How they keep the materials moving in Alaska's winter

TRANSPORTATION has always I been an integral part of the lumber and building material trade. But no where else in the West is this relationship quite the same as hauling to, from and around Alaska.

During the summer months, the weather is best and the widest variety of transportation modes and companies is available. The temperature is actually recorded in positive numbers.

The choices beginning in fall and lasting until late spring, though, become rather limited. "Everybody just folds up for the season," explains Dick York, assistant manager of Palmer G. Lewis Co., Inc.. in Anchorage, Ak. "lt's because there just isn't enough business to support many businesses, and because the weather is very poor. The Gulf of Alaska, in particular, becomes choked with ice."

Two large shipping lines do stay open for business: Sea-Land, a national container ship operation, and Totem Ocean Trailer Express (TOTE), the local Washington-toAlaska company. Resembling aircraft carriers almost three football fields in length, their ships accommodate anything on wheels or tracks. Whatever a shipper uses for his overland moves (standard trailer, highboy, lowboy, piggyback, opentop, flatbed or other conveyance) is rolled or crane-lifted onto one of the trailership's five levels.

The ships can complete a round trip between Tacoma, Wa., and Anchorage in less than a week. Transport time is about 2-ll2 daYs each way, with port turnaround about l0 to 15 hours.

But rough winter conditions can cause trouble even for the big transports. Late last November, one of the first storms of the season ravaged a TOTE vessel with rolls of 40'. Nine vans were washed overboard.

Shippers must also take sPecial precautions. "Some material, if sensitive to moisture like plywood, is loaded on flats and then covered with poly," says Harold Brandt, traffic manager for PGL in Auburn, Wa. "During winter months, some other commodities tend to fteeze, like water-based paints, so we shiP them in heated and speciallY insulated containers."

Story at a Glance

Fighting temperatures as low as minus 50 degrees, ocean and land shippers battle brutal conditions. special shiPPing and packaging precautions dictated by weather. cold and darkness take their toll.

Some carriers. such as TOTE, offer specially insulated trailers which are plugged into the ship's electrical system.

Shippers' only other choice is Alaska HydroTrain, a Seattle-toAnchorage barge service. Products are carried by a "tandem tow," a tug pulling a pair of different sized barges. Many of the units have wheels so they can be rolled onto railroad cars when they reach port. A one-way trip takes eight to nine days.

The rates are much cheaPer because the transit time is much slower, yet PGL uses this to their advantage. "We try to get Anchorage to sell (the product) while it's on the water," explains Brandt. "We advise what's coming up and they've got about l0 days to sell it." Selling it while it's on the ship saves an unnecessary trip to the warehouse. The product can be offloaded and shipped straight to the customer.

This is especially helpful in supplying the many islands of Alaska, which often must rely on summer shipments for virtually their entire inventories. Except for a June to August window of nice weather, service to western coastal islands is reportedly very margina..

Another characteristic of dealing in the High North is the length of daylight and darkness. "But you learn to live with that, too," says York. "During winter comes the shortest day, 5 hours and 20 minutes of light." The opposite occurs during summer. "When you wake up in the early morning, it's been light out for hours, and when you go to bed at night the sun still has yet to set," he adds.

Yet weather conditions provide shippers with most of their problems. In Fairbanks, Ak., for example, temperatures of 40'-50" below zeto are not unusual. On the roads, all the expected winter driving troubles arise.

"l was talking to one of our truck drivers recently," recounted York, "who said he got to Fairbanks on a trip a couple of years ago and it was 67" below. He pulled the tarp off the load and the tarp stood there like a tent. He couldn't fold it. lt was so stiff you could have driven a car through it. He said during that trip the warmest day was 45o below."

But even in the subfreezing regions of Alaska, somehow they keep the lumber moving.