About Us

Arthur “Art” Waldron who came to Alaska as a construction superintendent founded Anchorage Sand & Gravel as a gravel mining and hauling business at Ship Creek in 1938.“Is it the Truth?”This is the first line of Rotary International’s 4-point creed and to any visitor to the office of A. L. Waldron at Anchorage Sand & Gravel Company, it is the first thing he sees, and the more he talks with Mr. Waldron, the more certain it is that he lives by this creed. Read more about Art Waldron …Back in 1935, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” brought more than 200 families from the drought-ravaged Midwest into the Mat-Su Valley to start a farming community.The First Back Hoe was seen in Anchorage around 1936 being used for the 8th Avenue sewer job.

Advocated for by congressional delegate Anthony J. Dimond, the construction of the Alaska Highway (ALCAN) began as a means of defense and an overland supply route in March of 1942, and the Whittier tunnel was completed. Later that year, Japanese troops would invade the Aleutian Islands.By 1943, Alaska’s population had risen to 233,000; of it 152,000 military personnel.

This calendar page of August 1947 comes with a story:Grohne Concrete in Decatur (IL) called one day in 2006 to see if AS&G is still in business. They were in the process of tearing down an old batch plant and found the calendar between the walls. Nobody had any idea how it got there but we received another piece of the history puzzle of AS&G.In 1947, Z. J. Loussac was mayor of Anchorage and ‘Alaska’s premier capitalist’ Austin “Cap” Lathrop opens the 4th Avenue Theater.  AS&G’s operations were located at 321 Second Avenue in the Ship Creek area.

By 1951, Alaska’s population had risen to 138,000 with 51,000 people living in Anchorage.  The first traffic lights were installed on 4th Avenue in 1949; the McKinley apartments were being built; and the Seward Highway & the Anchorage International Airport opened in 1951.At AS&G, a new concrete plant with block plant is under construction and Christmas is celebrated with the whole family.

In 1956, Alaska’s constitution was adopted in; oil at the Swanson River on the Kenai peninsula (Cook Inlet) was discovered in 1957; and on January 3, 1959, Alaska officially became the 49th state of the Union.AS&G expanded their market into pre-stressed concrete, the new mixer trucks are now radio-dispatched and the new sales office and show room is occupied. There is much to celebrate this Christmas in 1959!

AS&G mined several areas in Anchorage, for example where the Northway Mall now stands, and went into different markets: kitchen cabinets, roofing.However, by the end of 1964, the Waldron family had sold Anchorage Sand & Gravel to an investment group.Herb Lang was named managing partner, later becoming president.A new chapter in the company’s history had just begun…

By the early 1970s, AS&G operated its rebar division, Dimond Fabricators, on East 88th Avenue, and opened the Pre-Con and Apex Concrete divisions at the same location in 1970.  AS&G added Symons Forms and Weldorado Architectural Stones to the product line.1971 was not only a busy season at Pre-Con; with AS&G supplying pre-cast pipes, wall panels, concrete, Symons forms, and curing agents for the construction of the new Greater Anchorage Area Borough Sewage Treatment Plant at Point Woronzof.

In 1974, AS&G supplied one of its biggest concrete pours, approximately 2,000 cubic yards, for the construction of the second tower of the hotel Captain CookAlaska was booming in 1975; thousands of jobs were created with the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline from the North Slope to Valdez.The city and borough consolidated into the Municipality of Anchorage including Eagle River, Eklutna, Girdwood and Glen Alps; and the 4,000 acre Bicentennial Park was created.

Construction was booming in the late 1970s: the Sullivan Arena, Egan Center, Alaska Center for the Performing Arts were built, the Museum was expanded and 122 miles of bike trails were paved and the first oil reached Valdez through the pipeline on June 20, 1977.With the need for more construction materials, AS&G broke ground on a new $1 mio Unloading Facility “6 miles south of Anchorage” on Klatt Road in 1978 and gravel processing was moved to Klatt Pit in 1979.  AS&G operated two fully computerized batch plants; radio-dispatched mixer trucks supplied 22,000 cubic yards of design mix to the new U.S. Federal Building.

“The Performance Company” has been in business for 45 years and AS&G takes pride in the fact that the average length of employment is more than 10 years.The company-owned railroad cars carry pit run daily to the Klatt Road processing facility which is then automatically crushed to 4″ minus. A network of conveyors move the aggregate through screening, crushing and washing into various stockpiles. AS&G’s computerized asphalt plant can produce 500 tph.Design-strength concrete is produced at two concrete plants; the in-house Quality Control division assures customers a continuous unvaried standard. The company also keeps 160 different types of concrete block in stock, manufactured in the state-of-the-art Block Plant on Klatt Road.Dimond Fabricators is the largest rebar fabricator in the state, operating an automatic shearline and two digital benders. The Building Materials division carries premium product lines as well as scaffolding and Symons forms.

The economic crisis in 1987 hits Anchorage hard, causing job losses, foreclosures and bankruptcies; many people leave. Herb Lang acquired the Office building from the bankrupt Alaska Mutual Bank in 1989. Also happened in March of 1989: Oil tanker “Exxon Valdez” spills more than 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound, the second largest oil spill in the U.S. history.However, it’s the people who make a company – driving an AS&G truck runs in the Gardner family. Even in 2016, Joshua Gardner, Bobby’s son, is continuing the family’s tradition.

In 1992, Herbert Lang & Partners sold their flourishing company to the MDU Resources Group in Bismarck, North Dakota; parent company to Knife River Corporation, the construction materials and contracting division of the group.Dale Morman was named president. He moved his family to Anchorage and started his journey to continue the company’s successful story.By now, the city’s population had risen to 228,000 people; who were in for a surprise when Mount Spurr, 80 miles to the west, erupted several times covering the city in ash. Earlier in 1991, Congress closed the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to any oil development.

Pre-Cast Concrete, which was established by John McGee, became the latest member of the AS&G family in 2000. A new property on Lang Street was acquired and the new pre-cast shop was built in 2003.The statewide population rose to 627,000, an increase of 14% from 1990, with 260,000 people living in Anchorage. And snow slides on the Seward Highway stranded dozens of people in Girdwood for nearly a week in the winter of 2000.

In 2008, Anchorage’s population had risen to 280,000 people. Despite the recession, construction was still alive with the building of the Denai’ina Convention Center and the E & F Street intersection being redone. This was the first road project and the first non-residential concrete intersection in Alaska using interlocking pavers, supplied by AS&G in a variety of colors.AS&G also maintained a presence at the local hockey rink, sponsoring the Alaska Aces for the 5th year.In the same year, a new radial stacker was installed at the Unload Terminal after the old one reached its end of life in a more or less dramatically fashion.

In 2015, Pre-Cast Concrete Co. was the first and only company in Alaska to become a NPCA Certified Plant. PCC produced and shipped 917 electrical trenches to Sakhalin Island, Russia for the world’s longest extended reach drill. This project for ExxonMobil required more than 8,500 cubic yards of concrete and 990 tons of rebar.At the Port of Anchorage, the new Dome was put into commission. 86 feet high with a diameter of 162 feet, this storage facility can hold 40,000 short tons of cement and will increase ABI’s ability to better serve the Alaska market.In other news: Alaska’s population rose to more than 735,000 with 300,000 people residing in Anchorage and – Moose’s Tooth was ranked 3rd best pizzeria in the whole USA!Earlier in 2014, the Alaska Railroad required concrete ready-mix for a bridge repair, so mixer truck 474 was loaded onto a railcar in Indian and then carried further south along Turnagain Arm.