Power and Energy

The North Slope Borough, supported by AEA Renewable Energy Grant Funds, retained our firm to determine the feasibilty of reducing its dependency on the use of high priced and unstable cost of imported diesel fuel to meet its energy needs in Atkasuk. The village of Atqasuk is one of the most expensive Borough villages to supply with imported fuel oil. This study investigated the concept of connecting Barrow and Atqasuk with a 70 mile transmission line and using electricity produced in Barrow from its local natural gas supply to displace fuel oil used in Atqasuk to meet both power and space heating requirements in the village. The results of the study found that the project:  

• Provides significant cost savings over the continued use of diesel fuel in Atqasuk
• Provides stable energy costs for the village
• Is technically feasible
• Is feasible to construct
• Has a predictable outcome
• Minimizes the impact to the North Slope environment
• Will provide broadband capabilities to Atqasuk

Statfjord B

Principal experence as project manager for topside drilling and production systems and site construction manager for the installation of subsea pipeline pull-in and hookup equipment.

Coastal Villages Region Fund retained our firm to design a Salmon Processing Plant at an undeveloped remote Alaska site. We were responsible for all design disciplines including civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, geotechnical engineering and architectural design of a $6 million 14,000 SF processing plant. The plant design services were coordinated with infrastructure design (by others) of a new power plant, process water, potable water, waste disposal systems. Living accommodations for 130 workers were designed (by others) to support the processing operation.



Processor Training Class

In joint venture with Indian Valley International, we conducted numerous feasibility studies for Alaska and Russian villages. The studies were unique to each village. The studies identified and quantified the raw fish or meat resources, the products that could be produced, the  methods and costs of processing, infrastructure adequacy, transportation methods and ultimately whether a processing operation would be profitable. Typical finished products included frozen dressed fish, frozen or fresh fileted fish, smoked fish, fish jerky, fisk sticks, fresh or frozen beef, buffalo and reindeer cuts, sausage. 

Quinhagak Community Support Center

 Fisheries Support Centers have been designed and built in seventeen of the twenty Coastal Villages Region Fund communities. These heated facilities are equipped and staffed for the all-season repair of fishing boats and nets. They also serve owners of snow machines and four-wheelers.  

Hybrid Thermosyphon Array

The firm assisted Arctic Foundations Inc. in preparing a proposal to the US Department of Energy for the installation of a frozen containment barrier in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The barrier was required to prevent nuclear contaminants from migrating out of a settling pond that was associated with a 1940's nuclear reactor. A hybrid system of passive thermoprobes and active refrigeration was proposed for freezing the soils in a pattern that circumvented the pond and to bedrock at a depth of 30'.

Active Refrigeration Piping

Upon award of the contract, our firm was retained to manage the installation of the system. The scope included drilling and installing a rectangular array of thermoprobes, insulating and sealing the the settling pond cap and installing an active refrigeration system that cooled the thermoprobe array. An extensive temperature monitoring system was also installed to monitor the develoment of the barrier wall and its integity over time. The system was operated remotely from Anchorage augmentd by annual on-site inspections snd minor repars. It performed exceptioanlly well and ran continuously for seven years when it was shut down to allow area-wide remediation.

Project engineer and construction manager relative to the design and construction of civil facilities for the containment and recovery of spilled oily liquids in Russia’s Komi Republic under arctic and emergency conditions. The scope included the design and construction

of:

• 35 km of road, 
• 5 km of dikes, and 
• 10 syphon dams up to 8 m in height. 

Access Road

Civil works involved the placement of over 400,000 cubic meters of embankment material in support of the then worlds’ largest oil spill recovery operation. About 1 million barrels of oily liquids were recovered and contamination of the Arctic Barents Sea was entirely prevented.