The Alaska Contractor - Summer 2008
The Alaska Contractor - Summer 2008
The Alaska Contractor - Summer 2008
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“<strong>The</strong> Sutton job was a big overlay<br />
job that was going over the frost<br />
heaves,” he said.<br />
Part of the highway between Mile<br />
65 to Mile 92 also runs beneath a hill<br />
face prone to rock slides.<br />
“We had rocks coming down off the<br />
hill in front of the paver,” Davis said.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Sutton project is one of many<br />
<strong>Alaska</strong> Roadbuilders has done in the<br />
Mat-Su Borough, he said.<br />
Others include upgrading and<br />
paving projects for Hatcher Pass Road,<br />
Deshka Landing, Nancy Lake roads,<br />
Talkeetna, Petersville and Willow.<br />
“We just go everywhere,” Davis said.<br />
Closer to home, <strong>Alaska</strong> Roadbuilders<br />
did the original paving for the road<br />
rebuild going from Ingraham Creek<br />
to Bertha Creek in 1984 and 1985.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y’ve done paving projects at the<br />
Soldotna and Kenai airports. And a<br />
paving project near Canyon Creek by<br />
the Hope cutoff.<br />
Other airport projects were completed<br />
at the Northway and Gulkana<br />
airports, Davis said.<br />
Near Delta Junction, <strong>Alaska</strong> Roadbuilders<br />
worked on projects near Clear<br />
Water Creek and Remington-Jack<br />
Warren road.<br />
Asphalt prices soar<br />
Record high oil prices are adding<br />
to the business challenges faced by<br />
<strong>Alaska</strong> Roadbuilders, Davis said.<br />
At the end of the 2007 construction<br />
season last October, Davis said he paid<br />
$380 for liquid asphalt.<br />
“When we woke up this spring it<br />
was $500,” he said. “By the time we<br />
could get it shipped it was $600.”<br />
Prices climbed to $625 in June and<br />
Davis said he expected them to continue<br />
to increase.<br />
Contracts allow for price changes<br />
for liquid asphalt, but not the increased<br />
costs for freight, which also have risen<br />
on a course parallel to the price of<br />
gasoline, he said.<br />
“It’s something to start talking<br />
about,” Davis said. “We have something<br />
for the cost of liquid asphalt but<br />
we don’t have anything for fuel.”<br />
He said he and other paving companies<br />
are working with Associated<br />
General <strong>Contractor</strong>s of <strong>Alaska</strong> to see<br />
what can be changed so fuel cost increases<br />
can also be passed on.<br />
“Companies want a hard number,”<br />
Davis said. “But when the price doubles<br />
on you, what are you going to do?”<br />
Business partner Chuck Davis said<br />
AGC helps to bridge the communication<br />
gaps between owners, contractors<br />
and suppliers. He said he’s been involved<br />
with AGC since the early 1980s.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>y’ve always been a great resource,”<br />
Chuck Davis said. “<strong>The</strong>y always<br />
seem to be proactive about concerns.<br />
If I have a concern, AGC is the<br />
best place to voice it.”<br />
New opportunities<br />
Chuck Davis lost half his heart to<br />
<strong>Alaska</strong> – his <strong>Alaska</strong>n bride claimed the<br />
other half – when he spent a couple<br />
of summers working here for his uncle<br />
Leonard Davis as a general laborer at<br />
Arctic Asphalt. During the school year<br />
he was studying engineering at a Seattle<br />
university.<br />
“I grew up in Seattle, he said. “I didn’t<br />
know the difference between gravel and<br />
dirt. I was a little naive I guess.”<br />
Back in the summer of 1974, the<br />
first contract he worked on with his<br />
uncle was a series of parking lot paving<br />
projects for Kenai Peninsula Borough<br />
School District schools.<br />
“It was quite an abrupt change<br />
from sitting in the classroom to shoveling<br />
asphalt,” Chuck Davis said.<br />
For 20 years he co-owned Davis<br />
Block Company with his cousins Rusty<br />
Davis and Scott Davis. Eventually the<br />
company was split into two parts and<br />
Chuck Davis sold Davis Concrete to<br />
Quality Asphalt Paving in 2001.<br />
He stayed on for three years after<br />
the sale. But he said what he was really<br />
looking for was a career change.<br />
“I was burned out from being a<br />
supplier,” Chuck Davis said.<br />
That’s about the same time his cousin<br />
Ron offered him the opportunity to<br />
be a partner in <strong>Alaska</strong> Roadbuilders.<br />
“It was an excellent opportunity to<br />
share the risks and opportunity,” he said.<br />
In his fourth season with <strong>Alaska</strong><br />
Roadbuilders, Chuck Davis said he<br />
still hasn’t had a bad day at work.<br />
“I love the day-to-day challenges of<br />
getting a job done,” he said. “A bad day<br />
to me is when someone gets hurt.”<br />
Senior editor Heather A. Resz is an <strong>Alaska</strong><br />
writer who lives in the Wasilla area.