800 miles to Valdez: the building of the Alaska pipeline

Book · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1977

OSTI ID:5238912

Roscow, J P

The Alaska pipeline cost almost $8 billion and took almost ten years to complete, but the most expensive privately financed construction project in history has opened its gateway. On June 20, 1977, a black wealth of oil began moving through 800 miles of steel pipe from Prudhoe Bay, a challenging wilderness north of the Arctic Circle, to the ice-free port of Valdez. With all of the hazards from -75/sup 0/ temperatures to unforeseen construction problems, such as laying pipe over mountain passes and major rivers, the pipeline is a triumph of technical and human endurance. But more than that the pipeline bears a crucial relevance to perhaps the most pressing issue of our time: energy. The pipeline will supply a tenth of our current energy needs. The building of the pipeline was unprecedented in the way it became a focal point and testing ground for major issues such as conservation, environmental protection, and human rights. Mr. Roscow presents a comprehensive and objective account of this undertaking with its countless human and technical problems. He tells the story of the long-delayed pipeline from the discovery of oil beneath the tundra of Alaska's North Slope, to the first supply road carved out of the permafrost, through the years of legal battles and the final push to completion.

• OSTI ID: 5238912
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
022000 -- Petroleum-- Transport
Handling
& Storage
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
294002* -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Petroleum
ALASKA OIL PIPELINE
CONSTRUCTION
DOCUMENT TYPES
ENERGY SOURCES
ENGINEERING
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
FEASIBILITY STUDIES
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUEL GAS
FUELS
GAS FUELS
GASES
LEGAL ASPECTS
NATURAL GAS
OWNERSHIP
PETROLEUM
PIPELINES
REVIEWS
TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT