Increase in number of construction bids in Alaska in 2011: Alaska companies lead the way.

• Author: Jaeger, Stephanie
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: BUILDING ALASKA

Alaska's construction industry is its third largest industry, pays the state's second highest wages and employs more than 21,000 workers with a payroll of more than $1 billion. Construction makes up 20 percent of Alaska's economy, contributing $7 billion a year. This year, construction projects in Alaska have seen an unprecedented increase in the number of bids on all types of projects both from local bidders and from construction companies in the rest of the nation.

Some Alaska projects--such as the Anchorage Aviation Building Bridge Replacement, Anchorage Fire Station No. 6 Replacement, Anchorage Merrill Field Taxiway and others--had their bids completed by late April or early May. In a normal year, such projects would receive four to five bids.

This year these projects received from nine to 14 bids each. All of the bidders were Alaska companies, so the recession in the Lower 48 shouldn't be responsible for this increase in contractor interest and the number of bids. This increase may be due to a general feeling of uncertainty in the construction industry.

"Contractors like a backlog of work and may be bidding early because they are concerned there will not be a lot of work out there," said Blase Burkhart, principal at Burkhart Croft Architects. "There was a big unknown, so they felt they had to pursue available projects immediately."

He added they did put the Anchorage Fire Station No. 6 Replacement and many other project bids out earlier than usual. Contractors were anxious to fill up their schedule so they would be certain to get enough volume this building season.

"Perhaps they had heard there was a low work projection, either a temporary dip or trend for the year," Burkhart said. "We haven't seen any slowdown in design opportunities for this year. Seventy-five percent of our project design volume was booked by June. And although we keep hearing about an influx of outside bidders entering the market, those submitting prices for our publicly bid projects were all Alaska companies."

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Other factors may be the overall world situation with the unrest in the Middle East and the earthquake and nuclear disaster in Japan, which have added to the feeling of uncertainty about construction in the future, he added.

"Unlike the Lower 48, we have seen no significant layoffs in the design community," Burkhart said. "Something is happening to keep us going more than the rest of the U.S., at least for the short-term."

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