A Link in the Chain: Metal fabrication's versatile role in the construction industry.

• Author: Orr, Vanessa
• Position: CONSTRUCTION

In Alaska, metal fabrication takes many forms, from making the smallest components like screws, nuts, and bolts to creating ready-to-assemble, 350-person camps. In the construction industry, the need for companies that can build machines and structures from raw metal materials is constant, whether the job requires building a single-family home or crafting control panels to guide the oil that runs through pipelines.

The fabrication process, which can include cutting, burning, welding, machining, forming, and assembly to create the final product, requires that most companies have their own metal shops to centralize these tasks. And while some fabricators provide ready-made materials for more generalized construction needs, others specialize in extremely specific, custom-made work.

NANA Construction, for example, is distinctive in that it works in residential, commercial, and industrial construction.

Form Fits Function

"Our business is unique in that we do it all; we are one of the only companies in the state of Alaska that has a full-service industrial/commercial facility that can fabricate everything from residential nouses to industrial process modules and commercial camps," says Fred Elvsaas, general manager of NANA Construction.

NANA's Big Lake fabrication facility includes four buildings on 32-plus acres, with 105,000 square feet of indoor fabrication space. The site includes a prep and coating shop; industrial fabrication and assembly shop; and a light modular fabrication building, among others.

The NANA subsidiary, which opened in 2008, has found success by pursuing business in all construction niches. "If the oil and gas industry is down, residential and commercial construction may be up, so it's beneficial to be in both areas," says Elvsaas.

Approximately 95 percent of the company's projects are competitively bid, though it may also receive projects from vendors or clients who reach out for their expertise. Depending on the project, fabricators may be brought in at the design/build stage, serve as the EPC (engineering, procurement, construction) contractor, or be asked to fabricate and ship previously engineered designs.

"It really varies by project; a lot of the time, we're doing structural steel fabrication, like building 1,000 VSMs [vertical support members] or 400 HSMs [horizontal support members]; we also build a large amount of REIM [remote electrical and instrumentation modules] and pigging modules," says Elvsaas, adding that the most intricate products the company fabricates are the fuel gas manifolds that are used in Prudhoe Bay.

Some of the more interesting projects that NANA Construction has been involved with include fuel gas manifolds for the compressor engines at the Prudhoe Bay central gas facility and a bar for the...