12,000 helical piles help Alaska DOT rebuild typhoon-wrecked village boardwalks
After Typhoon Halong's remnants struck western Alaska in October 2025 and washed out miles of village boardwalks, Alaska DOT turned to helical piles to rebuild them quickly. Three manufacturers shared the roughly 12,000-pile job; CHANCE supplied square-to-round-shaft combo piles and round-shaft leads, flown in by Alaska distributor Dynamic Helical Systems. Crews used mini excavators and digital torque monitoring to verify capacity, and kept installing through winter on frozen tundra.
After Typhoon Halong's remnants struck western Alaska in October 2025 and washed out miles of village boardwalks, Alaska DOT turned to helical piles to rebuild them quickly. Three manufacturers shared the roughly 12,000-pile job; CHANCE supplied square-to-round-shaft combo piles and round-shaft leads, flown in by Alaska distributor Dynamic Helical Systems. Crews used mini excavators and digital torque monitoring to verify capacity, and kept installing through winter on frozen tundra.
Why it matters
The project shows engineers that helical piles can be specified fast, air-freighted to remote sites and loaded immediately, even in permafrost and winter conditions where concrete is impractical.
Related on Helical Pile USA
Source: CHANCE Foundation Solutions blog. Summary written by the Helical Pile USA editorial team.
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