Even by Alaska standards, the community of Hyder is remote. Nestled at the head of a 130-mile fjord on Alaska’s southern border with Canada. Hyder receives its mail and many of its goods and services by floatplane from Ketchikan. As it turns out, the community’s floatplane base was at the end of a causeway/trestle and in desperate need of repair. That’s where North Wind Services comes in.
The subsidiary of the North Wind Group, a CIRI company, was selected to upgrade the island and the causeway road leading to the wood trestle. The trestle was originally constructed prior to Alaska statehood. The weight restrictions on the wood trestle were so low that heavy equipment could no longer be used to remove snow, hindering the community’s ability to reach the seaplane base, its small boat harbor and boat launch ramp.
Utilizing local equipment, material suppliers and two local equipment operators to supplement North Wind’s construction crew, the company performed reconstruction of the 2,300-foot causeway to the trestle, and expanded the capacity of the parking lot on the island. The causeway fillslopes were fortified with rip rap armoring; the rip rap obtained from a local supplier in Stewart B.C. Other equipment and aggregate for the road was provided by Canadian companies.
North Wind Services also installed a 100-foot-long, 6-foot-diameter aluminum drainpipe crossing through the causeway road to add cross drainage for tidal flows. The wooden trestle was removed and replaced with a 766-foot, two-lane concrete trestle by prime contractor Orion Marine. The work was completed in late 2013.
