PIPELINE-Rare Documentary on the Alaskan Pipeline

NO COPYRIGHT INTENDED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY.

Rare interesting VHS detailing the construction of the Alaskan pipeline, produced by Pendelton Productions of Anchorage Alaska for Alyeska Pipeline Service Company.

Back of box description: In 1968, oil was discovered in commercial quantities at Prudhoe Bay, on Alaska's north slope. Within the next six years, a few thousand men and women particpated in the design of and preparations for the construction of a pipeline to carry the oil to market. There were numerous legal, environmental and engineering obstacles to overcome.

On April 27, 1974, actual construction began of the trans Alaska pipeline to carry the oil from the shores of the Arctic Ocean on Alaska's North Slope, to Valdez in South-central Alaska, a distance of 800 miles. In the three years of construction, some 70,000 pioneers worked together to lay the 48 inch pipe over mountains, across tundra, through forestland, over major rivers and over or under some 800 streams. They worked in perhaps the most severe climatic conditions anywhere, temperatures from minus 80 to plus 100 degrees, and winds, rain, snow, and sleet. They sometimes encountered wild animals and endured swarms of stringing and biting insects. Innovations in design and construction were the rule rather than the exception. It was the biggest privately financed job ever. The final connection completing the pipeline was finished by two veteran pipeline welders on May 31, 1977 and the first oil entered the line June 20 of that year, on schedule.

The film "Pipeline" documents the most important events of this project, beginning with the earliest route surveys, continuing through the excitement of the actual construction and concluding with the beginning of pipeline operation.

This film was two years in the making. It portrays the scope and scale of history's biggest private construction job and the determination and courage of the people who got the job done on time.