By Lori Kropidlowski, AEI
Special recognition is in order for two of Ahtna Environmental’s top construction employees, Alan Christman (Superintendent) and Justin Dunn (Sr. Project Manager). Alan and Justin mobilized to our Port Adams Research Facility project site in Astoria, Oregon to complete the reroofing of five buildings for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), one of Ahtna’s signature clients.
They did this during the heart of our season while still actively managing other projects. This meant they worked a full day on this roofing project – and then kept up with their other project management commitments well into the evening. Their extra efforts and sacrifice were due to their understanding of the importance of NOAA as a client and the need to keep the project within budget.
The scope of work included tearing off the existing cedar shake roofs and installing a new product called Enviro-shake. None of the local roofing contractors provided a bid because of the unknown qualities of this new product which was specifically required by NOAA. As a direct result of Justin and Alan’s planning and execution, it only took 15 days for Ahtna to install over 12,000 square feet of Enviro-shake roofing on some very steep roof pitches. This would have taken over a month with any other roofing crew. In addition to the production output – the quality, safety and client satisfaction they maintained was outstanding as indicated from these comments from Jen Zamon, Project Manager with NOAA.
“FYI the contractors were great. They were neat, tidy, worked hard, worked safely, stayed on time, and were as considerate as possible with our needs. Very polite. If I had to have these guys work on my house, I’d hire them, surely. They did a fabulous job, and I watched one guy who was constantly sorting and going through the shingle bundles to check on quality control so that any shingles that weren’t up to snuff went into the discard pile and were not put on the roof. The end result seems to be a good job.”
Bernie Wong, Ahtna’s Pacific Northwest Regional Director commented:
“Justin and his team have done a fantastic job at the NWFSC Hammond Lab and NOAA was very happy with their performance. I truly appreciate the Anchorage-based carpentry team to deliver a project to our NOAA client with flying colors. Thank you Justin and Alan!”
Ron DesGranges, Ahtna’s Director of Construction also commented:
“The installation was very technical and these guys hit a homer. They really went above and beyond on this one.”
