Staying on Track

Long Forgotten—Far From Gone

Without pipelines, where would Alaska be?

While most are aware of the crucial importance of these highly specialized pieces of infrastructure, there’s a lot more going on beneath the surface.

Michael Baker International’s pipelines have been coursing through the state since the construction of TAPS. And gracing this month’s cover of Alaska Business are a few of the pipeline problem solvers behind the company. Having been in the biz for decades, they’ve learned a thing or two about transporting pressurized fluids in Alaska. For example, did you know these structures have been gradually elevated over the years to accommodate animal movements—and on the North Slope pipelines get a good shake from wind instead of earthquakes?

Our cover story, Pipelines: Evolutions and Solutions, is brimming with expert insights on decades of projects from a team of industrial support service pros.

Cover Photo by Oscar Avellaneda-Cruz

ontractors in the construction industry are driven to keep projects on track, on time, and within budget. And lately there have been additional challenges for the construction industry, including labor shortages, heightened HSE requirements, and the rising cost of lumber.

“Alaska challenges are like any other state, but bigger,” says Nelson Hays, a construction technology engineer with Accupoint, which specializes in construction technology solutions. “The short construction season and challenges of remote work demand innovation to deploy and operate a system with minimal downtime.”

Technologies and techniques have been (and continue to be) developed to streamline processes and procedures, improve communication, build efficiencies, and reduce or mitigate challenges that a construction project may face. Below Accupoint, PDC Engineers, Drake Construction, NANA Construction, Cornerstone General Contractors, and Remote Alaska Solutions share some of their insights and solutions for Alaska’s construction industry.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is the process of creating and managing a digital representation of a project. It can be used for scheduling, decision making, cost estimation, and operations maintenance and sustainability. BIM allows engineers, architects, contractors, and other construction professionals to collaborate on a 3D model of a project. With BIM, when one aspect of a design is changed, the software updates to reflect that change—so everyone involved with the project is in the know. According to the Ernst & Young report Construction Technology Trends to Watch, the estimated savings of project cost using BIM is typically between 4 to 6 percent. And according to a Dodge Data & Analytics report, 73 percent of US contractors are using it.

nvironmental law is a vast field, especially in Alaska where so many different factors come into play. From protecting endangered species to developing natural resources in a safe and efficient way and making sure that landowners—including Alaska Native entities—are involved in decisions that affect their way of life, companies working in the Last Frontier must make sure that they’re on solid legal ground.

For this reason, many companies choose to hire firms that specialize in environmental law to work in conjunction with, or in addition to, in-house counsel.

few years ago a friend and I were on a road trip exploring Alaska, somewhere in the vicinity of the Denali Highway. At some point we saw a side road, pulled onto it, got out to walk for a while, and stumbled across one of the locations where the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) transitions from above to below ground.

As we walked next to the pipeline, taking a moment to appreciate our first encounter with an iconic piece of infrastructure, I wondered why it would be buried there, in that particular place. To my untrained eye, there weren’t any immediate answers.

rom checking on an Amazon package to firing up the Garmin to head out to a favorite bend of a remote stream, geospatial data provides layers of information vital to people’s everyday lives and the industries that employ them.

Given its role in the world, it should come as little surprise that geographic information systems (GIS) is one of the five fastest growing technologies in the public sector.

“The reason that it’s growing so fast right now is because it’s embedded in our daily business operations,” says Alaska’s State Geospatial Information Officer Leslie Jones. “We use the tools to automate workflows, to increase efficiency, and improve our communication. But, most importantly, we use it to make data informed decisions.”

resident Joe Biden sent a clear message early this summer about his position on oil and gas development in Alaska.

The president set parameters for future energy development in Alaska, in what at first appeared to be contradictory back-to-back actions on exploration and drilling. Upon closer look, the pair of decisions underscored the president’s recognition that the US economy depends on fossil fuels in its energy portfolio.

Biden signaled that Alaska oil and gas development will continue in areas long used for that purpose.

The back-to-back decisions illustrate the balancing act faced by the Biden administration as it proceeds on a campaign promise to move the nation toward less dependence on fossil fuels for renewable energy sources.

ith an estimated billion dollars of remediation projects left to manage in Alaska alone, it’s a long road for the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Alaska District to clean up formerly used defense sites in the state. Nonetheless, the USACE–Alaska District has been steadily chipping away at the herculean effort since October 17, 1986, whittling the list of properties that need to be investigated for possible remediation from 137 to 60.

“We’re working on almost forty to forty-five of those actively,” says Ken Andraschko, the USACE–Alaska District’s Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS) program manager.

Koniag is excited to welcome TecPro to its Energy and Water business sector. Based in Anchorage, TecPro is a well-established industrial electrical and security services provider whose clients and projects span Alaska, the Lower 48, and Hawai’i. Koniag Chairman and CEO Ron Unger says, “TecPro has an experienced, knowledgeable staff and has a history of winning valuable contracts in Alaska and across the Pacific Northwest. With TecPro’s addition to the Koniag family, we can continue to grow and diversify in pursuit of our mission—continually increasing benefits and opportunities for our Shareholders.” TecPro will join Dowland-Bach, Glacier Services, Big G Electric & Engineering, and newly acquired Great Northern Engineering in Koniag’s Energy and Water sector.
koniag.com

Trihydro Corporation has completed the acquisition of California-based consulting firm Jacobson James & Associates (JJ&A). The acquisition diversifies and broadens Trihydro’s market presence and enhances the firm’s ability to better serve its West Coast and national client base with expanded resources and expertise. With similar solutions-focused cultures, both companies are committed to serving as trusted advisors when partnering with clients on projects. In addition to enhancing Trihydro’s core service areas of complex environmental clean-up, stormwater, hazardous materials management, and natural resource permitting, JJ&A strengthens Trihydro’s regulatory planning and strategy services and adds new areas of expertise to the team, such as forest resiliency planning, biomass management, and post-fire stabilization and restoration.
trihydro.com | jacobsonjames.com

ill O’Leary is the President & CEO of the Alaska Railroad. The Fairbanks native has led the company at every level, from COO to CFO, eventually “ascending to the throne” back in 2013. O’Leary’s leadership is rivaled only by his sense of humor—something that likely helped him through the brutal tourism season of 2020.

Despite seeing passenger levels decline a whopping 95 percent from the previous year, the new season has O’Leary optimistic.

“We’re coming back,” he says. “We’ve had strong bookings and a lot of it has really come in the last six weeks. Had you told me that in January, I would have said: ‘Not happening.’” At the time of the interview, the Alaska Railroad’s passenger season was set to kick off at the end of May, and O’Leary is looking forward to what’s in store for 2021.