Face to Face
Arland Anderson
Construction Supervisor, Fairbanks Projects Team
Published October 2004

Arland Anderson joined Alyeska Pipeline Service Company as a construction supervisor more than three years ago. He currently manages construction projects between Pump Station 1 and the Valdez Marine Terminal from Alyeska’s Fairbanks office. Anderson is a life-long Alaskan who grew up in Fairbanks and earned a bachelor’s degree in business management with an emphasis in finance at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. He is now working toward a master of business administration degree at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

As construction supervisor, Anderson oversees all aspects of TAPS construction projects, including: constructability design reviews, procurement, construction planning and scheduling field cost control and reporting, field documentation, redline and as-built drawing reviews, completion and turnover packages and onsite interface with clients.

Q: What is your biggest challenge as a Construction Supervisor?

A: Alyeska maintains extremely high safety standards in its day-to-day operations. Consequently, the biggest challenge I face as construction supervisor is to complete projects within budget in a safe and timely manner.

Q: What are your current projects and what other projects have you supervised this year?

A: Currently, I’m managing three crews that are working on TAPS’ cathodic protection upgrades between Pump Station 1 and the Valdez Marine Terminal. This project will continue to help protect the pipeline’s buried sections from corrosion.

I am also managing a variety of other projects, from a runway lighting system upgrade at Galbraith Airport to capital-purchase projects to equip TAPS’ new Fairbanks maintenance shop and annual line-wide, oil-spill response replacement equipment.

Q: How will strategic reconfiguration affect you and your work?

A: Strategic reconfiguration affects everybody at TAPS. For North Slope oil to remain competitive in the global marketplace and Alyeska to remain a viable business enterprise, TAPS must operate the pipeline for the lowest cost possible while maintaining high standards for safety, reliability and environmental performance. Reconfiguration is upgrading TAPS to reduce the number of resources needed to maintain and operate the pipeline, which means fewer people.

Strategic reconfiguration is Alyeska’s plan for taking advantage of new technologies and adapting to a changing business environment. Alyeska and other oil-industry companies are like every other business; they must adapt to change in order to prosper.