Room to Share—New Guest Facility Ready for Users at North Slope of Alaska
To alleviate crowded conditions at its research facilities on the North Slope of Alaska (NSA) site in Barrow, ACRF operations staff recently completed the installation of a new Guest Instrument Facility. Similar to the platform at the Atqasuk site, the facility consists of two insulated shipping containers mounted on pilings, with a mezzanine to accommodate additional user instruments. This accomplishment reflects nearly a year’s worth of planning and coordination to build the new facility on the sensitive Arctic tundra—not an easy feat!
An application to modify the already-approved North Slope Bureau Development Permit had to be submitted and approved to allow the work to proceed during the melt (summer) season. Because construction would take place when movement of heavy equipment across the tundra is normally prohibited, a temporary road had to be built using heavy-duty polyethylene mats. These mats, borrowed from the City of Barrow, provided a stable surface strong enough to support a loader and a crane while protecting the fragile, water-logged tundra. Approval for the work was also sought from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) because ACRF’s Barrow facilities are located on their land. BLM considered the “mat road” approach an experiment—which was deemed a success!
Logistics for transporting the instrument shelter containers and materials to Barrow also had to be arranged. The containers were trucked from the ACRF Southern Great Plains site to Seattle, via Albuquerque, where they were loaded on a barge in June for delivery to Barrow in early August. The shipment also included steel for the supports. Installation of the new mezzanine structure was completed on schedule in mid-September. Power availability to the shelters and mezzanine is expected in time to support facility operations this winter.
