Reinventing the Last Great Race

Zeal for Zinc

Where Did the Cars Go?

Long-awaited project finally underway

AGC of Alaska celebrates excellence in construction

Crowley and Colville improve and expand fuel storage

orkers’ compensation insurance is designed to provide wage replacement and medical benefits to employees who become injured or ill “arising out of and in the course of employment.” In exchange, employees relinquish their right to sue their employer for the act—whether intentional or accidental—that caused them harm. This trade-off, known as the compensation bargain, helps cover the employees’ medical expenses and lost wages while providing the employer legal protection against litigation for additional damages.

The workers’ comp system, which also includes disability payments to injured workers and death benefit payments to families, is seeing the initial impact of COVID-19 as the pandemic enters its third year. The lingering physical and mental effects have caused some employees to delay returning to work, modify their duties, or work remotely. Many employers are adjusting outside the workers’ comp system to accommodate employees’ health issues, which can include fatigue, pain, brain fog, anxiety, and depression. While the pandemic is starting to have a perceptible effect on the workers’ comp industry, its broad impact may not be evident for years to come.

laska Native Corporations (ANCs) were able to distribute more than $500 million in federal emergency funds, but they had to fight for it.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act earmarked $8 billion in relief funds for tribal organizations nationwide. A lawsuit filed by the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation of Washington, the Tulalip Tribes of Washington, and the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians of Maine claimed that ANCs, as for-profit entities, were not entitled to a share. Three Alaska tribes later joined the lawsuit: the Akiak Native Community, Asa’carsamiut Tribe of Mountain Village, and the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island.

laska fisheries run on data—data and the hard work of those in the Last Frontier’s seafood industry. Data inform every aspect of the management of the state’s fisheries, from policy decisions and regulations to how much fish can be caught in a season. Data also play a vital role in understanding the markets for Alaska’s various seafood products, as well as the economic impact of the sector.

The Alaska Constitution entrusts the Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) to “manage, protect, maintain, improve, and extend the fish, game, and aquatic plant resources of the state in the interest of the economy and general well-being of the state.” Given the weight of the responsibility, the department has developed a robust, data-driven method for managing the state’s fisheries, from sea cucumbers to salmon and everything in between.

laska has two seasons, the saying goes: winter and construction. This issue of Alaska Business comes out when winter has not yet relaxed its dismal grip, but we’re already thinking about construction. Following February’s special section about architecture and engineering, the topic is a natural fit.

Construction trades span everything from kitchen remodelers and roofers to the hive-mind of crews in the industry’s two major tribes, vertical and horizontal construction. Carpenters and ironworkers build on top of the landscape, while graders and pavers mold the landscape itself. And let’s not forget the project managers who must choreograph the dance of materials, equipment, and labor on a wobbly stage of weather, money, and politics.

ince the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) was enacted in 2021, State of Alaska officials have been trying to understand how best to harness the windfall of federal resources. In January, department heads were completing written analyses of potential projects that could benefit from IIJA funds. So far, there are a lot of unknowns at the state level and for entities the bill affects, such as the Denali Commission and tribal governments. The IIJA mainly directs money to the state through existing channels, and it also sets up new and competitive funding sources and streamlines permitting for certain types of projects.

“The majority of these funds will come through existing federal programs, but the legislation did establish a number of new discretionary grant programs for which Alaska should be competitive,” says Governor Mike Dunleavy’s Deputy Communications Director Jeff Turner. “It’s important to remember that only a portion of the money Alaska is expected to receive will come directly to the State, as many discretionary grant programs are open to tribes, local governments, and other entities.”

onstruction projects for buildings and structures are increasingly moving away from traditional procurement towards alternate delivery channels. Major buyers of construction services—such as the United States Army Corps of Engineers Alaska District, the Anchorage School District, Southcentral Foundation, Cook Inlet Housing Authority, and several private owners—are all utilizing alternate delivery to varying degrees. When executed correctly, alternative delivery contracts have the potential to produce high quality facilities while reducing project risk and maximizing project benefits.

ost everywhere Alaskans live, at least one farm is nearby. No, not the approximately 762 farms that raise crops and livestock for sale (the smallest number in any state). Tank farms, or above-ground storage facilities, are essential infrastructure wherever fuel or other liquids must be stockpiled. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation regulates sixty-five tank farms with capacities greater than 5,000 barrels of crude oil or 10,000 of non-crude. Below that, the US Environmental Protection Agency regulates facilities with as little as 1,320 gallons, but an exact total on the number is not available. Anywhere two large cylinders stand near each other, that’s a tank farm.

Some of the state’s newest tank farm infrastructure expands capacity in two distinct ways. The projects serve radically different users in widely divergent locations, yet the builders had a similar mission when constructing them. Logistics firms Crowley and Colville both exercised caution and forethought to ensure these new additions to Alaska’s petroleum landscape are safe and will be around for a long time.

ast November, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) awarded $20 million to the City of Cordova for the ongoing rebuild of its South Harbor. And while the process to replace the aging harbor will be a long one, for the city and one of the state’s largest commercial fishing fleets, the project couldn’t get started soon enough.

“We’ve been needing it for a long time; the harbor that is being replaced was being built in 1981 when I first came here and was expected to have about a thirty-year lifespan,” says fisherman Jeff Bailey of the FV Odyssey and FV Miss Margeaux. “Now, it’s on year forty.”

Bailey adds, “Every year, more floats become waterlogged and roll over, and the cleats on the dock have broken loose with a number of larger vessels… It’s not uncommon for floats to break loose with boats attached, and we have to go corral them.”

xcitement was building. Members of the Associated General Contractors (AGC) of Alaska missed their annual conference in 2020, when it was cancelled because of COVID-19. The event in November 2021 was split into two, with the in-person activities postponed as well. When the conference finally took place in January at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage, AGC members were in a mood to party. The room was a little emptier than usual for the statewide conference, but the construction industry professionals who attended were eager to catch up with their colleagues and to honor this year’s awardees.

Due to skipping a year, AGC had two of its annual Hard Hat awards to hand out. As it happens, both honorees are past presidents of the trade group. For one of them, the year-plus delay makes his award posthumous.

very executive or business owner has shown up at their office on what seemed to be a perfectly normal morning and walked into a disaster. Most of the time when business leaders face a problem, they can evaluate the situation, take appropriate action, then move on. But what if the problem is too thorny—for any number of reasons? Maybe it’s beyond the management team’s area of expertise, such as a cyber-attack or a situation that has drawn the interest of government regulators or even law enforcement officials. Or perhaps it involves allegations of misconduct of someone on a senior leadership team. In such situations, business leaders should consider whether hiring outside counsel to conduct an investigation is their best option.

A forecast for the Alaska economy in 2022 anticipates approximately the same level of growth as in 2021, up about 2.2 percent, or 7,000 new jobs. That would leave the state nearly 14,000 shy of where jobs were before the COVID-19 pandemic, yet federal infrastructure spending could entirely make up the difference. In his first forecast in two years, Mouhcine Guettabi, formerly of the UAA Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), concludes that a full recovery this year depends on the first billion dollars of IIJA funds being deployed quickly, provided the construction sector has the capacity to mobilize.
iseralaska.org

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council voted to switch halibut bycatch for Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands groundfish trawlers to an abundance-based limit. The trawl fleet is currently capped at no more than 1,745 metric tons of halibut incidentally snagged while fishing for sole or yellowfin sole. The cap has remained fixed for years while halibut abundance decreased steadily since 1990. The new method would lower the limit to 1,309 metric tons—slightly higher than the average annual bycatch—and float based on abundance surveys by the International Pacific Halibut Commission and the National Marine Fisheries Service. The new bycatch limit is scheduled to be implemented either in mid-2023 or the beginning of the 2024 fishing season.
npfmc.org

anked at #23 on the Alaska Business Top 49ers list for 2021, with the fourth-highest gross revenue of any non-Native corporation (after Lynden, Three Bears Alaska, and Chugach Electric Association), Delta Constructors makes a big impact without leaving a big impression. CEO Ed Gohr started the company in 2007, and by 2013 it was working on high-dollar, behind-the-scenes projects in Alaska and North Dakota oil fields. That portfolio propelled Delta into the Hundred Million Dollar club, the youngest Alaskan-owned company with that status.

Not bad for a contractor almost unknown outside of the industry. “Kinda go under the radar,” Gohr acknowledges.