fter the November 2018 magnitude 7.1 earthquake near Anchorage, the Anchorage School District (ASD) was unsure about the safety of all its buildings—were they still safe to occupy? Reid Middleton was prompt in providing Detailed Structural (ATC-20) evaluations for all ninety-one of ASD’s facilities. Coordinating closely with ASD, and using all forms of communication (including in person, email, text messaging, and phone calls), Reid Middleton partnered engineers one-on-one with ASD facilities staff and started the systematic Detailed Structural Evaluations the day of the earthquake. Using this teamwork, Reid Middleton and the District were able to accomplish the Detailed Structural Evaluations of all ninety-one facilities within seven weeks.

Reid Middleton assembled photos and reports for each facility and provided a GREEN, YELLOW, or RED tag to clearly communicate the current school condition at each building. Where required, the firm worked with the contractor to erect shoring to stabilize broken walls. Reid Middleton also provided multiple site visits to some facilities to re-evaluate damage after the hundreds of aftershocks experienced during this period. After immediate repairs were complete, all but two RED tagged facilities were able to reopen and resume the critical daily schooling and community service functions each facility provides.

he Kelsey Dock Interpretive Center pavilion is a 4,000-square-foot weather shelter that houses an information center and restrooms. The pavilion was designed for the city of Valdez by ECI Architecture and PDC Engineers, a RESPEC Company. As part of a broader, three-phase scope of work, this project required demolishing an aging structure on the site and extending the current restroom facility to include a security office.

PDC conducted the structural, mechanical, and electrical work for the pavilion. The structural design included a condition analysis of the restroom building as well as the design of the security addition and canopy foundation, superstructure, and connections. The project’s mechanical work involved space conditioning for the new security office, plumbing modifications with extensions to support a new washer/dryer, and stormwater drainage from the roof and canopy. PDC extended the power and lighting to the security office and provided lighting and maintenance receptacles for the canopy to fulfill the project’s electrical component. The canopy lighting designed by electrical engineers is an eye-catching feature of the pavilion that won PDC a 2019 Illumination Award from the Illuminating Engineering Society.

The design team’s bold vision for the pavilion manifested itself with the creation of this unique space. The lighting and overhead heating under the large canopy now provide a welcoming environment and shelter for cruise ship passengers who disembark and re embark on their travels. The facility will primarily serve as a wayfinding marker for visitors in the summer but will see various uses year-round.

pproximately 136 miles southeast of Utqiaġvik is the community of Nuiqsut, nestled within the unique ecoregion of the Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska. While Nuiqsut residents have access to the Dalton Highway four months of the year, air is still one of the most common ways to travel in and out of the community. In an effort to expand and improve upon this vital travel hub, the North Slope Borough contracted HDL Engineering Consultants to provide engineering design services as part of the Nuiqsut Airport Improvements project.

The Nuiqsut Airport was originally constructed in the ‘80s when conventional engineering design indicated 4-foot to 6-foot embankments were adequate to protect the runways from settlement of the underlying permafrost. But in recent years global climate change has resulted in thaw instability of the runway. To combat this, HDL included insulation in the embankment design that will limit the potential for future warming conditions to thaw the underlying permafrost.

Short, wet, cold construction seasons can make construction of Arctic runways challenging. It was key to overcome these harsh conditions through creative engineering design. First, HDL incorporated wicking geotextiles into the design to accelerate drainage during reconstruction of the embankment fill over the insulation, which allowed for improved constructability. This constitutes the first application of wicking geotextile to a runway in Alaska. Secondly, dust control additives were blended into the gravel surfacing over a portion of the runway to increase strength and performance. This is the first runway in Alaska to be treated with dust palliative blended into the gravel surfacing. Both of these applications show promise of improving the future constructability and long-term performance of gravel runways in Alaska.

riginally a WWII jeep trail, the Chiniak Highway has continuously evolved to be what it is today—a vibrant road along Kodiak’s shoreline that runs past salmon streams and beaches. However, this major corridor has been riddled with ongoing issues, from rock fall to river/coastal erosion and from pavement degradation to poor roadway geometry. Analyses indicated the available construction funding was insufficient to address these issues along the entire corridor. There simply wasn’t enough funding for the typical improvement evaluation and recommendations or extensive fieldwork. This, paired with the length of the corridor and semi-remote location of the project, drove the need for a new methodology to segment the corridor at a significantly reduced cost.

The first step included identifying the critical assets that would drive the segmentation. Next, HDL coordinated with DOT&PF to apply a good/fair/poor condition rating to each asset using as much existing data as possible. Then, the spatial locations and condition rating of the various assets were combined into a single database. Finally, the corridor health index (CHI) combined the different asset types using a weighting system based on their relative importance to the corridor function. The output of the CHI was a location-based, composite condition rating of each segment of the corridor with the ability to identify the key improvements needed at any particular location.

Using the results of the CHI, the project team successfully provided segmentation and improvement recommendations for the corridor. This method is expandable and flexible enough to apply to other projects, potentially saving time and money in project design and construction.