Pipeline History

Presidential approval of pipeline legislation on November 16, 1973, allowed Alyeska Pipeline Service Company to begin construction of the 800-mile trans Alaska pipeline, its pump stations, and the Marine Terminal at Valdez. A 360-mile road from the Yukon River to Prudhoe Bay was built, and construction of the Valdez Terminal began in 1974 as work also started on pump stations and the pipeline work pad. Lengths of pipe were placed under the Tonsina River in March 1975, and by March 1977 all pipe had been installed while pump stations, the terminal, and essential communications systems were almost completed. The first oil entered the line at Prudhoe Bay on June 20, 1977, reached Valdez on July 28, and on August 1, 1977, the first tanker load of North Slope oil left the Port of Valdez aboard the ARCO Juneau. The pipeline was 800 miles long, was built from 1974 to 1977, used 48-inch-diameter pipe with minimum yield strengths of 60,000, 65,000, and 70,000 psi, wall thicknesses of .462 inch and .582 inch, and 4-inch fiberglass insulation factory-bonded to galvanized steel jacketing, held 9 million barrels when filled, included 554 specially built animal crossings and 34 major and 800 other river and stream crossings, and crossed the Brooks Range, Alaska Range, and Chugach Range.

Farmers Loop, Alaska · United States