Gasline to fuel engineering jobs: will there be enough local engineers to work on the proposed gas pipeline?

• Author: Bonham Colby, Nicole A.

With the possibility of a major construction project on the horizon for Alaska, the natural gas pipeline, engineers in the state see trickle-down opportunity ahead and a general sense of excitement for the work it will bring. How will this project affect the recent trend of shortage in the pool of engineers in Alaska? Could such a project stir the interest of a new wave of young, would-be engineers and surveyors? It's possible, say folks in the industry and from the halls of engineering schools. Regardless, it remains a good time to be an engineer in Alaska, industry watchers say--particularly with the gas pipeline potential.

SENSE OF EXCITEMENT

The potential of another big pipeline project has stirred a sense of excitement among the engineering ranks, says Mike Davenport, control systems manager at Alaska Anvil Inc. Headquartered in Bellingham, Wash., the engineering firm employs some 50-plus Alaska-based engineers in its Anchorage office and specializes in electrical, mechanical, civil, structural, process, petroleum and petrochemical engineering. Anvil earned the "1999 Large Company of the Year Award" from the Alaska section of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and serves a long list of clients both in Alaska and Outside.

"We think that, whether our company is involved in projects directly with the pipeline or not, we still would benefit from the domino effect," Davenport says. "Yes, we are very excited about it."

He suggests that such a large project would flow down opportunity to a number of engineering companies via related offshoot projects.

"It will probably be split up, as no one company will have all the resources to do every single aspect of it," he says of the pipeline engineering potential. For example, the original trans-Alaska oil pipeline from the North Slope to Valdez saw primary engineering work split between some of the largest global names in the engineering world. One was California-based giant Fluor Corp., which performed engineering, procurement and construction services for that pipeline project.

As with the existing pipeline, "there will be parts of the project that will require specialists and then there will be projects that will have to do with infrastructure to support it," Davenport projects. This may range from actual project work to separate, but related, offshoot work--for example, pipelines to Anchorage or Kenai. Across the board, engineers will be needed. "... There will be offshoots,"...