This summer is shaping up to be a busy season for Wilder Construction, recently named "Contractor of the Year" for 2001 by The Asphalt Contractor, a national industry magazine. Now, Wilder is facing one of its most difficult jobs -- paving the gravel runway at Iliamna Airport.
"It's going to be an extreme logistical challenge," said Greg Davis, paving superintendent for Wilder.
The hurdle will be transporting the required equipment and supplies to the site.
"It's a big deal because it's hazardous (materials)," Davis said.
The project will require transportation of 35,000 to 40,000 tons of asphalt mix, including about 600 tons of oil.
"It's like baking a cake," said Davis. "You have to have certain ingredients"
In order to get supplies to the construction site, the company will have to truck them to Homer. From there, the mix will be loaded onto a barge and shipped across Cook Inlet to Williamsport. The supplies, once again, will be loaded onto a truck, hauled across the mountain to Pedro Bay and loaded onto yet another barge. The ship will carry the supplies across Lake Iliamna Lake to the final destination in Newhalen.
Then there is the issue of equipment.
Wilder will transport a rock crusher and an asphalt plant, each of which, when set up, encompasses approximately 3 acres. In addition, the company will take three asphalt rollers, five 980 cat loaders, two road graders, a water truck, and two dirt compactors, Davis said.
The $11 million project is scheduled to kick off April 28, with the completion date slated for late September. The project will employ about 40 people.
Wilder has several other projects on the table for this year. The reconstruction of the southern portion of C Street in Anchorage that began last year is scheduled for completion by September.
Also in Anchorage, the company has won a bid to repave Dimond Boulevard from the Old Seward Highway to C Street. The job will probably involve night and weekend paving to accommodate the heavy traffic on Dimond, Davis said.
Wilder also has repaving jobs on the Glenn Highway near the Knik River bridge and around mile 262 of the Parks Highway.
In addition to the rest of the projects, the company is hoping to be awarded a bid on a $15 million-$20 million job at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.
Wilder has 30 full-time salaried employees but, through the height of the construction season, employs up to 300 workers. Davis speculated that the company has about one-third of the road construction market in Alaska.
Bonding woes
Anyone who has driven around Alaska during the summer in recent years can affirm that there seems to be plenty of road construction. Yet in the last three years, three contractors have gone out of business -- Herndon & Thompson Inc., South Coast Inc., and Summit Alaska Inc. Davis attributed the loss of contractors, in part, to bonding issues.
"It's hard for medium-sized companies to increase their bonding strength," he said. He explained that without bond support, the companies are unable to bid on multi-million dollar projects, leaving them incapable of competing with larger companies.
Dick Cattanach, executive director of Associated General Contractors in Alaska, would not attribute a single factor to the demise of the three companies, but agreed that getting bonding had become more difficult in the past few years.
"It's a direct function of the problems that we read about in the papers," he said. The problems Cattanauch was referring to are the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the collapse of Enron and the K-mart bankruptcy.
"The bonding companies got hit with those three things, one after the other," he said.
The result has been that bonding companies have cracked down on their requirements.
The bonding brokers look at the expertise of a company's staff, the financial strength of the company and past performance, including whether the contractor can finish a job within the budgeted amount while still making a profit.
Another difficulty faced by construction companies is the expense associated with this type of business.
"It is a very expensive line of business because of the equipment required," Cattanach said.
Even with the loss of the three companies, Cattanach felt confident that the remaining contractors could keep up with the demand for road construction this year.
"We are lucky in Alaska to have a number of good contractors," he said.
