It's a cold morning in December in Anchorage, and we are shutting down the boilers for a planned upgrade. With typical long winters and frozen ground, most construction in Alaska is done in the summer, and getting a good bid and contractor by June is virtually impossible. With the high demand of summer construction comes high prices. To ease the summer construction load, the Anchorage School District has recently been doing smaller construction projects over winter break. Winter construction does require planning and backup contingencies to avoid the risk of freezing the building. However, due to the low demand for contractors during this time period, bid prices have been very competitive.
Turnagain Elementary School, located in Anchorage, has had a chronic problem with cracking sections of the cast iron boilers in recent years. The building was constructed in the '50s with a large radiant floor heating system and single firetube boiler.