Episode 5: Throw the Flag

What this episode covers

Sarah Dow's first day on an Alaska construction site ended with her throwing a stop sign at a car that blew past her.(She says it was basically a hockey hip check with a paddle. She played college hockey. This tracks.)Her boss called her dad that night and said "this isn't going to work." Then he came up with a plan to get her to quit by the next afternoon: 100 mailboxes to hand dig, four feet deep, along Northern Lights and Spenard. Sarah called it the best workout she'd ever had. She stayed.Today, Sarah is the safety manager at Colaska, one of the largest road construction firms in the state. She started as a general laborer in 1997, moved into grade checking, went back to school for construction management, and now leads safety for crews building roads across Alaska. In this episode, Bill Schnabel sits down with Sarah to talk about what she learned working in the hole while everyone else sat in heated trucks, why she believes teaching people beats forcing them every single time, and what she wishes drivers understood about the people building the roads they're speeding through. 🎙️

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