Building Community Foundations

Kotzebue general contractor grows skills to match community needs

By David A. James

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.”

Drake Construction opened its doors in 1982, when Toby Drake’s father Wayne launched what would become a leading company for keeping small Northwest Alaska cities and villages up and running. For the younger Drake, this meant construction was in his blood.

“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.

Along the way, Drake Construction saw the need for gravel and other base materials for foundations. In Kotzebue, there was little in the way of available gravel, so the company applied for mining permits on the Noatak River and at Kobuk Lake. This prompted it to assemble a fleet of tugs and barges to ferry the aggregates along the coast of Western Alaska to job sites, opening up further business opportunities in a region where few others are able to perform such work.

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.

“That was just a little couple-week thing, but it was nice to see it done for her,” he says.

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.”