On Nov. 30, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake created significant damage to bridges and roads, including a highly used off-ramp at International Airport Road and Minnesota Drive in Anchorage. Within hours the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities organized a number of contractors to begin repairs to this major junction near the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.
It was a time of neighbors going door to door to check on each other, of people working around the clock so families and workplaces could reopen their doors. Nov. 30, 2018, was a momentous day in the history of Southcentral Alaska, and not just because of the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that disrupted the morning. While political division swirled both in and outside the state.
Click here to see how Alaskans came together to help each other in our collective time of need.
In a related article Earthquake Aftermath Sean Baski, DOT&PF’s design project manager explained how the community effort proved that Alaskans can overcome tough situations.
“We were lucky in many ways, from it not being a larger event to having a communication backbone that still worked to having lower volumes of traffic on the road (because it was winter and much of the work happened over the weekend) and still having major utility and infrastructure outages being limited,” Baski said. “We made some of our own luck as well, but the one constant we had was our community came together to overcome a common challenge and did so in spectacular fashion.”
Courtesy of the AGC of Alaska, Contractor Magazine, Spring 2019 Issue
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