Arctic Transporting

[Northart]

Here's how it's done off road on the Alaska North Slope.

Catco All Terrain Vehicles for summer and winter.

We call them Rolligons. There is a drive roller on top of the air bags. Quite the rig. :)

I posted this before, but it got lost in the server upgrade.

[Northart]

Here's how Kodiak Oilfield Haulers used to haul a 4600 Manitowoc around Prudhoe Bay.

Kenworth truck and 2 trailers side by side running down the oil field roads. Of course it made for one way traffic.

Seems like I remember:cool: they used 2 trucks and 2 trailers with a crossbar pinned at the top of the trailer.

Been many years , this is the only picture I could find. :( LOL Memory fading .

[Cody]

Great photos, post some more if you have them!

[RollOver Pete]

Welcome to HEF Cody :drinkup
:cool:

[stepp3360]

Northart,
Always glad to see your Alaskan pictures. I worked for several years with S&G Construction in the Anchorage office. I have many a memory of sending lot's of trucks and equipment to the oil field. However, I never thought about taking pictures back then. Do you have any more Kodiak Oil Field pictures?
Thanks,
john

[Countryboy]

Welcome to Heavy Equipment Forums Cody! :drinkup

[Countryboy]

Welcome to Heavy Equipment Forums stepp3360! :drinkup

[Northart]

Hi Stepp3360, (John)

Sorry, that is the only one,of Kodiak Oilfield Haulers, and I searched all over the net to find that one.

Here I worked for years on the slope and never thought about recording a pictorial history of the early days amazing events.

I thought I would live forever, and return constantly to take pictures another day. Ha ! Little did I know life goes on without me, as others take over.

I was there when they moved that 4600 various times with different trucks and trailer configurations. A truly Impressive sight to see. A fully dressed Manitowoc 4600 coming down the road with 300' of boom lowered and 2 trucks and trailers side x side tied together . :usa

I was operating grader then maintaining the roads for Sealift moves , and got to see most of the Big Sealift Moves.

The Creepy Crawlers, moving the modules , I never got a picture of, although I got to see them up close 1st hand.

The 2000 ton Kuparuk Bridge and low water crossing I worked on.

The Big Sealifts are over. Just smaller modules moving by truck up to the slope these days.

I remember S&G , although never worked for them.

I think Billy O'Laughlin worked for them as Superintendant, Project Manager ? Been a long time ago.

I'll have to search my 35mm pix for North Slope stuff. Might have something forgotten somewhere.

[AK20]

Good old Rolligons:D I just picked one of those up here in town a couple months ago for transport back to Prudhoe(I moonlight as a trucker), it's amazing how much those things weight and how little imprint they have.

[stepp3360]

Northart,
It's great to hear these days from someone that remembers what I call the golden days of the Alaska oil patch. Yes Billy Mac, was S&G's main north slope guy. It really has been a long time, as I worked at S&G 80-82 The last I remember Billy had started an outfit called "Cold weather Contractor's", just about the time the oil patch really slowed down in the mid 80's. Don't think it work out. I have always enjoyed all your posting, I really like your insight on working in the true north country. Didn't you work for AIC,too? I have following the big AIC trial in Anchorage this passed year. Lot's of interesting things to read.
John

[Northart]

Hi Stepp3360,

Now you jogged my memory somewhat. Billy MacLaughlin ,Boyd Brown were the principals of Cold Weather Contractors.

Yes, they had a nice little upstart company. Fell upon the hard times. Boyd was with Tennesee Miller for years. I worked for Boyd, a nice man. Since has passed on.

Yes, somehow I end up going from project to project. Worked for AIC at Pogo Gold Mine and the Dalton Hwy.

John Ellsworth and the new CIRI management had a falling out that ended up in court. Kinda like a divorce action. John made the company tons of money, yet others were unhappy ...???

I didn't think it was necessary to go court. But thats what people do. I'll leave it at that.

Oil patch is picking up now, with the high oil prices. Exploration isn't like in the old days though.

Maybe now the Natural Gas Line may actually come to life. TransCanada has been chosen(Alaska Gas Inducement Act) from a field of applicants, to build one. :)

[stepp3360]

Northart,
Your up early this am. Seems we have hijacked this trailer thread on a personal history lesson. I never had the pleasure of working with Boyd Brown, but heard lot's of stories. Seem Elsworth ran AIC like the old school crowd. Difficult in the corp. world of today.
I check out the AKDot web often, just to see whom is getting the state work. I have watched though the years as all my favorite outfits MB, S&G,etc bit the dust. Now only seems to be Wilder, and QAP. Also surprised to see the Quality Paving is owned by Colas from France, and of course Granite owns Wilder. What's happen to all the Alaska owned outfits? The only outfit that I still know anybody at is John Herring and Construction Unlimited. Another S&G guy.

You too have me thinking about the good old years I spent growing up in Alaska!
Lot's of great stories, and how stupid about 10 total pictures. Really wasn't too smart. Oh well. John

[thejdman04]

great pics

[Northart]

Hello Stepp3360,

Yes, the construction industry here in Alaska , sure has changed in the last few years. Consolidation, consolidation,consolidation is the name of the game. ;)

Eliminating the opposition. Everybody trying to increase their market share. Markets drying up elsewhere is attracting outsiders here to the healthy abundance of work.

The old time firms have gone to the dust. One reason I think that changed the dynamics of the industry, is that State furnished material sites , have gone by the wayside to privately furnished material sites. :(

A big political scheme that shifted the work away from , MB,Green,Northwestern, etc. to Quality, Wilder,etc.

It demanded that cons't firms enter the material resource ,real estate market place , to secure many huge,private sites scattered all over the place as jobs opened up.

Quite a discouragement to the old firms, not wanting to broaden into other extraneous efforts to support normal work. The new entries sure jumped at the chance to gain a foothold through political and privateering enterprises , to support now, a seemingly near monopoly .

Just more posturing by savvy business. Creating , a one stop company that does it all. The politics of construction.

Yes, I know John Herring.:) His firm (ACU) did a recent W&S project here in Talkeetna.

His equipment is immaculate always ! :) Clean,painted, well maintained spread. No broken glass, no missing mirrors, scratched,bent,damaged equipment on his job. Chrome exhausts, all safety,brand name,decals in place. An outstanding,reputable, firm with high quality work. :usa

[stepp3360]

Northart,
Glad to hear the John Herring is still business. Thanks for the education on Alaskan construction. Guess things have really changed. I do remember when the state did supply the gravel sites. made it lot's easier to finance the operation. I left S&G after it was sold to Nabors, and then ran by Preston Lockner. Seems it was never the same, they got out of state work, and then really had a big job on the slope go bad. They purchased a bunch of Petebilt off road tractors with 65,000 rears to pull belly dumps and then overloaded them to point that at most were down waiting on new axle shafts. Couldn't get it done under budget without the overloading, but couldn't keep enough trucks hauling either. I heard S&G lost millions on that job. Seem it wasn't too long after that job, that NC Machinery had everything for sell.
Again some more history notes to share. \
John

[Northart]

Here's picture of the Cat D11R being moved in the Canadian Arctic . Tar Sands Project.

[bobcat ron]

That's just a big Tonka toy.

[Northart]

This is in the Antarctic, Challenger pulling freight sleds.

[bobcat ron]

I'll bet KoO is looking at that pic thinking...."if only I had a million bucks......"

[surfer-joe]

One of Greens problems in Alaska was that they couldn't keep a backlog of work for equipment to stay busy on. Knowing that, project managers would not let equipment superintendents make proper repairs or do necessary maintenance towards end of job so as to lower their costs and make project look good. Next project had big problems starting up as equipment needed a lot of work.

It was also much too expensive to ship iron back and forth to lower 48, though some did make the trip. I had one Linkbelt 150 tonner in Wyoming that made the trip down. Got it again in Pennsylvania 15 years later though it never was in Alaska again after the Wyoming work.

[guest]

Rolligon corp. is located about 15 miles from me in Carlos,Tex. Huge tires on those things, business must be good they added a new building last year and are starting iron work on another now.

[bobcat ron]

http://www.rolligon.com/index.htm

[stepp3360]

Great comments about Green issues in Alaska. I remember going a fishing trip as a child to Copper Center Alaska. Out in the middle of nowhere, here this big shop and equipment storage yard. This was early 70's,and I was told Green had their Alaskan shop located 200 miles from Anchorage, because their were no property taxes. They were still running a fleet of late 50's Autocar tractor's pulling cable end dumps. Lot's of tied junk! Did see my first DD9G push loading Cat's 666 on one of their many road jobs near Anchorage about the same time.
John

[Big Iron]

Boy I had no idea that there were so many ex-slopers on this site. I worked for Mukluk the first time on the slope back in the late 70,s early 80,s, then for Pingo (how many of you remember them) I left them to go to work for Billy and Boyd (Good people to work for) at Cold Weather for about a year. Unfourtunatley it was just after he lost the contract in Kuparik (need sp check here) and shortly after that they sold out, then moving on the VECO when CWC closed shop (boy was that a rude awakening) and worked for them for about 8 years. Last i heard from Vern McKensie was that Billy was the president of Peak Alaska.
That photo of the 4600 brings back many old memories, I hauled Mukluks all over the Slope.
I had to laugh at the mention of Green, their yard was directly behind the Mukluk yard and every spring we had to remove all the snow we had pushed between the pads.
I can't count the times I dug up their phone lines that ran through the ditch between the 2 pads.
Boy life goes by fast. I did go back for VECO last year for 4 hitches, but being in my golden years it was a wee bit cold, that being said I still wan't to go back! (how to you spell stupid!)
keep the photos coming Northart, I will go through some of mine and get them scanned, most are Muckluk and VECO but what the H there still the slope:drinkup
By the way my best friend is a man named Ray Garrett (remember GSL) he worked for Becthl now CATCO and was insturmental in the redesign of the Rolligons to make them work in the artic. He's 70 years old now and he and I are getting ready to head back to West Africa for Chevron (again how do you spell stupid)
The photo is me (I think its me, however the memory is not what it used to be, anyway I moved it several time with that rig) using SOHIO's prime mover and their trailers to move the American 11320 w/200' o boom in it