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PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: Cruz Construction, Inc. can take you (and your projects) anywhere Long-time all-Alaska construction company offers wide range of services to potential clients Jen Ransom PNA Contributing Writer
Sometimes when you’ve got the skills you have to take chances and go into business for yourself. That’s what Dave Cruz of Cruz Construction Inc. did almost 22 years ago when he left Kodiak Oil Field Haulers, now Peak Oilfield Service Co., and started his own Alaska-based construction business.
Cruz Construction is involved in a gamut of different construction projects throughout Alaska, from the private sector to government contracts, including oilfield work. The company, with facilities in Palmer and Fairbanks, offers a diverse selection of construction services to the Alaska community.
Cruz Construction has four main divisions: general contracting, land clearing, horizontal directional drilling and ice road construction, any of which may serve either remote, off-road or on-the-highway-system projects. Ice road construction and horizontal directional drilling have been an important piece of Cruz’s business plan.
Cruz says he understands the need for in-state construction companies to be equipped and available to work with the oil and gas companies working within Alaska. “I worked on the pipeline way back in 1976, before I started this company,” Cruz told PNA. “I’ve been doing this a long time. I know what it takes to work with these companies and agencies.” And Cruz has put a lot of thought into what his company could do in order to compete for the many construction jobs that are put out to bid year after year.
Ice road and off-road construction Last year, Cruz Construction built 75 miles of ice road for the Northern Intertie Powerline project through the Tanana Flats. This included blazing the trail, crossing four major rivers (including the Tanana) and about 20 smaller streams in remote Bush country. Because ice roads often pass through “the middle of nowhere,” Cruz plans his equipment purchases around the fact that they must have remote capabilities. “All of our equipment is Herc-able,” said Cruz in a recent interview, “Our equipment is easily transportable to remote areas.” This is important because a business of his size cannot compete head-to-head with the large service companies. By being able to take its equipment to places that some of the major contenders would have trouble getting to economically, and by having the right equipment for the job, Cruz Construction has carved out its own niche in the ice road industry. “To my knowledge, we are the only guys rigged up for this,” said Cruz. “We lowered the cost to get there, so we are drawing the business to us.”
Cruz Construction’s fleet of equipment is adaptable for all-season use in sensitive environments. For example, his rolligon ATV engines may be outfitted with ice drills and pumping units for winter ice road work, or with tanks for hauling water in summer fire suppression efforts. Volvo articulated trucks may haul water in the winter for ice roads or dirt in dump beds on summer excavation projects. Foremost Delta 3s can haul material or recover equipment lost in otherwise inaccessible areas. All the vehicles may be equipped with LGP rubber tires and can pull an assortment of trailers, sleighs and camp units on tracks, Nodwell tracks or rubber tires. Careful selection of equipment with an eye to future need is the key to competing economically, Cruz said.
Cruz Construction’s ability to efficiently transport materials and equipment to environmentally sensitive areas and provide expertise and equipment to do a job effectively offers it the opportunity to compete for interesting prospects it might not otherwise pursue.
Horizontal directional drilling In 1997, Cruz was involved with a telecommunications project that ran through Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. property. Cruz Construction cleared the right of way for the project but an out-of-state horizontal directional drilling company had to come up to bore the crossings for the fiber optics, as there were no Alaska construction companies available to do the horizontal directional drilling at that time. Cruz jumped at the opportunity to be one of the first. “We sent our guys to the (drill rig) factory for training, brought trainers up here and even had trainers work directly with crews on site,” said Cruz. “We bought our first horizontal directional drilling equipment in 1998.” The company has bought two more horizontal directional drill rigs since then. “It’s the same as computers,” said Cruz. “They are high tech. You need to continually upgrade your equipment.”
Though its first projects were in fiber optics, Cruz Construction now does many kinds of utility borings for telecommunications, power, oil and gas and cathodic protection. Cruz estimated that approximately 110 bores were drilled this last season, providing pipeline routes under roads, streams and buildings. Lengths varied from 50 feet to 2,000 feet. Late in 2001, Cruz Construction completed the Drift River crossing, drilling 1,850 feet at a depth of 65 feet below the river, to pull a 120-ton, 20-inch steel pipe back across to Drift River terminal. The project required nine barge loads of equipment to be shipped across Cook Inlet in the late fall, racing with tides and weather. Cruz said the project was finished “without a hitch.”
A new way of doing business To keep its fleet rolling, Cruz Construction expends many man-hours instructing its employees in the operation and maintenance of equipment. However, Cruz said he also was looking a little further into the future than just equipment and training programs. With the oil and gas exploration independents starting to emerge in Alaska, Cruz says he wants Cruz Construction to be able to serve their needs, as well. Since the philosophy of many of these companies is to streamline and do as much of the work as possible in-house, Cruz decided to take on that same attitude.
This year, Cruz took on its first “design-build” project — a government project to construct a new biathlon training center for the U.S. Army at Fort Wainwright to International Olympic Committee specifications. In the design-build model, the project owner provides requirements for a job. The contractor puts together a team of engineers, designers and specialty contractors, etc., who design the project from the ground up with the owner’s input. The contractor then builds, producing the final result at a negotiated fixed cost. The benefit is that one entity, the contractor, controls all phases of the project from its inception, resulting in a streamlined chain of command, efficient production and far fewer surprises and additional costs.
Sound like a lot of work? You bet! But just think of the time it saves when one company is in charge of all aspects of a project from day one. At a traditional construction site, if a problem is discovered the worker must contact his supervisor, who must contact the owner, who contacts the engineers and architects, who must figure out a solution to the problem and try to cut through all the red tape and contract language of the various companies and agencies, to get the solution back down the chain to the work site. Setbacks are inevitable and changes cost money.
Enter the concept of design build. Coordination of all those different aspects of the project are under the same roof. Granted, Cruz Construction does not have a back room stuffed with engineers waiting to come out for the next available project. As Cruz put it, “You have to have some talented and devoted people” to do a job like this. But because Cruz Construction hires the engineers, architects and such, a problem in the design found on the work site can be figured and fixed in an hour, instead of days or weeks.
“This is our first one (design build),” said Cruz. “We’ve had nothing but praise.” Cruz says that although this first project is a government project, the company plans on bringing this concept into the world of oil and gas construction needs. He says that both the majors and the independents could benefit from streamlining these sorts of projects.
To contact Cruz Construction Inc., please call (907) 746-3144.
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