Buildings Up North: Capital improvements in the North Slope Borough.

• Author: Orr, Vanessa
• Position: CONSTRUCTION

North Slope Borough communities were supposed to be well into a six-year program of capital improvements by now. The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the timeline, but the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is revving it back up.

In 2020, the North Slope Borough approved a capital plan through 2025 with a special focus on construction projects in eight Arctic communities.

"We prioritize our projects based on life, health, and safety issues-things that will make our residents' lives better," says Bemadette Adams, director of the borough's Capital Improvement Program Management. "These include things like providing water and sewer to homes or creating eight- or ten-plexes to help ease the housing crisis. Our goal is to undertake projects that will have a good impact in these communities."

Adams says COVID-19 waylaid those construction projects. Villages imposed strict protocols for testing and isolating contractors. And, like the rest of the world, materials and equipment became difficult to acquire--which is not easy on the North Slope at the best of times.

"Our long-lead items become even longer-lead items; supply chain issues have really affected our timelines on these projects, and they continue to do so," Adams explains. "It has also affected costs. I would say things have gone up at least 40 percent, though that number might be higher. We're still having trouble and we're hoping it eases up soon, but nobody knows when it will."

One positive note is the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which steers federal money toward construction of roads, bridges, transit, rail, ports, broadband, and drinking water and wastewater projects.

For example, $925 million for Alaska port and coastal erosion projects includes $364 million for the Barrow Coastal Storm Damage Reduction Project in Utqiagvik.

Designed to reduce the risk of storm damage to approximately five miles of coastline, the project includes rock revetment at the bluff area to replace the ocean seawall lost during 2018 storms. The community has been spending millions of dollars every year to build temporary dirt berms to protect the city and its only fresh water source. Communities across the Arctic coast are slated for capital improvements. Here are some of the projects, from east to west.

Kaktovik

According to Adams, the biggest project in Kaktovik is a new school, which is currently in the design phase.

"It has taken longer than expected because we want to...