2005 construction roundup: construction is steady across the state, with 2,500 new jobs projected for the construction industry by 2012.

• Author: Bonham Colby, Nicole A.
• Position: Building Alaska

Defying its history of boom and bust, the construction industry in Alaska is sliding into yet another year of steady growth--busy around the state on projects ranging from the Anchorage Port expansion to an $87 million new hospital in the Mat-Su to a newly completed $28 million bypass road in Ketchikan. Of course, on the horizon is a world-class gasline construction project that will tilt the scales of the construction economy.

Bounding back slow and steady from the mid-80s recession, construction jobs have gently increased through trends of low interest rates (and the corresponding jump in residential building) and the inflow of federal monies for capital improvements in Alaska. What's ahead for the industry in the long run largely depends on continued federal political support for Alaska projects, including the natural gas pipeline; continued reasonable interest rates; and a steady flow of short-term build outs, such as military expansion and visitor-related growth.

PIPELINE IMPACT

The assumption that construction of the Alaska natural gas pipeline will occur within the next decade gives economists and industry watchers, alike, faith to project a positive forecast ahead for Alaska construction. Overall, Alaska jobs in general are expected to jump by some 43,000 for the 10-year period from 2002 to 2012, according to a report by State Economist Jeff Hadland and Research Analyst Jack Cannon in the September 2004 issue of Alaska Economic Trends, a publication of the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Of that number, some 2,500 of the jobs are projected for the construction industry.

"The construction industry will grow at about the same pace as the Alaska economy as a whole," Hadland and Cannon wrote. "It will be affected by two major factors: overall federal construction project funding and initial construction activity of the gas pipeline." The proposed 3,500-mile natural gas pipeline linking Alaska's North Slope to the Lower 48 is estimated to cost in the arena of $20 billion. Its construction would span a decade and ultimately result in shipment of an estimated 4.5 billion cubic feet of gas daily. Discussion and debate concerning state access and would-be operator controls are already well in play, as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission met with oil and gas giants in Anchorage in December.

In related news, Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski announced in December that road construction will play a key role in his aggressive 2005 energy agenda to improve and expand oil and gas development across the state. Included in his energy plan is a requested $20 million of state transportation funds to pay for road projects promoting oil and gas development. This includes continued analysis of a Prudhoe Bay to Point Thomson road. "We want to build roads that lead to jobs, whether the jobs are on the North Slope or downtown...