Meet Koniag’s newest subsidiary: Anderson Construction Company
Koniag has been making a concerted effort to diversify businesses as part of our new business model. One of the most exciting developments was the 2012 purchase of a heavy-construction company based in Kodiak. For the past 32 years, Anderson Construction has worked on a diverse range of local projects, mostly on the road system, but also including work on the Pillar Mountain wind turbines, Terror Lake hydroelectric and underground utilities.
Teaming up with Anderson helps Koniag’s family of companies offer a broader range of services that enables our corporation to pursue more contracts. The advantage to Anderson is that the company now has access to Koniag’s strong capabilities.
“Physically, we’re still doing business as usual,” says company founder Mike Anderson (no relation to Will Anderson), “with the exception of we have access to bigger projects. One of the main things we’re doing right now is opening up the Shakmanof Cove granite quarry. That’s a major project.”
Anderson has eight full-time employees and brings on additional, temporary employees during seasonal workload increases.
“Some of the other projects we’re looking at for Koniag,” Anderson says, “like the Port Lions ferry dock, we’re going to be adding additional employees.”
The projects Anderson Construction manages, benefits the entire community of Kodiak by creating infrastructure – such as the boat launch, parking lots, road maintenance and repairing the leak to the tunnel at Terror Lake, utilized by all Kodiak residents.
“And we sell gravel and topsoil and all types of rock products to any users and other contractors,” Anderson says. “At the quarry, we’ll be producing armor rock for marine projects. The rock is of extremely high quality and we hope to be able to use it for aggregate for paving roads in the future. It’s a huge resource and we hope to be able to export it. Anything from there has to come by barge, anyhow, and Kodiak is centrally located to the road system of Alaska.”
Anderson states that the rock mined at the Shakmanof Cove quarry is very hard and, when used in asphalt, it better resists the wear and tear caused by studded tires over other rock products. Because of this, Koniag’s quarry will be a benefit to Alaskans far beyond Kodiak Island, helping local governments save money on frequent road re-paving.
Anderson Construction is well-positioned for growth and, as Mike Anderson gets closer to retirement age, he wanted a partner who was based in Kodiak and would take good care of the company he worked so hard to build.
“We have plenty of equipment to do most any and all projects,” he says. “Koniag offers a lot of opportunities, particularly in the rock quarry and other projects moving forward. They give us a lot of capabilities to do more work and explore new horizons.”