Alyeska pipeline

[roadhunter]

GTR Newspapers | Find Local Tulsa, Bixby, Broken Arrow, Jenks, Union, and Owasso News, Sports, and Entertainment:Tulsa-Based 798 Welders Built the Alaska Pipeline

Tulsa-Based 798 Welders Built the Alaska Pipeline
One thing was certain, putting together the necessary number of 40-foot sections of heavy wall steel pipe would require more than 108,000 perfect and often difficult “girth” welds by a small army of premier welders. And that’s where Tulsa and its Pipeliners Local Union 798 enter the story.

They were called the 798ers and their union hall began and is still located in Tulsa. The union was founded in 1949 to oversee welding on cross-country pipeline construction in the U.S. and as a clearinghouse for union welders specializing in pipeline construction. Welding on pipeline construction is considered by some to be something between an art form and an endurance run. It is both physically and mentally demanding requiring an uncommon level of commitment and skill. There is simply no margin for error when it comes to connecting pipe sections to be lowered into the ground, covered with earth and pumped full of highly pressurized and corrosive crude oil. Faulty welds will come back to haunt as containment failures, a nice term for the really big, costly mess resulting from leaks in a pipeline. This was particularly important in the remote, pristine and unique landscape of Alaska. The obvious choice for putting together the more than 100,000 sections of pipe was the 798ers, a team of preeminent journeymen welders who had spent decades refining and perfecting their specific skill set.

 

[Copperhead]

I lived for 10 years about 6 miles from where it crosses the Richardson Highway south of Delta Junction, AK. Wildlife sure like it!

 

[tcartwri]

We ran seismic along it's length in the early nineties. Amazing country. The truckers are nuts.

 

[Redneck in training]

I used to work at Dead Horse and Kenai once a while but know very little about the pipeline. I commission control systems and that is "inside" work.
I used to do a lot of work in Siberia on Russian pipelines though. I was working two years on the larges pipeline in the world called Orenburg Western Europe. 1600 mm ID=5.25'=63". Later on I did many service jobs there until my employer opened an office in Moscow and staffed it with local people.
I remember that all welds were x-rayed. The welder had to weld his number tag to each weld so it would be on the x-ray pictures.

 

[varmint]

Just as a little side note, I lived on Vancouver Island for a while in the early 80's, and had the pleasure of meeting a young German guy who had worked as a repairman for the heavy equipment used to build the pipeline. Basically, he would often be helicoptered into the wilderness where a D-9 or something serious was broken down. This being mid-winter, it was cold. They set up insulated canvas and heaters around the equipment, and went to work with his 1" drive socket set and 6' wrenches, or whatever it took. Getting the stuff started again must have been fun.

 

[dickfoster]

Oh well as they say misery loves company and here in the Peoples Republic of California we have a whole lot of that kind of misery.

Just yesterday I was trying to find a couple of useable fuel cans to get some fuel home for the tractor. Not in California, they have the spouts so buggered they are completely useless. I was thinking I was going to have to drive to Reno to get something then I went to TSC and found a spout kit that un californicates the situation with a useable spout so I bought a couple. Our legislature can screw up a wet dream. In fact they make a regular habit of it.

 

[dickfoster]

It's good to recognise a boom for what it is and know the bust is bound to follow and act accordingly. Nothing lasts forever.

 

[EddieWalker]

Oh well as they say misery loves company and here in the Peoples Republic of California we have a whole lot of that kind of misery.

Just yesterday I was trying to find a couple of useable fuel cans to get some fuel home for the tractor. Not in California, they have the spouts so buggered they are completely useless. I was thinking I was going to have to drive to Reno to get something then I went to TSC and found a spout kit that un californicates the situation with a useable spout so I bought a couple. Our legislature can screw up a wet dream. In fact they make a regular habit of it.

I learned to unscrew the spout, put a funnel into the tank and just pour it out. Quick, fast and easy!!!!

 

[Bird]

We ran seismic along it's length in the early nineties. Amazing country. The truckers are nuts.

Yep, and one of my brothers was one of those truckers.:laughing: When they were building the pipeline, he drove a car hauler taking 4-wheel drive pickup trucks to the north end of the pipeline, and also hauled some drill bits up there. But he and I made the trip from Anchorage to Prudhoe Bay and back July 4, 5, & 6, 1991, in his F Super Duty truck. Of course we did see some wildlife, but not as much as my brother had expected because they said it was unusually warm and lots of the wildlife had moved back to higher ground.

You know they named the hills and on our return trip, there was a 30 wheeler burned completely up, still just a tiny flame under the cab, sitting right in the road at the bottom of Beaverslide. No one was anywhere around, so we only guessed that he set his brakes on fire coming down that long slope. I was driving when we came down it and I used 3rd gear (5 speed transmission) all the way and still had to use the brakes a good bit on that F Super Duty Ford.

 

[tractchores]

Have done some travel in that area, its pretty amazing the country that pipeline runs across. I'd hate to have to do work on it in the winter!