Page 188 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Alaska

186  ALASK A AREA B Y AREA

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline

When oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay in 1968, no one knew how to transport it to
market. It was eventually decided to lay an 800-mile (1,280-km) pipeline from the North
Slope oilfields to the ice-free port of Valdez, where a pipeline terminal and shipping
facility were to be built to handle the crude. Through the early 1970s, the Alyeska Pipeline
Service Company worked on the pipeline design. Construction began on April 29, 1974,
and was completed three years later at a cost of $8 billion. The first tanker, the ARCO
Juneau, left Valdez filled with crude on August 1, 1977. Now run by a consortium, the
pipeline transports 450,000 barrels of oil per day.
Beaufort
Key Sea Prudhoe Bay •
Trans-Alaska Pipeline
Prudhoe Bay
Pump stations • Bering ALASKA CANADA
Sea
PS1
Umiat Valdez •
• PS2
(standby)
Gulf of Alaska
PS3
0 km 100
PS4
0 miles 100
Brooks Range
Wiseman
• Chandalar
•
Coldfoot
•
PS5
The zigzag configuration of
the pipeline’s above-ground
sections allows for earthquake Arctic Circle
movement as well as expansion
and contraction of the pipe due Yukon
to temperature changes. PS6 (standby)
Tanana
• Pump stations along the route
PS7 at intervals of 50 to 100 miles
At Mile 56, where the road (80 to 160 km) keep the crude
crosses the Yukon River, the moving at a maxi mum of
pipeline is attached to the 6 miles (10 km) an hour.
E L. Patton Bridge. There is a Fairbanks •
public view point at the Yukon
River Crossing Contact Station. PS8
(standby)
Delta Junction
•
PS9
Alaska Range
PS10 (standby)
Glennallen •
PS11
(spill response
site)
PS12 Chitina
Valdez • Underground sections of the
•
Marine Terminal pipeline are buried 8 to 16 ft
The pipeline can endure winter (2.5 to 5 m) deep in conven-
temperatures of -57° C (-70° F) Cordova tional, insulated, or refriger-
•
when it is empty and 63° C ated ditches, depending on
(145° F) when it is full of oil. Gulf of soil sensitivity.
Alaska

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