Alaska construction industry still holds strong: about $6 billion was spent on construction in 2005, and that figure is expected to rise by 5 percent to 8 percent in 2006.

Alaska's construction industry is coming off a good year in 2005, and facing another--perhaps even better--in 2006. The University of Alaska Anchorage's Institute of Social and Economic Research, in a report created for the Associated General Contractors of Alaska in January 2005, predicted total construction spending in 2005 to approach nearly $6 billion. Nearly $4 billion of that would come from private funds, and the remainder from public sources.

According to AGC's Executive Director Richard "Dick" Cattanach, next year's construction spending may be up 5 percent to 8 percent from what was spent in 2005.

"Oil and gas will still be the primary contributor," Cattanach said. "While we may not see actual construction in 2006, we may see surveying, establishing a route for the gas pipeline. There's a big 'if' there, but ignoring the mega projects and with oil at 60-some dollars a barrel, there's interest in exploration. I expect a good year in 2006."

The mining industry should begin building infrastructure and continue exploring mining potential in Alaska next year, Cattanach predicted. He added that hospitals are another significant contributor to the construction industry right now, as are airports and ports. One concourse at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport is nearly complete with renovations, and another was recently finished, and the Fairbanks International Airport is undergoing a major renovation. Runway maintenance at airports around the state will continue, and the major expansion of the Anchorage port will continue into 2006.

"Providence hospital is undergoing major expansions through 2006," Cattanach said. "We should see the hospital at Fort Wainwright completed this year, as well as the hospital in Palmer. Kenai's hospital should be nearly finished next year. Then, I expect that this section of the economy should slow up."

The Defense budget has been running at $600 million in Alaska, and Cattanach expects that to continue. He also anticipates spending on highway projects to increase now that the highway reauthorization bill has passed.

"We may see significant activity on one or both of the major bridges (Knik and Gravina Island) in that bill, too," he added. "The real question right now, though, is whether the two major bridges are in or outside the allocation."

Another sector in which Cattanach said he sees an increase in construction spending is education. As a result of Juneau's funding this year, money allocated by the Legislature is in the hundreds of millions. It's dedicated for renovation and construction to bring schools statewide up to code and to deal with deferred maintenance--a significant increase over previous years' school funding.

"The one area we're concerned about in the aggregate," Cattanach said, "and we would expect it may be flat or even down a bit, is residential construction. As interest rates go up and land becomes scarcer, people will postpone their decision to move out of rental property or to increase the size of their homes. We may not see an expansion in the residential market."

In 2005, however, residential construction and renovation projects looked good. The ISER construction report predicted residential building projects across Alaska at approximately $700 million.

AHFC 

Alaska Housing Finance Corp. is one of the big spenders in the housing market, continuing major renovation work on several public housing projects around the state. Some of these will be completed in 2005, and others will continue into 2007, according to Doc Crouse, director of construction for AHFC's Public Housing Division.

"We're currently working on a 48-unit family housing project in Anchorage--Pacific Terrace--contracted to Darcon at about $6.4 million," Crouse said. "There are four separate buildings, and we've phased them so we don't have to relocate our tenants. This one will finish up in 2007."

Crouse said AHFC just completed renovation of and accessibility improvements to 120 senior housing units at Chugach Manor in Anchorage and 17 units of family housing in Ptarmigan Park. The two projects, totaling more than $8 million, are under contract to Gamble Construction and Denali General Construction.

A series of duplexes and the 60-unit Loussac Manor are also being renovated. The first phase of the duplex project, a $600,000 contract, was recently awarded to CYS Management of Anchorage, and the second phase was advertised in early fall. The design phase for Loussac Manor is still about a year away, Crouse said.

In Kodiak, AHFC is replacing 37 units built in the mid-1960s and renovating three single-family dwellings in the same complex. McGraw Custom Construction of Sitka is working on this project, at just more than $6 million.

"These units will be super energyefficient," Crouse said. "We're using structured insulated paneling. It's a little more expensive to purchase, but takes less time to stand up the wall panels, and they already have channels for electrical wiring."

Also in Kodiak, AHFC is renovating a 30-unit senior facility, Sunset View, and in Ketchikan, a 40-unit senior project, Seaview Terrace. Both projects are under contract to Wolverine Construction, and represent just more than $2 million in work.

"Most of our housing stock dates from the '60s and '70s," Crouse said. "We're in the final stages of a 10-year plan to replace or remodel all that stock.

"We still have two relatively goodsized projects that will probably put us into 2007. They're in the design stages now, and will go to bid next spring."

Crouse added that all the work AHFC has contracted out thus far has come in within budget and on time.

"We've used local contractors on all our work, and we're very pleased with the results. We've had good value for the dollars spent."

Unit Company

Commercial construction in Alaska is proceeding at a healthy pace, as well. Bill Puckett, vice president of Unit Company, listed some of Unit's major projects for 2005. Among them was a complete rehab of Anchorage's Service High School Module G--ready for the fall school season--and a complete rehab of Polaris, which is scheduled for completion by Christmas. The school projects total approximately $22 million.

A new linear accelerator, part of Anchorage Radiation Therapy Center at Alaska Regional Hospital, was also on Puckett's list, and a second accelerator is on the drawing boards. The first accelerator had to be built inside the existing hospital, and had to have walls and ceiling that were 3 feet to 4 feet thick. Puckett said Unit wanted to build it without removing any exterior walls, and they succeeded.

The second accelerator will go into a new four-story medical office building in the Mat-Su Valley. The accelerator projects are worth nearly $11 million to Unit.

Another project on Unit's list is a new IDT (in-flight interceptor data terminal) facility at Fort Greely, a joint venture with SKW Eskimos.

"We've been there for the last four years," Puckett said. "We built the original IDT structure, DSCS building, a utility building and a missile assembly building. We were involved with the interim power plant, and the entry-control facility. We're doing about $34 million there now, and continuing through next summer."

Looking forward, Pucker said his company is working on several proposals-among them the turbine replacement for Anchorage's Municipal Light and Power, and he's waiting to hear about the new fitness center and addition to the current fitness center on Elmendorf Air Force Base. These projects could keep Unit busy well into 2006.

Kiewit Companies

Kiewit Companies spent a part of their 2005 construction season completing Concourse C at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, and in building a water dam project in Kake, under contract for the Army Corps of Engineers. According to Mike Barta, Alaska area manager for Kiewit Construction Co. and senior vice president of Kiewit Building Group, the dam is a joint venture with Kiewit's sister company Kiewit Pacific Co.

A second project Kiewit is building for the Corps is a large air frame maintenance hanger and C-17 support facilities on Elmendorf Air Force Base.

This project is just getting under way, and is scheduled for completion in mid-2007. The two Corps' projects top $36 million for Kiewit.

"We think there will be quite a few projects coming out of the Corps of Engineers," Barta said. "There should be another C- 17 hangar project coming out this fall, and a substantial MATOC (Multiple Award Task Order Contract)--an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity of work--coming out. We'll likely be pursuing that. It's literally hundreds of millions of dollars worth of work."

Wrapping up 2005, Kiewit is completing a $14 million bioresearch center for the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The center should be finished by February 2006. Also in close-out, Barta added, is the Blair Lakes project, a remote bombing range and associated infrastructure outside Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks.

"We can only access this site by ice road for about a month each year," Barta said. "The Air Force has built an ice road to the job site every winter for fuel deliveries. With the additional fuel storage capacity, ice road construction will only be necessary every other year."

Under this $17 million to $18 million contract to the Cows, Kiewit also built a new dormitory and generating facility.

Neeser Construction

As the summer of 2005 came to a close, Neeser Construction wrapped up the new Alaska Psychiatric Institute building, the Fort Richardson Community Learning Center, and the Bristol Bay Native Corp. headquarters building. Projects in process as 2005 comes to a close include the Afognak Native Cow.'s Alutiiq Center and a new medical office building, both in Anchorage. These two projects, approximately $34 million in work, should be complete by the end of summer 2006, according to Gary Donnelly, Neeser's project administrator.

Neeser's construction of the Home Depot in South Anchorage was also scheduled for completion in the late fall of 2005, as were teacher housing units and the demolition of the school in Manokotak, and the City of Fairbanks' downtown fire station and headquarters. Projects on Fort Wainwright, awarded under a MATOC, currently total more than $80 million.

"One of the projects," Donnelly said, "is the Alert Holding/Pallet Processing Facility, which will be finished before winter this year. The Junior NCO housing project will finish up in February of '06, and we just started the Whole Barracks Renewal Phase 4A and a Company

Operations Facility. Those should be complete by the end of September next year." Looking ahead into next summer's season, Donnelly counted nearly $145 million in projects--the new Hooper Bay school and the new rental car parking facility for the Anchorage airport. Donnelly speculated that Neeser may be able to break ground on the parking facility in late 2005, and said completion of this project is set for September of 2006. He also added the Salvation Army's Safe Campus, between C and A streets just south of 15th Avenue in Anchorage, to his project list.

"We're working together with them," Donnelly said, "so that as they raise their funding, we can begin construction. We've already done the utility infrastructure, and we may be able to break ground next spring."

One of the largest projects facing Neeser in the near future is the design and construction of Anchorage's new convention center. Donnelly said that project is currently in the design process, and he anticipates groundbreaking to take place next spring.

Brice Companies

In Fairbanks, Alba Brice, vice president of Brice Companies--a consortium of Brice Inc., which handles construction projects, Brice Environmental and Brown's Hill Quarry--was in the process of completing a series of jobs in rural Alaska.

"We've paved the airport at the Red Dog mine, finished an airport job at Mountain Village, and are working on a road project at Pitka's Point. The majority of the Valdez airport project will be finished this fall, with final completion scheduled for spring of '06," Brice said.

The $2.6 million Red Dog airport job was under contract to Teck Cominco, the other jobs were all under contract to the State of Alaska Department of Transportation--Pitka's Point and Mountain Village are worth more than $6 million to Brice.

"Our forte at Brice is remote-site civil construction. We've worked in many of the villages around Alaska, and one thing we always try to do," said Brice, "is to hire locally. It's one of our priorities, and provides jobs in the local economy.

"We feel fairly optimistic about the next few years, at least," Brice added. "The DOT outlook is strong, and so is the level of military projects. In fact, it's my understanding that the Army Corps of Engineers Alaska will have the highest funding levels in the U.S. The opportunities are as good as we've seen for some time."

On Brice's horizon for the remainder of 2005 and in 2006 are projects at Deadhorse, Tanana and Stevens Village--projects worth nearly $28 million. Some initial work will be completed on each of these projects in the fall and winter of 2005, and Brice said completion for most of this work is set for fall of 2006.

In addition, Brice Environmental will be completing a PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls) removal project this fall at Suntrana, near Healy, for the (Alaska) Department of Natural Resources.

Brice's materials division (Brown's Hill Quarry) is producing ballast for the Alaska Railroad at Healy, as well, Brice said, and added that this $700,000 to $800,000 project should be complete this fall.

All divisions of his company have Alaska work, Brice said, and he hopes such programs as AGC's Build-Up send the message to young people that there are good jobs in the construction industry.

"If you see a gas line, the Knik Arm bridge, and other large infrastructure projects come along on top of the existing level of construction, the long-term concern has to be an adequate labor pool for the amount of work out there," Brice said. "There is a projected labor shortage, and we would like to hire Alaskans. Good people are at a premium." Cattanach voiced similar concerns. "Labor is tight," he said. "I think we'll have labor issues just manning jobs. We're working on that, but we need state involvement to create some solutions."

Editor's Note: There are more than 1,200 general contractors operating in the state of Alaska. ABM selected a few to focus on for this article, and will feature other contractors in different construction articles we will publish in future Building Alaska special sections.