As I got back and settled in, about 1 week later they called me into the office one morning. It seemed they liked what I have done and wanted me to be a foreman for the utiliway crew. Utiliways are underground wooden chases built for the electrical and piping from building to building. We made them out of 12" x 12" timbers 20 feet long. They had to be cut into the sizes needed, they were also notched on the ends so they overlapped. (Big Jim and Tommy Tiger notching the timber for the utilityways)
Then we drilled holes through the timber and put a fence post through the hole deep into the frozen pad so the timbers would not float up in the summer months when the surface thawed. We covered the utility tunnels with 6" x 12" timbers so we could drive a truck over them. The heat piping ones had ¾" marine mahogany plywood on the bottom, sides, and top to make them waterproof. We sealed them with a mastic to make sure no moisture got in. If any moisture got in to the utiliway it would crush the pipes and the pipe insulation for the heating or the drinking water. Another of my jobs was to figure out just what electric cable tray went to what building so the lines would not cross. Each line needed to be fastened to the cable tray in proper order. This was a major job as at some intersections I had them go 4 layers deep. Each layer that had to cross was dropped at a 45-degree angle under the trays above them and after the transition back to the surface again. I had a large labor crew digging and chipping the ground for the timbers and then they filled the sides back in again. There were actually miles of utilities to put in as that was what powered the gathering center and heated it. When these cable trays ended under a building we made racks for the electric flex cable to turn up in to the electric room to power that building. We had electric power, controls, and monitoring wiring all running from one building to another so they could keep informed as to how everything is working.
We had semi trucks bringing timbers one after the other all summer long and we stored the timber in huge piles all over the site. We also ordered 25 Stihl chain saws to notch and cut the timbers, they would be running all day long on 2 different shifts for a long time. The Utiliways kept a large crew real busy. I had to make my own drawings so the men to follow where the timbers were going and which cabletray went where. I made a drawing of each layer and numbered them so they could see which timbers went where and how many levels. We also had a sawman working all day long maintaining the chainsaws and sharpening the chains.
Besides the Utiliways we had scaffolding to put up every place for the pipe fitters, painters, insulators, and electricians. Then we had to finish the rooms with ceiling tile and hang the doors and hardware in the operation centers. We also had to build shelters for the pipe fitters to weld the pipe up outside in the cold. (The Alamo pipe weld station on the pipe rack which carried the oil from the field wells to the gathering center) They had to be built so good that they could heat them up to above freezing and then cool it down to out side temperature over a period of three days. We did this so the pipe would not shatter from the quick heating to instant freezing, it would break just like glass if we didn't do this. Seemed like the carpenters had the duty of making sure all the other trades stayed warm.
We started hiring men at a rather rapid pace right after I arrived so we could keep up with all the workload. At one time I had 95 men working on the Utiliways. That was Carpenter's, Laborers, Teamsters, and Operators. I learned how to do paper work pretty well. As I also had to make sure the warehouse had tools on hand to replace any that the men broke. There was no way back to town to replace their tools when they broke. It was in the contract for free replacement of tools used in the extreme cold and away from town. In the extreme cold a lot of tools would just shatter like glass, especially the hammers. We worked 10 hours a day 7 days a week year round in double shifts with no days off for anything. It did not matter if it was a very HOT 40 degrees or a super cold 127 below we worked and kept everything going. In some of the very big wind storms a few of the shelters started to come apart and the carpenters had to go out and secure it so the pipe and welds would not be damaged. We even had to put a scaffold up in 60-knot winds at 80 some below zero, because the insulation was starting to fall off our water tank at camp. If it had come off the water would have frozen solid and there would not be any water left for us in camp. That was a scary experience erecting a Safeway scaffold up 50 feet in the air on the side of a tank and you cold hardly stand up. We did it, but it took a while, and we were called the heroes.
There were a lot of very colorful men who work for me, from every place in the United States even Hawaii. I even had a man named Noel from French Quebec, and Ben from South Africa. The worlds greatest sawman came from Finland, Eric could do anything with his tools, I have never seen a man like him before or since. He could also sharpen a saw or chisel so well it was better than new. He trained in Sweden as a cabinetmaker and did his apprenticeship living in a building over the cabinet shop. Eric could make anything with his saw, he made jigs and guides for all the repetitive things like picnic tables for lunchroom, gang boxes, crates, and cabinets. By having men from all over was quite a learning experience for me, as I found out there was so many different names for the very same tool. I guess it was from where the majority of immigrants came from in their part of the country, and the names they used for that tool in the old country. There were also men who had been in other professions before coming up here to go to work. I had a mortician from upstate New York working on the crew. We called him digger O'Dell and he came from Fort Ticonderoga a famous place from the revolutionary war. There were 2 Hawaiian boys that came to work up here too, they did well in the cold. One of the oldest guys we had was Jerry an ex bar owner and carpenter from Indiana, he had more stories and jokes than anyone I have ever known. He kept us laughing for hours on end I really like old Jer.
Big Jim was the man I counted on the most. He loved to read and study the stock markets and do things for the youth back in town, he loved to help people out. Jim was a huge man and so strong. He once picked up one end of a 12" x 12" and put it on a scaffold and crawled under it and carried it about 100 yards across the pad he was working on. Jim and I would play pool together in the evenings and sometimes we'd just sit and read. Every year he liked to go to Germany for Octoberfest. I had him be my replacement when I left on R & R. To this day he was about the hardest worker I have ever met. Jim also had a handyman service in Fairbanks called the Fairbanks Handyman Service and his motto was "What your husband starts we'll finish". He was a great worker and a better man, I learned a lot from him. A lot of the laborers I had came from New York where they worked in the tunnels. Irishmen, who loved to work hard all day and drink all night. There was of course the occasional fight. I got the biggest kick out of them arguing who's county was the best or who's town was best. I also had a few Eskimo and Athabaskin Indians work for me. At first they were very quiet and did not talk much. I got the feeling the white man intimidated them. It took a while but they finally warmed up to me, and we became friends. I also found out they were much better craftsmen than everyone had said or believed. It pays to treat others, as you would like to be treated. One I particularly remember is old Charlie an Athabaskin Indian from the interior, who used to work on the Alaskan Rail Road, he lost his leg when a train car ran over it. You would never know it for the way he moved. I found out he had an artificial leg one day when he stuck a knife into it as he was eating, scared me to death. He got the biggest kick out of seeing me yell and run to him as fast as I could, I even dropped my lunch. After I got done yelling at him to warn me first he said relax and let nature guide me on my path, and to take what nature gives me and never be sorry for it. He had more wisdom than I will ever have no matter how much I try to get.
