Fairbanks to Deadhorse return - Alaska and Points North: Tips and Tales from the Road - page 153

Interesting Info:
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline
The gently sloping tundra around Prudhoe Bay on North America's Arctic Ocean is known
as the North Slope . For more than a century it was suspected that crude oil lurked beneath
the surface. Exploration confirmed it in 1969. Development of the oilfields began in 1973
with the Haul Road going in first to provide a route for the transportation of equipment and
materials. Initially it was a private road.
The pipeline was completed in 1977 for a cost of $8 billion. More than half of it is elevated
and easily visible, a strangely beautiful thing snaking over the landscape. It is built over an
active fault line so the above-ground portions were built in a zig-zag pattern to provide the
flexibility needed to accommodate potential earthquake tremors and extreme ranges in tem-
perature. Half the line is elevated, half buried. The decision to bury or elevate was primarily
made on the basis of soil conditions. The heat radiating off the pipeline has the potential to
melt the permafrost and destabilize the soil so where the pipeline is buried, special ventilat-
ors are used to keep the permafrost stable.
At 6 mph it takes about a week for oil to make the 1280km /800 mile journey over three
mountain ranges to the Valdez port. It is estimated that the North Slope supplies about 18%
of America's oil.
You don't need to travel the Dalton Hwy to see the pipeline. Elevated portions are visible
as it parallels the Richardson Hwy between Fairbanks and Valdez and a special pull-out for
photo ops has been constructed 13 km /8 mi down the Steese Hwy between Fairbanks and
Fox.