Parker Smith & Feek: insuring most of Alaska's big builders.

• Author: Kalytiak, Tracy
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: BUILDING ALASKA

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Earthquakes, warming permafrost and icy, stormy weather can each seriously disrupt construction of buildings, roads, bridges and other large structures in Alaska. Insuring a project becomes even more intricate, however, when an Alaska company is building something massive in a war zone like Iraq.

Parker Smith & Feek, a company specializing in construction insurance, recently provided coverage for West Construction Co.'s building of an open-cell, sheet-pile dock in Umm Qasr, Iraq.

"We had to secure insurance coverage for barges, cranes and other equipment coming from multiple locations in North America, Kuwait and Dubai," said Dave Eckroth, senior vice president and Alaska division manager for Parker Smith & Feek.

PS&F is a 73-year-old Seattle-based firm that has been doing business in Alaska for more than 40 years. The company opened its Anchorage office in 1987, with two employees. It now has 24 people working there, providing a full spectrum of property and casualty, surety and employee benefits programs to Alaska companies.

Approximately 50 percent of Parker Smith & Feek's revenue in Alaska is derived from providing insurance in the construction industry. Native corporations and their health care, energy, financial institution and food practice groups generate most of the company's remaining revenue.

The company offers insurance to just about all of the largest construction entities involved in projects taking place in Alaska and, as with West's Iraq dock-building project, out of state. West and two additional PS&F clients, Bristol Bay Native Corp. subsidiary CCI Inc. and Anchorage-based Electric Inc., brought in employees from all over the world to the war zone, where full-time security protected them.

"The employees had to effectively live on base, and so getting access to and from the site created some unique exposure," Eckroth said.

The Iraq project ended successfully for West Construction, which is now working on another PS&F-insured dock at the Port of Anchorage extension. That project carries a different array of insurance concerns.

"I think we have three barges and six cranes on site," Eckroth said. "Environmental liability is one of the significant issues there--marine mammal protection of the beluga whales."

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