all projects on the North Slope.

When contractors and transportation providers express concerns about the condition of the Dalton Highway, the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities is obligated to respond as quickly as possible to keep the road passable and safe for trucks to travel at a reasonable speed.

Santos’ Pikka project requires thousands of round trips on the Dalton Highway. Slow rates of travel and congestion caused by poor road conditions impact the timeliness and efficiency of delivery to the project area.

The company has maximized efficiency by using prefabricated modules that travel up the Dalton Highway to the slope. The modules can contain sensitive equipment and electronics that are vulnerable to adverse vibrations and movement. Rough road conditions can impact Santos’ ability to integrate and connect the modules, forcing the company to rebuild or repair them on site. Slow delivery times also increase costs, and the time required to complete construction.

In safety meetings with contractors, transportation service providers have raised concerns about conditions and inexperienced or unprepared drivers on the road. These concerns, combined with the need for their modules to arrive intact, caught the attention of company management. Although Santos has no direct role in maintaining the highway, the company has been able to help rally support focused on these issues and on the importance of the highway and its maintenance.

Photo provided by Alyeska Pipeline Service Company/McCutcheon Collection

Photo provided by Alaska Support Industry Alliance

“During the project, we were able to widen the footprint of the road by 16 feet and raise the grade in key areas,” says Cruz Construction project manager Taylor Lueck. “The grade raises will reduce embankment settlement and provide a section of road for maintenance crews to easily maintain during the winter months.”

From funding issues to multiple design changes to marginal material sources, the project was not without challenges.

“The pit we were able to utilize for the 2.3 million tons of material we needed was at one end of the project, which resulted in long hauls,” Lueck says. “The material source provided a marginal material due to high saturation, making compaction difficult.”

Additional sites with good potential for quality material were identified in more ideal locations within the project boundaries. Unfortunately, due to the extensive permitting process required to open material sites on federal land, Cruz worked solely out of the material site at the far end of the project. “It’s never an ideal situation, especially for a quantity of material with this magnitude,” Lueck says. This ultimately resulted in additional costs associated with equipment maintenance, road maintenance, and material trucking.

Another AGC member, Great Northwest, Inc., has also been working on the Dalton Highway with a focus on sub-standard road geometry and failing embankment sections of the roadway between Mileposts 18 and 37. The project scope included embankment stability improvements, highway realignments where deficient roadway geometry did not meet the 50 mile-per-hour speed standards, updated signing and guardrails, and replacement of the Hess Creek Bridge at Milepost 24.

Great Northwest signed on for a three-year project, but had some luck.

“We were able to complete the project in two years,” says project superintendent Tyler Quakenbush. “The first year, we had over 100 workers on the job and in year two, just over 70.” The Great Northwest team worked a twelve days on, two days off schedule. “Basically, we took off every other weekend,” said Quakenbush. “We built an RV camp for the workers with power, water, and sewer.”

The first year of the project involved blasting at materials sites.

“The project required the drilling and blasting of several rock quarries located within the corridor in order to produce the 2.5 million tons of borrow required for the project’s completion,” explains Quakenbush. “In addition, our work effort included 800,000 cubic yards of excavation, both rock and frozen earth; the installation of over 20,000 lineal feet of culvert; and the construction of a new Hess Creek bridge.”

Photo provided by Alyeska Pipeline Service Company/McCutcheon Collection

DOT&PF is using various engineering techniques while working to improve the road. One example is north of Atigun Pass.

“We’ve raised the roadway at least five feet in some areas, and now the road is scoured by the wind, which removes some of the snow buildup for us,” says Perreault. “Considering feedback from drivers and our maintenance staff, we continue to deploy technology to the highway. We now have cell towers in many of the stations, and we have some remote weather installations and are looking to add more, as this gives us real-time conditions for our maintenance staff and operators on the roadway. The state continues to look at how we can improve things for the people we are working for by harnessing innovative technology.”

When highway conditions are unfavorable, the road’s efficiency decreases. Some operators have indicated they are working at about 50 percent efficiency, which means road users were able to complete about half the trips in the summer that they would in a normal year.

“We are hearing from operators that the conditions are beating up the trucks or slowing them down,” explains Perreault. “We’re working to resolve this by bolstering the maintenance staff numbers. We’re continually recruiting for these positions and are currently offering a schedule set up as two weeks on and two weeks off to be more attractive to people. Workers from other districts are able to volunteer to take a turn working on the Dalton Highway on their two weeks off.”

Increasing the workforce necessary to complete the repairs to the Dalton Highway requires more funding, however.

“We make that argument with the state legislature. One of my maintenance supervisors says there’s no top end for how much money we could use,” says Perreault. “We have managed to stay within our budget, as given to us by the legislature, and we have been able to get supplemental funding. But there’s a lot of work to be done—and we need hands to do it.”

Having access to the materials necessary to complete the work required for resurfacing and rehabilitating the Dalton Highway presents additional challenges.

Much of the land on the North Slope is controlled by the US Bureau of Land Management, or BLM. BLM has a permitting process for developing material sites, with distinct protocols and priorities. As a result, gaining access to the gravel and materials on BLM sites is often difficult and costly.

“We’ve run into this problem around milepost 404 of the Dalton. In order to keep this section of the road from washing out, we had to bring in a lot of loads of the materials from 200 miles away,” explains Perreault. “This is not an efficient use of our resources, energy, or our carbon emissions budget. But experiences like that provide an opportunity to really be able to explain to our partner agencies the importance of finding a way to get those places developed.”

“The Dalton Highway is a vital artery to the Arctic Ocean that needs to remain open, stable and resilient.”

Work on the Dalton Highway will continue into the future. Contracts for upcoming Haul Road work on the Dalton Highway Milepost 245 through 274 resurfacing and the Dalton Highway Milepost 247 through 289 and Milepost 305 through 362 delineator replacement projects will go to bid early this year.

ave Johnson, sales manager of Anchorage Sand & Gravel, is the 2024 recipient of the Hard Hat award. The most prestigious award given by the Associated General Contractors, or AGC, of Alaska, the Hard Hat has been awarded since 1964 to someone with a distinguished record of giving their time and talent on behalf of the construction industry in Alaska.

Johnson grew up in the Midwest in Downers Grove, Illinois; there he worked with a home remodeler, starting at the age of 15. He worked that job each summer as he attended Warren Wilson College, from which he graduated with a degree in biology and minors in business and chemistry.

After college, Johnson went to work for Baha Concrete Company, chipping concrete trucks. He advanced into roles in sales, quality control, and eventually operations. Johnson moved to Alaska in 2005, pursuing work as a cement salesman for ABI Cement and eventually became sales manager for Anchorage Sand & Gravel.

AGC involvement has been a mainstay for Johnson throughout his career in Alaska. He chaired and participated in numerous committees and currently holds the title of Life Board Member, a title bestowed after serving twelve years on the AGC board.

Johnson has also contributed to several other industry organizations, including the Associated Builders & Contractors, Alaska Resource Development Council, Anchorage Economic Development Corporation, Anchorage Homebuilders Association, Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, Construction Specifications Institute, American Concrete Institute, and Alaska Rock Products Association.

“At least forty-five years,” says Vice President of Operations Randy Beltz. That’s more than half of the company’s seventy-five years in existence. Throughout that nearly five-decade membership, NSES has had a hand in almost every aspect of AGC.

It is that dedication that led AGC to honor the stevedoring and crane operations company with its Associate of the Year award at last November’s annual Dinner Dance Gala.

“They have representation at almost every event AGC hosts and have team members present at events both in Fairbanks and Anchorage,” AGC Executive Director Alicia Amberg told gala attendees before presenting the award. “They pour support into our organization.”

Last year alone, that support included sponsoring the AGC Sporting Clays Shoot, the 45th annual Fairbanks Golf Tournament, and the Anchorage spring member mixer. North Star employees are also well-represented on AGC committees. Business Development Manager and AGC’s 2014 Volunteer of the Year Scott Vierra is a member of the Board Development and Political Action Committees and co-chair of the Membership Committee. Business Development Coordinator Heather Sottosanti sits on the Membership and CLC Steering Committees and is an active member of the Workforce Development Committee.

Beltz says NSES’ membership in AGC is mutually beneficial.

“One of the most significant benefits of being part of AGC is the ability to connect with other professionals in the industry,” he says. “The relationships built through AGC have led to collaboration on various projects, allowing us to expand our reach and take on larger projects than we could have alone. The support and camaraderie amongst fellow members foster an environment where we can share knowledge, best practices, and innovative solutions.”

Headquartered in Anchorage, NSES began operations in 1950 and has grown to become Alaska’s largest full-service stevedoring company. It has business locations in Valdez, Seward, Homer, and Dutch Harbor, but has the flexibility to establish operations almost anywhere in Alaska. AGC membership played an important role in the company’s growth.

“AGC has provided us with invaluable networking opportunities, access to industry resources, and a platform to advocate our interests within the construction industry,” Beltz says. “Our involvement in AGC has had a profound, positive impact on North Star. It has opened doors for growth, provided essential support and resources, and connected us with a community dedicated to excellence in construction.”

Amberg said NSES “truly goes above and beyond for their customer service.” That, along with their reputation for hard work and dedication to quality, is a point of pride for the company.

“We are honored to receive the AGC Associate of the Year award,” Beltz says. “This recognition of our team’s hard work and dedication to not only AGC locally and nationally but to our entire team at North Star holds significant meaning for us.”

QAP Area Manager Kris Jensen is one of those volunteers. Since becoming an AGC member in 2018, Jensen willingly and enthusiastically shares his time and talents to help AGC members connect with–and learn from—each other and to promote the industry to the next generation of workers. That dedication garnered him AGC’s 2024 Volunteer of the Year award.

“This individual is always helping to set up and take down events,” AGC of Alaska Executive Director Alicia Amberg said in November at AGC’s annual Dinner Dance Gala before announcing Jensen as the winner. “They helped with the Contractor Classroom Playbook and co-chair the Workforce Development Committee. They welcome educators several times a year to get a deeper understanding of our industry.”

Jensen’s two-decade career in the heavy civil construction industry began in Idaho. After eleven years there he came to Alaska in 2015 and joined Colaska/QAP as a project superintendent before being promoted to area manager. He is a past member of the AGC’s Conference Committee and Speaker Committee but “has really stepped up [his] involvement in AGC over the past couple of years,” Amberg said.

Jensen is co-chair of the Workforce Development Committee. He’s active in both the UAA construction management program, which prepares students for entry-level professional positions in the field, and AGC’s Educator Externship program, which held its inaugural event in October 2023. The committee was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the externship program, which exposes Alaskan educators to opportunities in the construction industry and brings them into the field to provide real-world, practical applications of how the concepts they teach in school apply to construction.

With the construction industry facing a workforce shortage, Jensen says he relishes the opportunity to share how rewarding—and expansive—a career in the construction industry can be.

“AGC volunteer opportunities to get involved with education and our future workforce is what fills my bucket,” he says. “AGC created an opportunity for the workforce development committee to figure out a way to connect the construction industry with educators and help deliver a proper message to students about the opportunities of employment within our industry.”

Jensen says AGC membership also provides an invaluable opportunity to connect with colleagues, which ultimately strengthens the entire industry.

“AGC offers a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in a wealth of industry knowledge,” he says. “There are so many great people in all aspects of construction that attend AGC events and activities. It is a great way to introduce newer people to some of the more seasoned.”

Jensen says being named Volunteer of the Year “is a huge honor” and reinforces what he already knew.

“This award cements the fact that what we are doing is making a difference.”

Innovative Insurance

ince USI Insurance Services was established in 1994, it’s grown from a single office with $6.5 million in revenue and forty associates to an enterprise with more than $2.7 billion in revenue and more than 10,000 associates across 200-plus offices nationwide.

Based in Valhalla, New York, USI is an insurance brokerage and consulting firm delivering property/casualty, employee benefits, personal risk, specialty program, and retirement solutions to large risk management clients, middle-market companies, small firms, and individuals. In Alaska it operates offices in Anchorage and Sitka.

“We’re part of the Pacific Northwest Region: Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Alaska, and Hawaii,” says Vice President of Property and Casualty Dena Lythgoe of the Anchorage office.

Michael Venneberg

Photo provided by Michael Venneberg

“Our Alaska operations have grown substantially over these past ten years,” he says. “We are fully staffed in both Anchorage and Sitka. The Sitka office was established in 2020, giving us a significant presence in Southeast Alaska.”

Venneberg joined USI in 2020, after it purchased his firm, Venneberg Insurance, which had its headquarters in Sitka.

“Our Sitka office has roots back to the late 1960s,” he says.

USI has more than 150 years of consulting and brokerage experience through its acquired agencies, according to USI, with some offices dating back in their communities as far as the late 1800s.

Photo provided by Gana-A’-Yoo, Limited

Through USI ONE, a one-of-a-kind solutions platform operating in real time and customized for each client, the company is able to develop strategic, timely, and effective risk management and benefit programs in terms clients can easily understand. The data produced also shows how the recommended solutions can have positive effects on a company’s bottom line.

“USI Northwest brings substantial resources to the Alaska construction market,” says Venneberg. “In addition to an excellent surety team, we use loss control and other technical resources to help our clients manage their insurance and risk management programs.”

The emphasis on client satisfaction is bolstered by the company’s attention to detail and focus on the client.

“We bring creative solutions to their insurance and risk management needs,” he says. “In addition to a broad array of traditional insurance carriers, we access group captives, structure deductible plans, and look for other ways to achieve the best results for our clients.”

Venneberg says he and Lythgoe specialize in commercial insurance, such as is needed for construction and marine industry clients and Native corporations.

“Insurance plays such a crucial part in construction,” Lythgoe says. “Safety and risk management are very important.”

In Petersburg, Rock-N-Road Construction Vice President Ambre Burrell says USI helped her choose which insurance was a fit for her company.

Photo provided by Dena Lythgoe

In Sitka, McG Constructors, Inc. Vice President Chad McGraw says his company had been with Venneberg Insurance for decades.

“It’s a firm we’ve been in contact with for over thirty years, so one of the biggest benefits of them moving over to USI was a smooth transition,” he says. “It still feels like it’s a small local company in a small town—and that’s important in Southeast Alaska.”

McGraw continues, “The service is excellent, so we would never even consider going with anyone else.”

Members of Associated General Contractors, or AGC, of Alaska since March 2020, Lythgoe says being an AGC member has been helpful, because the association looks out for its members. Venneberg notes that he has appreciated “attending events and better understanding the issues and challenges our clients face in the Alaska market.”

t. Mary’s, 5 miles up the Andreafsky River from the Yukon River and about 450 air miles west-northwest of Anchorage, is the largest village on the Lower Yukon, with a 2023 population of 548. The city and its surrounding communities are not connected to the Alaska State Highway System, so most freight is flown in. The aging St. Mary’s Airport, originally constructed in 1950 and last updated in 1998, recently underwent a number of improvements in order to remain a safe and efficient hub for residents, visitors, bypass mail, cargo, and more.

“St. Mary’s Airport was experiencing drainage issues, as well as degradation of the runway and taxiway surfaces, and also needed upgraded airport lighting as well as improved navigational aids,” explains Paul Walsh, project manager for Brice, Inc.

Photo provided by Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities

The two-year, $53.5 million project involved rehabilitating all airport surfaces, encompassing a roughly sixty-nine-acre area. Brice also installed a new airfield electrical system and paved a portion of the airport apron.

However, one of the most significant tasks related to the airport work was developing a new source for quality surface course materials for the project. Ultimately Brice established a quarry site on Pilcher Mountain near Marshall, about 65 miles up the Yukon River from St. Mary’s. This required substantial upgrades to haul routes and the construction of a new barge landing facility to export the processed surface course materials.

“As we began work on the St. Mary’s Airport, we also started development of the Pilcher Mountain Quarry. The development of the new quarry was an important part of our work plan and key to the overall project’s success,” says Walsh.

Photo provided by Brice, Inc.

“Brice, Inc. and Calista Corporation had been looking at developing a quarry there for a number of years, and the St. Mary’s project was a large enough project to warrant development of that site,” Walsh says.

A 2016 proposal to shorten the runway to meet safety standards generated significant public controversy. In 2017, HDL Engineering Consultants, LLC was hired to create a detailed aviation forecast and airport layout. In 2019, the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, approved the existing runway length, along with DOT&PF’s plan to use a displaced threshold on the south end of the runway to meet safety area standards. DOWL was hired in 2020 for environmental and design efforts.

“There were a number of challenges involved in this project, including the fact that the local material around St. Mary’s and Mountain Village is a softer material and doesn’t make a good surface course,” says Johnson. The material breaks down over time from traffic and drains poorly, resulting in soft spots in the runway, he explains.

Brice began mobilizing for the St. Mary’s project in 2023, using all three of its barges to move equipment and supplies to the community. But that mobilization wasn’t without its own challenges.

“It’s western Alaska, so of course we had problems with weather,” laughs Walsh. “We also had other delays, including the fact that one of our boats was out of commission for a couple weeks during the critical mobilization period, due to an earlier incident. Luckily, we were able to refine our mobilization lists and enlist a third-party freight company to help deliver what we needed. It was quite a shuffle at the last minute.”

Because the airport needed to remain operational during construction, Brice had to schedule day and night shifts to complete the project on time. In 2023, Brice crews completed the reconstruction of cross-winds runway 6/24, as well as the resurfacing of apron and taxiway surfaces. The primary north/south runway, 17/35, was finished in 2024, along with the paving of a portion of the apron.

Several Associated General Contractors, or AGC, of Alaska member companies were subcontractors on the project: Alaska Electrical Contractors completed all electrical upgrades and Knik Construction was responsible for paving the apron. The total cost to complete the St. Mary’s Airport Improvements was more than $70 million.

In 2024, Brice began work on the Marshall Airport. Its bid incorporated the already developed Pilcher Mountain quarry and the presence in the area of a significant equipment fleet and skilled local operators who could begin work in early spring.

“So far this year, we’ve completed the runway, SREB (snow removal equipment building), and lighting package in Marshall,” says Walsh. “Next year, we’ll be improving the airport access road.”

AGC subcontractors on that project include Alaska Electrical Contractors for all lighting upgrades, Malone Construction, GHEMM Company, and Gundersen Painting. The total project cost is about $27 million.

“With the development of the quarry in Marshall, projects in the region will have lower transportation costs for quality aggregate and rip-rap products, reducing overall fuel burn, making project delivery faster, and lowering the risk of weather-related impacts versus importing on the ocean from Nome,” he says. “In addition, an economically depressed region of the state will benefit through material royalties, local employment training opportunities, and quality, high-paying jobs for years to come.”

Photo provided by Brice, Inc.

“Sourcing gravel from our land is important for construction projects in rural communities. It also provides local jobs and helps lower the cost of construction, in addition to providing income to Calista and its shareholders,” says Calista Corporation Vice President of Land and Natural Resources Tisha Neviq’aq Kuhns.

The two airport projects resulted in approximately 40 percent local hire, including client representatives, direct employees, and subcontractors, according to Walsh.

He says, “At one point, between St. Mary’s and Marshall, we had nearly 100 people working—that’s a very large workforce with a significant local workforce. It’s quite an economic boon for this area.”

very fall, Alaska Business magazine’s Top 49ers list celebrates forty-nine companies that contribute to Alaska’s economy, community, and culture. Top 49ers operate in all major industries in Alaska, but fifteen Associated General Contractors of Alaska members made the list: Calista Corporation; Chugach Alaska Corporation; Chugach Electric Association, Inc.; Construction Machinery Industrial, LLC; Craig Taylor Equipment; Cruz Construction, Inc.; Davis Constructors & Engineers, Inc.; Everts Air Cargo; First National Bank Alaska; Global Federal Credit Union; Great Northwest, Inc.; Lynden; Northrim Bank; Roger Hickel Contracting, Inc.; and Vitus Energy, LLC.

The 2024 Top 49ers reported nearly $27 billion in gross revenue, a 12 percent increase over the previous year, according to Alaska Business. Arctic Slope Regional Corporation made the top of the list—and set a new record—with a reported $5.5 billion in gross revenue. Closing the ranks of the Top 49ers list is Everts Air Cargo, reporting $74.9 million in gross revenue.

Photo provided by Chugach Electric Association

“We are truly honored to be included on the Alaska Business Top 49ers list,” says Susan Hoshaw, assistant general manager at Everts Air. “This recognition reflects our strong commitment to growth and excellence in Alaska, where we proudly serve our communities and its residents. We understand the vital role we play in the state’s transportation network, especially within the challenging Alaskan aviation industry.”

Everts Air is a family-owned and -operated business that started in Eagle in 1993. The company operates a fleet of twenty-two large and small aircraft that transport cargo and passengers within and beyond Alaska. Hoshaw says dedicated employees have driven the company’s success and growth.

Photo provided by Calista Corporation

“The key factor driving Chugach’s success is Chugach’s workforce, which is second to none,” says Arthur Miller, Chugach Electric Association’s CEO. “We have incredible experience and expertise among our employees. Our proactive approach to community collaboration has strengthened our relationships with members and the communities we serve.”

Chugach Electric is the largest member-owned electric cooperative in the state, providing energy to 91,000 members in more than 113,000 locations. “Our Alaska roots not only influence our operational strategies but also drive our mission to serve and support the communities we are proud to be a part of,” Miller says.

All of Chugach’s 450 employees are in Alaska, and this in-state presence strengthens the company, Miller says. The local perspective allows the company to tailor operations to meet the specific needs of the communities they serve, from addressing harsh weather conditions to ensuring reliable power in remote areas and addressing individual member needs, he says.

“Being recognized on Alaska Business’s Top 49 list is an honor for Chugach and reflects our team’s commitment to Alaska and the communities we serve,” Miller says. “This recognition also underscores our role as a partner in supporting economic growth and sustainability initiatives. Having reliable and affordable power is key to a thriving economy, and we recognize the important role we play in keeping the communities we serve thriving and healthy.”

Alaska Native corporations’ revenues also benefit their Alaska Native shareholders. At Calista Corporation, for example, nearly six out of ten shareholders live in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region, where job opportunities are limited and the cost of living is astronomical.

“As an Alaska Native corporation, we are dedicated to the socio-economic wellbeing of our shareholders, who primarily live and work in Alaska,” says Thom Leonard, Calista Corporation’s vice president of corporate affairs. “Our core value of continuous improvement is ‘elluarciyaraq kesianek’ in the Yugtun language. Our core values were first articulated by our company’s early leaders, and they continue to inform our thoughts, words, and actions.”

Calista Corporation’s revenues grew to $968.7 million in 2023, and it has been featured in the top ten companies of the Top 49 list for more than a decade.

“The Top 49 list helps us communicate our achievements throughout Alaska’s business community,” Leonard says.

Calista has a significant role in economic development through business operations, Leonard says. The company’s subsidiaries are involved in important rural infrastructure projects, including renewable energy development that will help reduce reliance on expensive fuel shipments in western Alaska, as well as critical transportation projects like the Emmonak Port and regional airports, Leonard says.

“Our vision is to be a world-class corporation that exemplifies corporate responsibility, cultural stewardship, and economic stability, and our mission is to increase shareholder benefits and economic opportunities through innovation, growth, leadership, partnership, execution, and financial discipline,” he says.

This year’s honorees, from Alaska Native corporations like Calista to family-run operations like Everts Air, embody a dedication to Alaska’s prosperity, offering vital services, economic growth, and employment opportunities that strengthen communities across the state.