newsminer.com

Photo by Sam Harrel

Photo by Sam Harrel

Photo by Sam Harrel

FAIRBANKS — A welder for more than 36 years, Brian Quackenbush flipped down a worn hood before cutting into a section of pipe.

A shower of fire-red sparks screened the tradesman as two Caterpillar machines with side booms secured the sections from dangling hooks.

After years in the field, Quackenbush is now a part-time instructor for the Fairbanks Pipeline Training Center, and someone who Don Lowry with the Alaska Operating Engineers called one of the “creme de la creme” of welding professionals.

“There comes a time you just can’t do it day after day,” the burly Quackenbush said of the taxing job. “It’s kind of nice to pass some of this on.”

His precise cut through a section of large-diameter pipe was the ceremonial cap Thursday afternoon to the dedication of a new 52-acre training site in South Fairbanks.

On hand to celebrate were many of the endeavor’s partners in industry, government and unions, along with two flatbeds full of workers in coveralls, orange safety vests and bright hard hats. Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development Commissioner Click Bishop urged supporters to keep the end goal in mind — that by next year, dormitories and other infrastructure could open the training grounds to year-round operations preparing the next generation of Alaskans for the next generation of energy work in Alaska.

“There’s no reason we can’t do that within the state,” said Mike Andrews, director of Alaska Works Partnership, a key player in the Fairbanks academy.

After all, that’s likely where these pipeline workers will find increasing demand for their skills. With talk of a large-diameter natural gas line and several proposals for smaller in-state lines, plus the build-up of existing North Slope projects and the possibility of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, training centers and unions are already bracing for growth.

“There’s no doubt all these people will be employed on the Slope this winter,” Andrews said, pointing to soon-to-be academy graduates.

The Fairbanks field site offers real experience in an environment that replicates an actual pipeline right-of-way, complete with cold temperatures, ice and trees. Students — some of whom are already union apprentices — train in each stage of pipeline construction, an elaborate dance of specially trained crews precisely orchestrated to make work flow efficiently and safely.

Lowry spoke on a bus tour of the center, pointing out the temperature was 10 degrees, a far cry from Prudhoe Bay winter conditions of 30 to 40 below zero and little daylight. Still, the Arctic environment in Fairbanks allows instructors to teach techniques developed specially for Alaska work.

The pipeline training center dedication preceded an afternoon ceremony marking the graduation of 120 Alaska Pipeline Academy students. The class is the 10th to complete the program, which pairs training plans with specific skills needed by pipeline-work companies.

The field academy previously operated in the Great Northwest yard near the new South Fairbanks site. During the past two years, the nonprofit academy, along with the Alaska Works Partnership, consolidated funding and equipment donations for the field center.