On the Road Again, back to Old Harbor

These last couple of weeks has found me busy traveling the state getting ready for the upcoming construction season.  I have two projects on Kodiak Island in the villages of Old Harbor and Larsen Bay.  Both have new water treatment plants (WTP) and Old Harbor also has a new water storage tank (WST) as well as 1500 feet of water transmission lines going from the existing WTP to the new WST.  These are 6” and 8” lines which will be fused together and buried in the new ¼ mile roadway up the mountain.

I have made a couple trips now meeting with the village mayor and tribal leaders as to what we are going to be building and to figure out a few of the difficult aspects of this project. 

Today several of us, the engineer, my superintendent, and me met with three possible subcontractors who are going to give us a bid for building the roadway, clearing the land, and making the pads that the tank and treatment plant will sit on.

The flight down this morning started in the predawn hours on Alaska Air Lines like most of the flights these days but after about 30 minutes in the air the view out the left window looking east showed a beautiful vista of sky going through the changing colors of pink, orange, and then bright red.  I wanted to snap a picture but it was in my backpack stowed away.  We then descended on our approach into Kodiak into the cloudy funk that brought with it rain and drizzle for most of the day. 

Another flight from Kodiak on Servant Air into Old Harbor had us flying VFR below the cloud layer through the rain between the mountains along the valley floor. 

Servant Air – Islander Aircraft N663SA

It was nice flying over the mixture of barren and snow covered terrain as we made our way to the airport.  The last few minutes we had to veer off along the water to go around the last mountain peaks so we could safely make it to the airport.   It must have been a busy morning at the airport as one flight was taking off as we were on our approach and final for landing with another plane following us from Kodiak.   It turned out that one of the groups we were meeting flew down in their helicopter arriving about 20 minutes after we made our way to City Hall.

The meeting went well as we explained what we wanted everyone to bid on and the format I wanted the bids to come into my office.  There was time for questions and answers before we headed out into a light rain for a visit to the job site.

We walked partway up from the valley floor to the area where we may be able to blast out rock for fill to build the roadway.  We then went and walked the undeveloped path up the mountain to where the new water tank will sit.  The climb up showed me how out of shape I am sitting behind a desk now as I huffed and puffed my way to the top.  Luckily we wandered around the top for about 30 minutes going between the new tanks site and the existing tank inspecting the leaks and water runoff as well as the proposed roadway. 

Old Harbor New WTP site

It will be steep but one that will provide access to the top.  The walk back down was hard on the knees and legs but not as breathtaking as the journey up.     

The rest of the time was spent touring the village and the docks at the boat harbor so everyone would understand the logistics of the project and moving equipment and materials from the harbor area over to the job site.  We then headed to the airport where we felt a little shaking around 2:30 pm as a 4.8 earthquake occurred just a few miles from Old Harbor.

I sat up front with the pilot on the way back to Kodiak and snapped a couple of pictures as we flew through the passes.

We arrived in Kodiak in time to make the earlier flight back to Anchorage on Alaska Air where the Iditarod painted 737-400 arrived to take us home.  It was nice arriving back in the city before dark and not on the late night return which is more common when flying in from the bush villages.

Another long day but productive and the weather was mild considering this is Alaska and still winter time.  All in all . . . not a bad day!

Ice