In Alaska, a low-tech solution helps the ground stay cold enough, for now
The Wall Street Journal; December 7, 2009
FAIRBANKS, Alaska—While the world debates the causes of climate change and what, if anything, to do about it, Alaskans are busy dealing with its consequences.
Permafrost, the frozen ground that lies just beneath the surface in most of the state, has become less stable in many areas, thanks in part to higher average air temperatures. It has begun to thaw in the warmer months and refreeze in the winter, causing shifts that wreak havoc on the structural integrity of the pipelines, railways, roads and buildings that sit on top of it.
"If we're going to build on frozen ground, we want to keep it frozen," says Dan White, director of the Institute of Northern Engineering at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Arctic Foundations offers worldwide leadership, innovation and experience in passive ground-freezing technology.
Global warming is affecting culture and habitat at the extremes of the earth, according to the Global Warming Project. “Rapid climate change and its effects is fast becoming one of the prime events of the 21st century,” it concluded.
Northern engineer, innovator and entrepreneur Erwin “Erv” Long has been watching land and weather cycles in the North for nearly 60 years, well before the term “global warming” was coined. More and more he understands the importance of keeping frozen ground frozen — stabilized soil is inherent to Arctic construction and infrastructure.
Understanding permafrost is not only important to civil engineering and architecture, it’s also a crucial part of studying global change and protecting the environment in cold regions, according to the IRC Institute for Research in Construction.
Up Here - Explore Canada's Far North; January/February 2008
They line the Hudson Bay Railway to Churchill, Manitoba, flank the NWT Legislative Assembly building in Yellowknife, and were the first thing installed during the construction of Iqaluit's new Anglican church. They're thermosyphons - and they're uniquely Northern devices.
A thermosyphon's job is to keep permafrost frozen. Ingeniously
self-powered, they're tubes imbedded in the Earth and filled with
pressurized carbon dioxide that's liquid at Northern winter air
temperatures. For much of the winter, permafrost is actually warmer
than the air above it, and thermosyphons are designed to make use of
the difference, drawing warmth out of the ground until it's chilly
enough to survive the summer without melting.
The Alaska Contractor, Publication of the Associated General Contractors of Alaska; Fall 2007
Erv Long is in the business of freezing ground and keeping it frozen. The founder and owner of Anchorage-based Arctic Foundations Inc. began delving into the subject of permafrost within a year of beginning work with the Army Corps of Engineers in 1948.
Engineers struggle to keep houses, buildings and roads from sinking
Alaska Business Monthly; February 2007
Jack Hebert is an optimist. He expects the ground under the Cold Climate Housing Research Center's new, 15,000-square-foot Research and Testing Facility to sink. And he can't wait to see what happens to the building when it does.
"One of the reasons we chose this site is that it was on degrading permafrost and we wanted to do a demonstration project that addressed building on that kind of soil," said Hebert, who is president and CEO of the CCHRC in Fairbanks.
OAK RIDGE -- The big chill is over. The big thaw has begun.
Federal contractors last year pulled the plug on an environmental project that for seven years kept a pond of nuclear waste in a frozen state.
The project was designed to stop radioactive pollutants from migrating into nearby streams and ultimately into downstream reservoirs used for recreation and drinking supplies. It was an interim measure until plans were in place to excavate the site and solve the problem permanently.
Arctic Foundations specializes in frozen barriers and frozen soils technology
Petroleum Directory; Petroleum News; July 18, 2004
The frozen North may have met its match in Erv Long, principal owner of Arctic Foundations, Inc. His 50-plus years of northern engineering and the instinctive wizardry that comes with understanding both the land and weather cycles, puts Long right up there in the category of Permafrost King, or at least the guy who is up to the challenge of developing frozen lands building technology.
Modern technology keeps the ground frozen year-round
Alaska Business Monthly; July 2004
Alaska’s harsh climatic conditions often have adverse effects on man-made infrastructure such as roads, buildings, railways, or pipelines. Over the years, a number of innovative solutions have been developed to help overcome these difficulties. One well-known example is that of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, which employs a system of thermosyphon cooling devices that keep the vertical support members permanently frozen into the permafrost.
Civil Engineering News; Environmental Engineering; June 2003
A frozen pond of radioactive waste will soon be thawed or excavated at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in eastern Tennessee, marking the end of an innovative containment demonstration project conducted by the U.S. Department Energy (DOE). For almost six years the DOE has maintained the barrier of frozen soil around a 9,041 sq ft (840 m2) area contaminated with strontium 90, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other toxins.
Partners in Development; A Supplement to Petroleum News • Alaska; September 2001
Arctic Foundations, Inc. (AFI) is a locally owned and operated company located in Anchorage. Despite its relative anonymity, the company has been successful on a global basis thanks to the innovative and award-winning thinking of its founder and president, Erwin ‘Erv’ Long.
Norrbottens Kuriren (Gällivare, Kuriren, Sweden); November 10, 2000
Ett 3—5-ärigt forsknigsproject med primärt mål att förlänga längdsskidåknings-säsongen i Gällivare pågår vid Dundrets skidstadium. Ursprungsmetoden är hämtad från Alaska och går ut på att leda bort värme ur marken. — Man kan saga att vi försöker skapa ett slags permafrost på konstgjord väg, berättar doktoranden Anna Forsström från Luleå tekniska universitet.
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (AK); September 8, 1998
Scientists have decided it’s time to freeze that asphalt-buckling villain permafrost in its tracks.
At a test site on Chena Hot Springs Road, construction crews are installing grids of carbon dioxide-filled steel pipes – called thermosyphons – engineered to carry away heat from below the road’s surface. The intent is to freeze the permafrost permanently.
TRADE LINE - A Publication of World Trade Center Alaska; Summer 1998
(Excerpt)
Another member of World Trade Center Alaska making inroads into the world market with their products is Erwin L. (Erv) Long, P.E., President of Arctic Foundations, Inc. Arctic Foundations does exactly what their name indicates; they build specialty foundation components for structures in Arctic environments. The structures could be buildings, bridges, and docks or pipeline supports. Each design is different because, across the Arctic, conditions change. Arctic Foundations is looking at Russia as a market because “they have more permafrost than we do in Alaska but still, the problems are very similar.”
A foundation-shoring technique has led to a waste containment technology. Arctic Foundations, Inc. (5621 Arctic Blvd., Anchorage, AK 99518; Tel: 907/562-2741, Fax: 907/562-0153) has pioneered a ground-freezing process it calls a “cryogenic barrier.” Originally developed to prevent foundation slumping after seasonal freeze/thaw cycles in the Alaskan tundra, the company was approached by the Department of Energy (DOE) to undertake a project freezing soils surrounding a contaminated pond at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The 316,000-gallon pond, which formerly stored nuclear reactor cooling water, contains large amounts of cesium-137 and strontium-90.
The Oak Ridger (TN); Section: State News; November 21, 1997
Ed Yarmak cannot be bothered by the cold. He gives it away by wearing a flowered Hawaiian shirt on what most in East Tennessee would consider a blustery November day.
In Yarmak's business, cold is good.
A registered civil engineer, he freezes the ground for a living. He
might have never imagined it, but the Department of Energy wanted to
use his company's expertise in the more temperate climate of Oak Ridge.
U.S. Department of Energy; Office of Environmental Management; Oak Ridge Operations ; Site Technology Coordination Group Newsletter; Summer 1997
This summer a team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) demonstrated soil freezing as a means of radionuclide containment at a Superfund waste site.
The demonstration site is an earthen pond dug in 1955 to receive waste
from Homogeneous Reactor Experiment (HRE) conducted at ORNL between
1951 and 1961. The 316,000-gal pond, meant for low-level liquid waste
(< 1,000 cpm/mL), also received highly contaminated fission
products, principally 137Cs and 90Sr. The pond was backfilled and
sealed in 1970.
Knoxville News-Sentinel (TN); Section A; April 12, 1997
OAK RIDGE - Nuclear winter?
A test project on the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge reservation will freeze the ground in an effort to stem the spread of radioactive contamination. Arctic Foundations Inc., a company based in Alaska, has a $1 million contract to conduct the demonstration over the next couple of years. Preliminary work will begin later this month.
Anchorage Daily News (AK); Business; October 23, 1996
The U.S. Department of Energy is testing a technique to corral a
leaking nuclear waste pond using technology pioneered in Erwin Long's
back yard in the 1950's. In a cool solution to a hot problem, the
government this year chose Long's company, Arctic Foundations Inc., to
freeze the ground around a leaky pond of radioactive soil and sludge. At Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, where the soil-freezing
test will take place, ''some people say if anyone can do it, those
Alaskans can,'' said program manager Elizabeth Phillips.
Passively refrigerated piles and gravel pads were selected as the foundation system for the new hospital in Kotzebue, Alaska
Ashrae Journal; September 1993
Passive refrigeration using two-phase thermosyphons is being used to provide a stable foundation for the new $40 million hospital currently under construction at Kotzebue, Alaska. This project is reportedly the largest (in area) designed to date on a site underlain by highly variable and unbonded saline permafrost. The 80,000 ft2 (7430 m2) hospital is a comprehensive healthcare facility that will service the residents of northwest Alaska. Two different types of foundation systems using thermosyphons for subgrade cooling are being used for the project.
Keeping it cold at Kotzebue- Veco/Nana, J.V. install passive refrigeration piles to keep the new Kotzebue hospital on frozen-solid ground
Pacific Builder & Engineer (Alaska Edition); April 5, 1993
Anchorage-based Veco Inc., in a joint venture with Nana Regional Corp. of Kotzebue, has completed what may be the largest building-foundation job in the Unites States using passive-refrigeration piles. The $4.1 million project, for the U.S. Public Health Service, is phase one of a $40 million new hospital in Kotzebue, Alaska, that is now under way.
While many Alaskans count the number of days until the big thaw, engineer Erwin “Erv” Long works to keep the ground frozen.
Hidden below the surface, permafrost forms a firm but fragile foundation for life in much of Alaska.Long’s projects include repair of the permafrost blanket and advance planning to prevent scars on the surface.
Long is a professional civil engineer who holds four United States and six Canadian patents for his permafrost foundation systems.He calls his technique “self-contained mini-refrigeration systems.”
Always looking for a better way to do things, Erwin Long invented a self-refrigerating pile system (now used widely in Alaska), and then modified it for a variety of applications. Last year Long began fabricating and assembling the units in Anchorage instead of contracting all the work to Outside firms.
Anchorage Times (AK); Business-Financial; July 29, 1976
One of Alaska’s few experts on permafrost, and an internationally recognized soil foundations engineer – Erwin “Irv” Long of the Alaska District, Corps of Engineers – retired this month after 28 years of Federal Service.
