| The Alaska pipeline starts at the frozen edge of the Arctic Ocean. |
| It stretches southward across the largest and northernmost state in |
| the United States, ending at a remote ice-free seaport village nearly |
Line | 800 miles from where it begins. It is massive in size and extremely |
(5) | complicated to operate. |
| The steel pipe crosses windswept plains and endless miles of |
| delicate tundra that tops the frozen ground. It weaves through |
| crooked canyons, climbs sheer mountains, plunges over rocky |
| crags, makes its way through thick forests, and passes over or |
(10) | under hundreds of rivers and streams. The pipe is 4 feet in diameter, |
| and up to 2 million barrels (or 84 million gallons) of crude oil can |
| be pumped through it daily. |
| Resting on H-shaped steel racks called “bents,” long sections of |
| the pipeline follow a zigzag course high above the frozen earth. |
(15) | Other long sections drop out of sight beneath spongy or rocky |
| ground and return to the surface later on. The pattern of the |
| pipeline’s up-and-down route is determined by the often harsh |
| demands of the arctic and subarctic climate, the tortuous lay of the |
| land, and the varied compositions of soil, rock, or permafrost |
(20) | (permanently frozen ground). A little more than half of the pipeline |
| is elevated above the ground. The remainder is buried anywhere |
| from 3 to 12 feet, depending largely upon the type of terrain and |
| the properties of the soil. |
| One of the largest in the world, the pipeline cost approximately |
(25) | $8 billion and is by far the biggest and most expensive construction |
| project ever undertaken by private industry. In fact, no single |
| business could raise that much money, so 8 major oil companies |
| formed a consortium in order to share the costs. Each company |
| controlled oil rights to particular shares of land in the oil fields and |
(30) | paid into the pipeline-construction fund according to the size of its |
| holdings. Today, despite enormous problems of climate, supply |
| shortages, equipment breakdowns, labor disagreements, treacherous |
| terrain, a certain amount of mismanagement, and even theft, the |
| Alaska pipeline has been completed and is operating. |