Local Suppliers Have the Right Supplies Innovative materials for the North Slope.

• Author: Perry, Richard
• Position: OIL & GAS

In Alaska there are wider temperature variations than almost anywhere in the United States: near Fairbanks, temperatures range from 80[degrees]F or 90[degrees]F in the summer to -70[degrees]F in the winter As harsh as that is on people, those conditions are especially brutal on machines and materials.

Normal asphalt, for example, isn't up to meeting those demands. That is where polymer-modified asphalt comes in. The polymer stiffens the asphalt and increases its resilience in high temperatures, resulting in reduced cracking and rutting. At low temperatures, polymer-modified asphalt resists thermal cracking.

Denali Materials, a wholly owned subsidiary of St. Mary's Native Corporation, manufactures polymer-modified asphalt and asphalt emulsions used in road and runway construction. "We add rubber polymers and other constituents to the mix to meet higher-level specifications for highway or runway paving. This is to prevent rutting and cracking on the roads," explains General Manager Scott Hayden. The asphalt binder is sold to a contractor that blends it at an elevated temperature to produce a homogeneous asphalt paving mixture, called a hot-mix asphalt.

Depending on the specific blend of materials, modified asphalt can withstand either hot or cold temperatures, though mitigating both is difficult.

The specialty surface is vital to maintaining the only haul road to the North Slope, the Dalton Highway. Less than one-third of the 414-mile road is paved; north of the Brooks Range it's gravel on all but three stretches totaling 17 miles. There, the average temperatures during the summer months are typically barely above freezing, while those in winter are as low as -20[degrees]F or -30[degrees]F. Sometimes, temperatures can even dip to -50[degrees]F or -60[degrees]F.

Such extreme cold obviously affects more than roads and runways; it can reduce the efficiency of materials and equipment or even cause them to fail entirely. What many oil field operators and contractors have found is that ordering a different part from another far-off manufacturing plant may or may not solve the problem; however, relying on local experts to fabricate a solution often works out well.

Special Know-How

Alaska Rubber Group is what CEO Mike Mortensen calls a value-added distributor and not simply a hardware store. "We supply hoses and fittings, rigging and lifting supplies, conveyor belts, sheet rubber, pumps, and various other equipment," he says. None of those products...