KTUU.com | Alaska's news and information source | New 10-ton clinic arrives in Eagle by truck

New 10-ton clinic arrives in Eagle by truck

by Channel 2 News staff
Sunday, October 18, 2009

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- They were told it was impossible, but a team of contractors got the job done: delivering a medical clinic to the village of Eagle, flooded by the Yukon River in May.

Employees from Williams Scotsman transported the 14-foot-by-60-foot building from Wasilla. The temporary clinic weighs 10.5 tons, and moving it took two full days of traveling no faster than 5 to 15 mph along the narrow and winding mountain road to Eagle.

The building will serve as the temporary clinic in Eagle until a new building is built in the spring.

"We had people that could go out in front, tell us what was coming, get semis off the road that could be coming the other way," said Mike Frizzell of Williams Scotsman. "Because there was no way these two would fit on the same road together, and we're talking normal Alaskan roads."

"Maneuvering through them hills, it was kind of a weird road," said Michael Poe, who drove the clinic to Eagle. "It was, around one corner it'd be dry, around another corner it'd be glare ice. And from everybody that took that road, they said it couldn't be done, so I took it as a personal challenge."

The village was using a tented structure as a clinic, and the team says many residents were grateful to have a building suitable for winter temperatures.

"Overall, yes, the village of Eagle, several residents came to us thanking us, in fact," said Mike Frizzell of Williams Scotsman. "Several clinging to us, thanking us so much for not making their people freeze."

Frizzell says after the permanent clinic is built in the spring, taking the building back will be an entirely different trip.