Northwest City Scoop: Construction Starts in Anchorage

Before covid-19 outbreak, the value of new contracts was expected to drop 14%

Declines had been forecast for nonresidential and residential sectors, while non-building had been expected to rise.

City Grill

Len Story
CEO
R&M Consultants Inc.

Alaska’s transportation engineering and construction markets remain healthy, Story says. His Alaska-based, employee-owned firm works primarily on public infrastructure. Story credits R&M’s ongoing work, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, to the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, funds of which are used for the ADOT&PF Sterling Highway MP 45-60 project, estimated at $353 million and expected to be complete in 2025.“We feel very fortunate that projects like this were not put on hold, and we have continued to remain stable during this pandemic,” Story says. “We should see similar transportation infrastructure spending through 2021 and a multiyear reauthorization of the FAST Act sometime next year.”

R&M’s remote airport terminals upgrade work has been delayed after the pandemic devastated air travel. Other COVID-related impacts include local water utilities, which are facing a reduction in fees collected from commercial clients due to people working from home, which has also lowered traffic and fees that fund capital improvement projects.