Honing In: Specialty contractors sharpen skills for market niches.

• Author: White, Rindi

Every construction company launches with a single project. How companies evolve from there depends on the market, clients, and the inclination of the owners. While diversity has its strength, for some construction companies, specialization has laid out a path for success.

Denali General Contracting, as the name implies, is not a specialist, yet the Anchorage-based company boasts a specialty: it's prepared for projects in rural Alaska. Remote work takes a special skill set--advanced logistics, excellent attention to detail and, above all, a love for working in rural Alaska.

"You have to be prepared, you have to be organized, you have to be comfortable in that environment, and your team needs to be comfortable in that environment," says Chris Hamre, president of Denali General.

At a job site in Anchorage, not having a tool or part can be fixed with a trip to the hardware store. Working remotely, small errors like that can cost time and significantly more money.

Making a rural project successful boils down to good planning, Hamre says. Ideally, projects are bid and planned over winter; Hamre's goal is to have materials delivered dockside in Seattle by April, ready for a May shipment to Alaska and then consolidated for barges to the project site. The first barge has items for excavation and pouring concrete, and each subsequent shipment should contain materials needed for the next steps of the project. Hopefully everything arrives according to schedule and the work plan; if not, and the last barge of the year is missed, items might have to come via air freight or, in extreme cases, a plane might need to be chartered.

The timing of materials and equipment is key, but so is building a strong team, Hamre says. It's easiest to work with people who are comfortable working a remote job; the hours are long, and the uninitiated might find it difficult to be away from home for a longer stretch.

Hamre says Denali General, celebrating its 40th year in business, has been working in rural Alaska for about thirty years, starting with a project in Bethel. Lessons were learned through that project, he says, including better planning for housing. Hamre has since purchased man camps that can be set up at some rural job sites, or he looks for local housing on others. Making sure workers are well rested and well fed is critical, he says.

"When a guy gets on a plane, we are responsible for him until he gets back off the plane in Anchorage. Those guys are working...