Davis Constructors Takes On $470 Million Alcan Border Station, One of the Most Remote Federal Builds in the U.S.

ALCAN, Alaska — On a remote stretch of the Alaska Highway near the Yukon border, the federal government is replacing a 1970s border station with a $470 million complex built to handle 50-below winters for the next half century.

The U.S. General Services Administration awarded the design-build contract for the Alcan Land Port of Entry to Davis Constructors & Engineers on July 1, according to federal contract records. The contract is worth about $469.9 million, with work scheduled to run through June 2031.

Design firm GHD, which is part of the project team, highlighted the job in an Oct. 1 announcement that described the site as 90 miles from the nearest community.

What's being built

The Alcan port sits at Milepost 1221.8 of the Alaska Highway, more than 400 miles east of Anchorage. It is the primary year-round, 24-hour land crossing between Alaska and Canada's Yukon Territory.

The new port will include:

• A main port building
• Separate inspection buildings for commercial trucks and passenger vehicles
• A firearms range
• A community health and fitness building
• A utility building linked to the other buildings by a utilidor, an enclosed corridor that carries utilities between structures
• 20 housing units for U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, their families and GSA maintenance staff

According to the contract description, the job includes demolishing 15 existing structures, and the new facilities will be built in phases so the port can keep operating throughout construction.

Built for 50 below

The project is aiming for an unusually high energy standard for such a harsh site. The buildings are targeting PHIUS CORE passive building certification, a standard focused on airtight, heavily insulated construction that uses very little energy for heating and cooling.

Power will come partly from building-mounted and pole-mounted solar panels, paired with battery storage and microgrid controls. The design is meant to set up a path toward net-zero energy readiness and to last at least 50 years.

The design also has to hold up to wildfire risk, extreme cold, heavy snow and repeated freezing and thawing.

David McVeigh, a regional leader for GHD, said the site's remoteness shapes everything about the project, from design to how the buildings will perform for decades.

Why the old port has to go

The current port was built in the early 1970s and no longer meets the needs of CBP or GSA. In 2023, GSA project manager Aaron Evanson told Transport Topics that the setup was dangerous for officers, especially at around 50 below zero.

The existing port has no building large enough for a semi-truck. Trucks have to use an uncovered lane, the only one with enough clearance, and officers walk outside to process them. Exhaust freezes into ice that has to be chipped away several times a day. Alaska Public Media reported in 2024 that in winter, customs officers sometimes send truck drivers about 300 miles to Fairbanks for cargo inspection.

GSA has said the new design will give commercial trucks and passenger vehicles their own dedicated lanes and let truckers hand over documents without leaving their cabs.

The team

GHD is handling project management, architecture, landscape architecture, environmental services and acoustical design. The project is part of GSA's Design Excellence program.

Building at the edge of the map

The site's isolation drives the schedule. GSA told Alaska Public Media in 2024 that construction would happen in phases, mostly during the warmer months, with work paused in winter and picked back up in spring. With the nearest community about 90 miles away, crews and materials have a long way to travel, and the port has to keep processing traffic the entire time.

How the cost has changed

The price tag has grown sharply since planning began. In 2023 and 2024, GSA estimated the project at $170 million to $190 million, according to Transport Topics and Alaska Public Media. The contract awarded in July is worth about $470 million. GSA has not publicly explained the difference.

Timeline