The Trans Alaska Pipeline: An Epic Construction Effort

The Trans Alaska Pipeline: An Epic Construction Effort. Vignettes in History. , They came from near and far away, from every social and economic level, representing nearly all racial and ethnic groups, men and women, young and old, skilled and inexperienced, old hands from many and far-flung construction campaigns, and neophytes who ultimately would become veterans of this grandest project ever., Some 70,000 of them came together over the three years of construction, along a narrow field of labor stretching 800 miles from the Arctic Ocean to Port Valdez. They came in response to numerous and diverse personal inducements, known only to each of them, and to answer the primary challenge shared by all: construction of the trans Alaska pipeline, to unprecedented standards, despite difficulties of climate and terrain seldom equalled, and in a time compressed to the minimum., It was the largest privately-financed construction project ever undertaken, anywhere. When the last pipeline weld was ceremoniously completed on May 31, 1977, the total construction cost had reached $8 billion., Fairbanks was a central staging area for the project. Workers were housed temporarily at an orientation center at Ft. Wainwright, just outside the city, before assignment to one of the 31 construction camps up and down the line., The first work began, almost quietly, on April 29, 1974, when crews and equipment assembled north of the Yukon River to start construction of the first road ever across the vast northern wilderness of Alaska, an all-weather haul road, to move men, equipment and supplies for the pipeline project. In that first short summer, the 358-mile-long haul was completed in just 154 days, an unprecendented feat., The first pipe was laid the following spring, on March 27, 1975, beneath the Tonsina River. At the peak of the construction effort, in October of that year, more than 28,000 construction workers and others were employed on the project., Construction crews, or "spreads,” as they were called, laid pipeline across tundra, over high mountains, under or over 34 major waterways and some 800 other rivers and streams. They faced challenges seldom equalled in construction projects elsewhere, at Atigun Pass, Thompson Pass and Keystone Canyon, for instance, where even some veteran workers turned away, and even the best of them were tested. They faced falling rock, snow slides, terrain so steep the bulldozers were held by safety cables and welders were tied in place like mountain climbers to the pipe sections they were welding. They faced wind, cold, ravenous mosquitoes, rain, snow, hail, even, on occasion, threatening wildlife., They faced perhaps the ultimate construction challenge in this project. And they met the challenge: 800 miles of pipeline, eight pump stations and a Marine Terminal at Valdez; all completed, on schedule, in just over three years., The first Prudhoe Bay oil entered the pipeline June 20, 1977, and operating crews took over., For the construction workers, their historical and heroic effort was over. But they left behind a monument to themselves, the trans Alaska pipeline, to transport Alaska crude oil for America's energy needs., This was their time in history: April 29, 1974-June 20, 1977.