2001 Construction Roundup.

• Author: JONES, PATRICIA
• Position: Statistical Data Included

North Slope, Corps of Engineers, railroad, airport, DOT and other projects are on the slate for the 2001 construction season.

Employment calls for heavy equipment operators--needed to work on North Slope oil field projects during the abbreviated winter work season-kept rolling in at the Operating Engineers Local 302 union hall in Fairbanks.

By early March, all of the union hands requested by name were already dispatched and the contractors still needed more workers, said Don Lowry, business agent with the union.

"We had a dozen open calls," he said, surprised by the amount of work that swamped the union hall.

Even more notable-this high level of employment occurred during the winter months, a time when construction work opportunities in Alaska are typically few and far between.

In addition to labor managers, Alaska's contractors are also noticing the increase in construction work this year, particularly during the winter season.

"It was a pretty busy season this winter," said Dave Matthews, general manager for H.C. Price, which landed an oil field contract to build 3.5 miles of pipelines connecting a second drill pad to the existing Alpine infrastructure.

"We were kind of on a bubble there with the ongoing mergers, and all of these projects piled up on top of each other," he said.

Now, both Phillips Petroleum Co. and BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. are going great guns with their North Slope holdings. Combined, the two companies expect to spend about $1.6 billion on capital projects in Alaska in 2001, an increase from past years.

"There's a pretty big increase in the number of (construction work) man-hours occurring this year," said Ronnie Chappell, spokesman for BP Exploration. "It's bigger than I had expected."

Alaska's oil industry, which drives the state's economy, isn't the only sector that's bumping up spending for construction and capital improvements. Large retail companies such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot have announced plans to construct and open new stores in Alaska.

Values on building permits for private and commercial construction is sued in the state's two largest cities continue to maintain strong levels, increasing in Anchorage by nearly 70 percent during the first few weeks of the year, compared to the same period in 2000.

And public-sector spending planned for 2001 appears to be "significantly" stronger than recent past years, said Dick Cattanach, executive director of the Associated General Contractors of Alaska.

"The current projection I have for public spending is $1.6 billion," he said. "We expect it will be a real good year."

Also different from past years is that more construction work was being completed during winter months. Except for North Slope oil field contractors who are required to work on the frozen coastal plains during winter, other types of construction in Alaska typically slows or stops during the state's notorious cold season.

"From what I'm hearing from my con tractors, this winter they didn't have the down time that they've had in prior years," said Eden Larson, executive director of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Alaska. "The work continued through ... they were finding ways to work through the winter.

"It's challenging because it's different. It's...