< PreviousWRITTEN BY EMMA KILCAWLEY HEMANI of the country – or anywhere around the world, to their job sites within Alaska.” The company has an extensive range of heavy equip- ment, including general freight, semi-trucks, trailers, flatbeds and step decks ranging from 50 to 110 tons. Its bigger trailers can transport an incredible 80 feet of cargo ranging in weight from zero to 110 tonnes and 24 feet wide and navigate the challenging terrain through the use of push trucks that provide “extra traction and horsepower to get up some of the hills.” Hyce explained that, in addition to its fleet of forklifts and loaders, the company maintains excellent relationships with local crane companies. “If we don’t have the equipment, we’ll get the equipment to do it.” STR Alaska also boasts the only SPMT – Self Propelled Module Transporter —the only one in the state. This remote-controlled unit is capa- ble of moving over 300 tons and can turn 360 degrees. Hyce says that it is “a pretty cool piece of equipment.” I n business, it can be difficult to excel at everything. Sometimes, spreading yourself thin can result in dimin- ishing returns and companies can be better minded focusing on one track. However, occasionally a company emerges with the skill, ability, and dedication to meet a sector’s needs in multiple areas. STR Alaska is one such company. Covering anything and everything that falls under the umbrella of transportation, it offers high quality and professionalism in everything from basic trucking to project management, project tracking and logistics controls. Primarily operating in the state of Alaska, STR Alaska handles a lot of cargo originating from the lower states, transporting goods via truck, steamships, barges, and any means necessary. Its clients receive additional support and assurance knowing that the company also coordinates the water shipments. Cody Hyce, VP of Operations and Logistics at STR Alaska describes the company as “a one-stop shop for our customers to get their cargo into the country from outside | 70 DECEMBER 2023| 71 APEIRON CONSTRUCTIONWhile the company has experienced significant growth since its inception in 2014, it has had a sustained period of suc- cess in recent years. This has led to the company growing its fleet, and its portfolio, substantially in this time. This growth includes the addition of 40 trucks, several fuel tankers and the purchase of a fuel logistics company in 2020 which has been integrated into the operation. Alongside this, the com- pany now has three shop facilities in the Fairbanks area. In possibly its most significant move, Hyce explains that STR Alaska found its “forever home” in 2021, having previously been occupying a rented premises. STR Alaska is now situ- ated on a 13-acre site that includes multiple buildings. Within this context, it is no surprise that the company has taken on a high number of new employees, something that Hyce believes helps support the local community also. It goes without saying that all of this success and growth could not be achieved without being on a solid footing. STR Alaska will celebrate its tenth anniversary next year, evidence of a company that has consistently been able to offer its cli- ents the highest quality. Hyce attributes this success to two things, employees and customers. “Without our customers, we wouldn’t have anything really and without our employees, nothing would happen.” He goes on to explain that the com- pany started with a desire to ensure quality and control ran through every aspect of the business. “We had a dedication to owning everything we did. Because we were initially so small, we were able to own everything start to finish. Still to this day, when you get a call, you don’t just get customer service, you get the person that knows where the load came from or knows what’s going on. That one person will answer the questions, everything inclusive of that project.” For Hyce, what sets the company apart from its competi- tors is its outlook. For him, it comes down to an attitude of responsibility and diligence. “We take ownership over each piece of cargo and each shipment as if it’s the only one we’re doing at that time.” sets them apart from everyone else. This is evidenced in the trajectory the company has experienced since the beginning. In 2014, just months after the company was founded, STR Alaska moved its first eighty-tonne mod- ule. At the time, only two other companies offered that level of service in the state. For Hyce, this was “a big step for a trucking company in Alaska.” Now however, the company sits at number one as the primary go-to in the state. This has been achieved through its involvement in many high-profile and successful projects that have evolved and | 72 DECEMBER 2023grown from each other. For instance, in 2016, STR Alaska completed its first rig move and now is starting work on a major project. Hyce explained that the project with Conoco Phillips and Santos Oil Search in securing a major development contract on the North Slope is a big deal. “To me, that’s a big milestone – it will be a mark in the book, a good one,” he said. Success in business does not come without challenges, how- ever. The company’s growth has meant that its need to secure truck drivers has grown exponentially —thirty per cent since January. While Hyce accepts that this is a positive develop- ment, the landscape for skilled workers is a challenge. “We’ve been able to grow, but we have always been dedicated to qual- ity over quantity. Compared to 2016 or 2017, the challenge in acquiring good staff seems relatively the same. If we measure off the same baseline, meaning if the volume of cargo or loads that need to move stayed the same, we’d have the same prob- lem – the graph would run parallel,” he explained. However, the volume has now increased five or sixfold, he added, meaning the difficulty to find skilled drivers has increased – especially as a result of the pandemic. One element of its recruitment that adds an additional layer of difficulty is its strict adherence to safety. At STR Alaska, safety is always the priority, and this is not something the team will sacrifice. Hyce explained, “Some companies may not see as much of a struggle in hiring staff as we are, but we are not willing to sacrifice safety and quality for less qualified employees.” With an outlook of positivity and growth for this year and next, the team at STR Alaska is expecting to double its volume of freight work. Moving beyond this, Hyce also believes that the latest developments in the Prudhoe Bay oilfields of Alaska, mean that there is likely to be an oil boom for a number of years to come. He explained: “We’re going to have more dollars to do things better. Things are only going to get better, we’re not looking at any hard times – if anything, the only hard time we have is figuring out how we’re going to cover the next week without having to tell any clients we are too busy to help them.” With a growing reputation as the number one logistics oper- ator in Alaska and the milestone of a decade in business to come next year, STR Alaska is on the rise and by the looks of things, will continue to be for another decade after this. “STR Alaska will celebrate its tenth anniversary next year, evidence of a company that has consistently been able to offer its clients the highest quality.” | 73 APEIRON CONSTRUCTIONWRITTEN BY DAVID O’NEILL C ountless industries are working towards viable solu- tions for the ongoing energy crisis. Infrastructure networks are at a tipping point of sorts. Historic systems are no longer able to keep up with the enormous demands being placed on them and as adverse weather conditions add to this strain, governments are tasked with making difficult choices. Do they pump addition funding into these failing systems with a view to restoring them to former glories, or should this money be invested in newer, more sustainable sources of energy. While G7 leaders may resoundingly agree that funding should be directed towards newer, cleaner sources of energy, problems persist. Clean energy grids are thin on the ground. Without these, net-zero is virtually impossible. According to Lisa Fischer, head of the energy systems program at climate think-tank E3G, storage and capacity issues fundamentally challenge the world’s ability to meet emissions targets. “There’s very little detail, so it’s quite hard to turn these targets into a grid agenda. “Grids are anticipatory investments,” she says. “You have to ‘guess’ where the capacity and the demand is going to be and then invest massively. And so, the more certainty policymakers can give about the direction the better, and the easier it is for transmission system operators and developers of those grids to take that risk.” | 74 DECEMBER 2023For many, the direction has long been centered around solar energy. So, how can this viable energy source, abun- dant and free, be accessed across existing geographical features as time runs out? The answer may already be at our feet. Roads, paths, highways, and parking lots. The interconnecting infrastructure network is an essential part of human life. The benefits it brings are innumerable. How- ever, the cost involved with development, maintenance and repair is enormous and their design and materials haven’t changed in decades. For some, the proposition of replacing these networks with solar panels offered an opportunity to build sustainable energy grids with minimal disruption to existing networks. Using technology that has been avail- able for a number of years, a start-up in Idaho did try to make that a reality. Solar Roadways devised a “multi-fea- tured, modern, modular intelligent infrastructure product which also produces clean energy in places.” The path was laid in hexagonal tiles creating a network of energy produc- tion. At the time, the company claimed that it was capable of withstanding the same weight and pressure as concrete or asphalt, and many believed that this innovative product could be the energy generating roads of the future. How- ever, Installing photovoltaic roads is a time- and resource- heavy project. | 75 APEIRON CONSTRUCTIONWhile Solar Roadways argued that the electricity gains in the long run would offset those initial costs, the company claimed its panels had a 23 percent power efficiency rate, the project has yet to see the light of day. It was announced with huge fanfare and initial suggestions were that the company could eventually cover all of the country’s roads in photovol- taic panels, an energy source that could generate 23.7 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity. Sadly, the project was a failure with cost and reliability being the greatest challenges. Ulti- mately, the technology was not at the right level and alterna- tive solar networks offered a cheaper and easier method of accessing energy. That does not mean, however, that combining infrastructure and solar energy is a defunct concept. Since 2014, the city of Sejong in South Korea has been operating what is referred to as a Solar Bike Lane. This five-and-a-half-mile stretch of path sits in the middle of an eight-lane highway and is furnished with solar panels that illuminate the streets below. The path’s ‘Solar Roof’ covers three of the 5.5 miles and includes an incredible 7,502 solar panels. It produces an average of 2,200 MWh of clean electricity that powers many of the streetlights and electrical signage in the city. This is the equivalent of powering 600 households. So, as Solar Roadways walls by the wayside, are Solar Bike Lanes the new direction for energy sources? Kim Geun-ho, a researcher from the Green Energy Institute based in South Korea, believes so. “Solar panels in public facilities are part of a trend in clean energy. At the beginning stage, solar power generation was mostly con- structed in vast farmland and mountainous areas. It moved on to public facility rooftops, and finally have evolved to play the role of a shelter and power generator at the same time, in this case, a roof on top of a bike road.” This example shows that there is certainly an appetite for combining transport and energy, but in effect, these panels are no different of fixed panels in any location. In the Neth- erlands, however, a town has taken things even further. The Dutch province of North Brabant has announced that con- struction has begun on a 500 meter long, ground-mounted solar cycle path that runs along a provincial road. One of the main causes of solar roadways’ failure was its inability to withstand the weight of road traffic. With this consideration now removed from the equation, can the project be reimag- ined? According to the local government, the project is more of a fact-finding mission than a viable energy source, for now. “This project is mainly intended to gain more experience with the deployment of solar cells on bicycle paths.” The Netherlands does also have past experience with the concept of solar cycling lanes. The province of Utrecht has installed solar cycle tracks as part of a national drive to test the viability of solar power production on road infrastructure. “If the outcome is positive, solar panels on cycle paths can make an important contribution to reducing the use of fossil fuels and making the provincial infrastructure more sustain- able,” the province of Utrecht said. “No agricultural or natural land needs to be used and the landscape is not affected.” While many of these projects are still at an early stage and the road has had to endure numerous setbacks, the relation- ship between solar energy and transportation networks is strengthening. According to Dr. Karolina Baltins at Fraunhofer Institute, who heads up its PV power plants team, the positive | 76 DECEMBER 2023effects of PV Cycle Lanes can cover many elements. “We not only use the solar power of the cycle path canopy, but we are using the knowledge gathered from the pilot project and incorporating it into our research in order to answer the diverse questions for PV in urban areas.” It is through the use of pre-existing networks that govern- ments can build forward, develop more resilient power grids and establish viable alternatives to fossil fuels. The journey ahead may yet prove to have a number of twists and turns, and the road is undoubtedly going to be a bumpy one, but by the looks of things, it is also likely to be one that collects and stores solar energy. With time running out to achieve net-zero, using what we already have may give countries a fighting chance. solarroadways.com | 77 APEIRON CONSTRUCTIONSUPPORTED BY 8 Reimar Forming and Construction AGF REBAR IRONWORKERS 736 LIUNA 837 LOCAL 1030 STANMORE EQUIPMENT 14 Defalco Construction AIC ENGINEERING CFS STEEL POSITIVE LIFTING TITAN FORMWORK 28 R.J. Zavoral and Sons Inc. BUTLER MACHINERY 36 CS Erickson INDEPENDENT BANK 56 Powerhouse Management Group Inc. HEI STRATEGIC LOGISTICS KRAHN ENGINEERING LTD ROBERTSON BUILDING SYSTEMS 66 IRL Group JD ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS| 79 APEIRON CONSTRUCTIONNext >