South Coast Inc.: 1988 revenue: $26.2 million; employees: 150; rank: 33.

• Author: Kleeschulte, Chuck
• Position: The New Forty-Niners - Company profile

IT'S NEVER EASY IN BUSINESS TO move mountains. The proven ability to do so may be why Don Thornlow's firm is climbing so steadily to the top of Alaska's construction heap.

Thornlow is the newest owner of South Coast Inc., Ketchikan's home-grown heavy construction contractor. South Coast moves, carves or blasts out mountains to build roads, mine shafts, tunnels and dams. The firm also constructs docks and erects buildings.

"We take special satisfaction in the fact that our reputation is that we are the best at building projects on time and within budget when particularly difficult logistic problems are involved," Thornlow says. "We have prepared ourselves to deal with the weather and all the environmental problems that Alaska can produce."

South Coast is one of the fastest growing companies in Alaska and is continuing its steady rise up the ladder of the New Forty-Niners, Alaska Business Monthly's annual ranking of the top 49 Alaska-based, Alaska-owned corporations. Ranked 37th last year, the firm rose to 33rd on this year's list, based on 1988 revenues.

The business, which celebrated its 30th anniversary June 15, was founded in 1959 by the Day family - originally, of Petersburg and, later, Ketchikan - to build logging roads on Prince of Wales Island and to perform contract logging for the then-infant Ketchikan Pulp Co. It has branched into heavy construction and, most recently, into mine excavation.

South Coast's major accomplishments of the past decade read like the construction industry's equivalent of a script summary from the television program "Mission Impossible:"

*In 1980, South Coast felled 500 acres of timber and cleared steep cliffs to bedrock to permit construction of Ketchikan's Swan Lake hydroelectric dam. Besides clearing the reservoir area for the dam, the firm built the roadway to the dam site through an environmentally sensitive area.

*In September 1982, the company won the $13 million contract to build the 9-mile access road to Quartz Hill - the road U.S. Borax will someday need to proceed with its giant molybdenum mine. To build the road, South Coast had to disassemble heavy equipment and move all construction machinery and tools by helicopter in 18,000-pound lots, to six landing-reassemblage sites carved out of the woods. Among the items relocated were 1, 100 tons of dump truck parts, D-6 and D-7 Caterpillar tractors, giant shovels, drills and earthmovers.

The sites were ringed by the Misty Fiords National Monument. All equipment was reassembled in just two days, one marked by high winds, and the road...