Cave-in sparks lawsuit

ANCHORAGE — The family of a man who died during the construction of a water well for the Goose Creek Correctional Center has filed a lawsuit against the state, the Mat-Su Borough and a slew of construction companies and contractors.

Steven Paul Ziegler was buried when a trench collapsed July 22, 2010, at the construction site off Point MacKenzie Road.

Ziegler “suffered great physical agony, pain and suffering in the knowledge of impending death and traumatic asphyxiation by being buried alive, emotional distress and the knowledge that he would never see his family alive, as well as knowledge that he would never see his wife again,” according to the lawsuit filed in July in Anchorage Superior Court.

Named as defendants in the lawsuit are:

• Besse Engineering and its owner Richard Besse;

• Valley Utilities LLC and its co-owners, Besse, Ted Trublood, Bill Prosser and Howard Nugent;

• Neeser Construction;

• the Mat-Su Borough;

• the state of Alaska;

• two defunct corporations — Arctic Tonka and Durbin Drilling — and their respective owners, Mark Maus and Ron Durbin;

• and Penn-Jersey Drilling and its owner, Lawrence Schachle Jr.

The lawsuit also leaves 10 open spots for as-yet-unnamed companies and 10 for as-yet-unnamed individuals.

The story laid out in the lawsuit claims that in 1986, Durbin did work on a well site in the area. In 1999, Arctic Tonka did more work there.

“The work on the well site created a dangerous condition on the land, a sink hole or traps for workers such as Steven Paul Ziegler,” according to the lawsuit.

Eventually, Valley Utilities stepped in to buy the farm where the well site work had been done and began construction of a well for the prison.

Valley Utilities contracted with Besse Engineering — which Besse owned — to design the project. Prosser-Dagg construction — which Bill Prosser co-owned — dug the well. Ziegler worked for Prosser-Dagg.

The lawsuit alleges that no one involved with the project did proper testing and surveying to see if there were dangerous conditions likely to cause a sinkhole to open up.

The borough comes in because it was building the prison and Neeser was the borough’s contractor for that project. The borough intends to lease the prison to the state and be paid back through lease payments, eventually handing the prison to the state.

Since the lawsuit is filed in Superior Court, it is seeking more than $100,000 damages for Ziegler’s death to be paid to his widow and children.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.