Random Thoughts, it’s been awhile

It has been awhile since I’ve written a blog so I decided to do a quick one to let everyone know what I’ve been up too.

Alaska finally came out of a pretty harsh winter with a somewhat nice (but short) spring.  With that comes a busy time for me preparing for the upcoming construction season here.  There are so many tasks to do in a relatively short time period where our projects are assigned to the different construction managers to make things happen so construction may begin during the summer.

The construction work plan has to be written up along with safety plans and assembling all of the required paperwork and permits.  There are the usual ones for storm water runoff control and spill prevention but there are a couple one would not think about.  There are the archeological permits if we dig anywhere since we may disturb possible ancient burial grounds that are unmarked.  There are very specific plans to follow if you do come across human bones or artifacts.  There are also permits for habitat and marine mammals that one may come in contact with if there is any work near waterways or fisheries.

Several of my projects are above the Arctic Circle so I only have a one month window to get a barge into the river to deliver my materials or else I will spend 5 times the cost to fly items into the village.  This also means the people living there have a very limited time to buy their heating fuel for the next winter or there groceries and supplies.  Most of the village is a subsistence lifestyle where they will fish, hunt, or pick berries for their food with little coming from outside from the ‘modern world’.  What is brought into the village is in bulk to last 8 to 10 months until the next barge can make it up the river. 

The ice does not melt off the Bering Sea and in the rivers until mid July and the river is only deep enough for the barges to land until early September only giving just over a month for any river traffic to stock the many villages along the rivers there. 

I have three projects in Selawik this season so buying all of the thousands of parts and pieces to complete the work is time consuming.  I usually start in mid-January preparing my list (MTO – material take off) for ordering.  Depending on the plan set and the complexity of the project it will usually be almost two thousand line items of different items ranging from lumber, nuts/bolts, pumps, boilers, to controls and instrumentation equipment.

Once the list is completed I have to send out for quotes from at least 3 sources to comply with my funding agencies requirements and then once a vendor is chosen to request submittals of many different items to ensure that the correct item is ordered.  This is a maddening process getting approvals from the design engineers and then getting the vendor to provide the materials in time for my barge cut-off date for the upcoming voyage sailing.  This year my Seattle cut-off date is June 13th for a 17th sailing to Anchorage.  It will then pick up additional items here before sailing on June 25th to Kotzebue arriving in mid to late July depending on the weather.

Needless to say I am in full blown controlled chaos mode right now leaving me little time to write or think about other things than work.  I did have a small break to make a quick trip to Florida to see my daughter and grandson along with a few friends that had relocated from Alaska to the southland.  It was great seeing everyone and not thinking about work for a brief time but now I am focused once again at the tasks at hand.

I have several other projects in various regions of the State so once thing crank up I will once again be traveling several days a week to check on the projects, perform quality control and also work with the village and tribal leaders to make their lives a little better and healthier bringing clean water and sewer facilities to the villages, many for the first time.

I’ll try to write and document with pictures my projects so I can post them for those interested.  I hope everyone is doing ok and preparing for a great summer.  I plan to fish as much as possible when time allows or can be worked in with the work schedule.

Be safe and catch you on the next round.

Ice

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