Anchorage Construction Round up 2001/2002. The Anchorage Municipality will see nearly $500 million in permitted construction this year.

• Author: Pokorny, Jeff

Anchorage is ending 2001 the same way we started it--strong. Higher oil prices have resulted in an increased amount of exploration and production work statewide in the oil patch, increasing the amount of economic activity in the state and the confidence in our economic future. Anchorage ended 2000 with 134,500 people employed, an increase of 2.6 percent for the year. Forecasts for 2001 job growth range from 2.3 percent (3,100 new jobs) to 2.6 percent (3,500 new jobs), which is an improvement from the 2 percent average of the last decade or so.

Proving itself nicely counter-cyclical to the rest of the country, Anchorage is enjoying a strengthening economy, even as the rest of the country is struggling. Part of this activity can be traced to the glimmer of hope on the horizon for several mega projects: the opening of ANWR for oil and gas development, the construction of a natural gas pipeline, and the building of a national missile defense facility. All the activity in the oil patch and the resultant confidence has manifested itself in what appears to be another great year in the construction industry.

I expect Anchorage to be near the $500 million mark in permitted construction in 2001, the third year out of the last four that Anchorage has approached that level. (Permitted construction includes single-family homes, duplexes, multi-family housing, new commercial construction, residential alterations and commercial alterations.) Gone are the days when the arrival of snow on the mountains around the Bowl signals the impending end of the construction season. The construction industry has grown into a year-round, mature industry employing some 7,300 people in 2000, and is expected to have added 400 jobs in 2001 once the final numbers are tabulated come January.

MOA/State Road Construction

Alaska is currently in the second year of a three-year Statewide Transportation Improvement plan. During fiscal year 2001, $86 million was programmed for road improvements in the Anchorage area, followed by over $72 million in fiscal year 2002.

Two major projects will be impacting Anchorage residents in the near future: The first is the $44 million interchange for the Glenn and Parks highways. Second is the focus on smoothing rush-hour traffic flow in and out of the municipality on Fifth and Sixth avenues, with $1.75 million tentatively budgeted for design and construction of those improvements. This is the precursor to a proposed $100 million project making...