Q&A with Michael Fall of Unit Company.

• Author: Coppola, Doreen R.
• Position: BUILDING ALASKA: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Life in the Construction Industry - Interview

They say if you want something done, ask a busy person. It's no wonder Michael Fall, vice president at Unit Company in Anchorage, has so much on his plate these days and still manages to get it all done. Fall became involved in the construction industry more than 23 years ago. After only one year of working in the industry, Fall was assigned as a project engineer to manage a project consisting of constructing four buildings simultaneously in Prudhoe Bay. From that point, his career took him to bigger projects in Alaska, and then on to Los Angeles, California and Portland, Ore., and back again to Alaska, which is where he grew up. He's headed several projects from start to finish along the way, including a $35 million facility in Prudhoe Bay, twin seven-story office buildings, and a $25 million design-build aircraft hanger. Fall has a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from the University of Texas. He's been with Unit Company since 1993 and obtained a shareholder position and vice president title in 1995. Despite his busy schedule, Fall recently managed to share with Alaska Business Monthly a behind-the-scenes look at what life is like in the construction industry.

ABM: How many projects do you work on a year?

Fall: Our volume goes up and down. We construct an average of $30 million to $60 million a year. On the low end, we do about five or six (jobs), upwards of about 10 or 12. And there are a variety of projects. Certainly, most of our projects take a year or longer so there is definitely overlap from one year to the next.

ABM: How far do you have to travel to jobs?

Fall: Our company concentrates on the road system so our projects go from the Kenai Peninsula all the way north to Fairbanks. The total mileage between those two is 500 miles from one end to the other. There is a whole lot of work in Alaska that is not on the road system and they have to get there by boat or by airplane. Our specialty is commercial construction and there's not much of that off the road system so we stick to the projects on the road system.

ABM: How does winter construction differ from summer?

Fall: Well, what you try to do is get a job started in the spring or summer when it's no different than anywhere else in the world. You start out excavating the ground. The obvious difference if you were to start in the winter is that the ground is frozen and covered with snow. Typically, you'd start a job in the winter as the very last resort. If you got one...