On this day in engineering history, oil first flowed through
the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS), an 800-mile long conduit that moves petroleum
from the North Slope of Alaska to Valdez,
the state's northern-most ice-free port. Built at a cost of $8 billion (USD),
the Trans-Alaska Pipeline was completed in just 3 years and 2 months. Over the
life of the project, some 70,000 workers living in 29 construction camps built six
sections of pipeline with 48-in.-diameter steel pipe. They dug 8-foot deep by
8-feet wide ditches, built 14 temporary airfields, made over 100,000 welds, and
received approximately 3-million tons of material - including 73 million cubic yards of gravel.
The largest piece shipped during TAPS construction was a floating tanker berth
that weighted 3,250 tons.
Although TAPS construction did not start until April
29, 1974, the story of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System began in March of 1968,
when oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay. After
analyzing various transport options, including ice-breaking tanker ships and giant
tanker airplanes, Alaska's oil companies determined
that a hot-oil pipeline was the most cost-effective way to move oil from fields
on the North Slope to the Port
of Valdez. From there,
crude oil could be shipped to refineries in the "Lower 48", as Alaskans call
the 48 contiguous states in the U.S.
In 1969, the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company applied for a right-of-way to
build the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline System on federal lands.
Thousands of miles away in Washington, D.C.,
the political landscape for an Alaskan pipeline seemed rocky. In 1966, the
Secretary of the Interior had banned all development on the state's federally-owned
lands. Three years later, Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA), a statute which requires federal agencies to submit an environmental
impact statement (EIS) prior to any major action. Initially, environmental groups
used NEPA to block the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline System (TAPS); however, when a
new Secretary of the Interior declared TAPS to be in the national interest, the
injunction was lifted. The resolution of Native American land claims and the
Arab oil embargo of 1973-1974 also turned the tide. On November 16, 1973,
President Richard Nixon signed the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act into
law after a close vote in Congress.
In the winter of 1974, the Alyeska Pipeline
Service Company won a federal right-of-way to build the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline
System (TAPS). Construction on the pipeline's Haul Road began in May and ended by late
September. The following spring, crews laid the first of 800 miles of steel
pipe. Although typical pipeline construction involves burying the piping, Alaska's permafrost
posed special challenges. To keep the permafrost from melting, approximately
half of the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline was elevated above ground. Crossing 3 mountain
ranges and over 800 rivers and streams posed many additional challenges. Finally,
on May 31, 1977, the last pipeline weld was completed. Less than a month
later, on June 20, 1977, the first oil flowed from Pump Station 1 on its
eight-day journey to reach Valdez.
Resources:
http://anacoana.blogster.com/trans-alaska-pipeline-system-taps-june-20-1977
http://www.alyeska-pipe.com/pipelinefacts.html
http://tapseis.anl.gov/documents/docs/Section_13_May2.pdf
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