Trans-Alaska Pipeline

Even for Bechtel, the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline was a major challenge. The goal was to carry crude oil from the Prudhoe Bay oil field off the North Slope of Alaska to the port of Valdez, 1,200 kilometers to the south. That meant building a pipeline over three mountain ranges and across 13 rivers—and doing it in one of harshest climates on Earth, with winter temperatures dropping to minus 60 degrees Celsius.

Oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay in 1968. Late in 1973, Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. embarked on the pipeline project and asked Bechtel to manage its construction. The company was responsible for construction and logistical planning, and project mobilization. The undertaking also involved building an all-weather highway from the Yukon River to Prudhoe Bay, designing and constructing 21 work camps, procuring most of the construction equipment, and selecting and managing five major pipeline contractors. The size of the job was enormous; it required more than 10,000 pieces of equipment and a workforce that peaked at more than 21,500.

Bechtel subsequently became construction technical services contractor, a role in which it made sure that the pipeline was built to specification, and that the project had the right equipment at the right place at the right time.

To avoid damaging the permafrost, 676 kilometers of the pipeline were elevated above ground. In places where the pipeline had to be buried, special cooling systems were installed to keep the permafrost from thawing.

It also was necessary to incorporate some 600 crossings so that the pipeline—measuring 1.2 meters in diameter--would not block the migration of animals such as elk and caribou.

Despite the myriad challenges, the pipeline was completed on schedule in July 1977.