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As you know, Ariat is the official Dirt Talk podcast sponsor and at this point we've talked plenty about their footwear, their workwear. But now it is winter and boy is it cold. It was 17 degrees this morning. I had to warm the truck up. But just because it's cold does not mean the work stops. So to get the job done, you need the best, warmest workwear possible. And Ariat has a long list of outerwear, amazing jackets, pants and other goods available now. You can shop at their website ariat.com Dirttalk that is ariat.com DirttALK hello everybody. Welcome back. Monday Episode Dirt Talk Podcast thank you for being here with me. I very much appreciate it, all three of you. It's always good to have you. I have previously read from a book called the Kiewit Story. Pretty straightforward, the Kiewit Story. It's an older book by Hollis Limprechk. It was published, I believe in 1981, was the copyright. Brilliant, brilliant book about Peter Kiewit and the history of Kiewit. Good luck finding it. I was given this as a gift, which is very cool. It's very hard to find otherwise. However, I am here to share with you another chapter. This is chapter 16 called Oil from Alaska. I previously read about Kiewit's venture in Greenland, which is quite interesting. And as I was reading this book, the Alaska chapter came up and I thought it was equally as fascinating. So I thought maybe you would enjoy hearing it and enjoy it as much as I did as well. So here we are reading from the Kiewit story. Sorry my voice is a little off today, but just deal with it. The people of Peter Kiewitz Sons, Inc. Are deeply involved in helping ease the nation's energy burden. They have built a wide variety of electric power plants and have become the 10th largest coal producer in the United States. But probably Peter Kiewit and Son's most spectacular contribution to the field of energy is the Trans Alaska pipeline. PKS didn't build all of the pipeline in its facilities, but it was a major factor in this at $8 billion, the largest single free enterprise construction project in history. As an individual contractor and as a member of two separate joint ventures, the KIEWIT organization helped build the three components of the Alaskan oil project. The three at the Prudhoe Bay oil field on the coastline of the Arctic Ocean where the 798 mile pipeline begins, PKS was selected to construct the oil flow stations and drill site facilities. These are the processing facilities that get the crude oil on its way through the pipeline, two on the pipeline itself. PKS was a joint venture partner in building the northernmost 200 miles of the line running south from Prudhoe Bay and three at Valdez, Alaska, at the southern end of the pipeline. PKS was the sponsor of a joint venture to construct the marine loading docks for ocean going tankers that carry to the lower 48 states the 2 million barrels a day produced at Prudhoe's fields. The pipeline, which stirred the world's imagination, is owned and operated by a group of seven of the free world's major oil companies who combined under the name of the Alaska Pipeline Service Company. They are working one of the world's largest petroleum deposits, an estimated 10 billion barrels, maybe more. It was natural that PKS would submit construction proposals in 1974 when Alaska decided to drill the North Slope fields discovered in 1968 by Atlantic Richfield and Exxon. After all, PKS some 20 years before had acquired vast experience working in the unfriendly atmosphere of Greenland and had done much work in Alaska since. We figured if anyone could do it, we could do it, said Edward C. Lynch of Vancouver, Washington, PKS vice president and regional manager for work in the western states in Alaska. We had worked all over Alaska in a variety of conditions, and we have worlds of good people. Construction work has the same basic principles. No matter where you build, the difference is in the scale. As a result, PKs, in one form or another, singly or in partnership, was involved in pipeline construction from the summer of 1974, when it got a head start in laying the groundwork for the pipeline itself, to July of 1977, when the first North Slope oil arrived at the loading facilities at Valdez, now one of the world's largest oil terminals. And just My side note, three years to build that project. That would take 20 nowadays. The Ralph M. Parsons Company, acting as managing contractor for Atlantic Richfield, awarded PKS a $55 million contract for the construction of a major portion of the permanent crude oil processing fac facilities at Prudhoe Bay. Prudhoe is well above the Arctic Circle, located on the Arctic Ocean some 200 miles southeast of Point Barrow. It is a harsh, rugged, barren wilderness barely tolerable to man, where the temperature ranges from a summer average of about 40 degrees to 60 below in the long, dark winters. It is then that the frigid winds with a force of up to 100mph can plunge the wind chill to 150 below. While it doesn't snow much there, annual precipitation is only 4 to 6 inches. Those same winds blowing in drifting snow from the polar ice cap to the north. Arco's needs were drill site facilities, flow stations and the central compressor plant. The function of the drill site facilities is to collect and transfer the crude oil, gas and water from the wellhead to the flow stations. Each drill site serves from 17 to 29 wells operated by Alaska employees with apparatus to sample and test the crude at each individual well and monitor its performance. At the flow station, crude is separated, the water is returned to the earth and the natural gas is collected for transmission to the central gas compressor plant. The oil is cleaned, metered and sent on its way through lines to pump station number one, where it enters the Trans Alaska pipeline for its long journey southward. PKS forces began at Prudhoe Bay in August 1975. Ten hours a day, seven days a week, all year round. At first, all activity was directed towards erecting temporary facilities and getting ready for the summer sealift of materials and equipment. The permanent process buildings at Prudhoe were fabricated in Seattle and transported to northern Alaska on ocean going barges and tugs. The building modules weighed in the neighborhood of 160 tons apiece. Two stories with a three story stair tower and connecting corridors built of steel framing, moisture resistant drywall and insulated metal paneling. They housed the crude oil processing equipment, pipes, pumps, tanks and compressors and are all connected by miles of power and control cables. Self contained heating, ventilating and plumbing systems are also included. During the summer, there is only a narrow window of time open for bringing material by sea into Prudhoe bay in the 75 season. Barges loaded with cargo left Seattle in June and July. Arrival at Prudhoe was scheduled for early August. But the Arctic ice pack remained fast against the shore. Some of the general cargo barges turned back to south Alaska and 60,000 tons of cargo is loaded onto trucks at Anchorage and Transported over the 800 mile long pipeline haul road to Prudhoe in 3,500 separate truckloads. It was a sight through the summer twilight. Huge trucks bumper to bumper in the unpopulated land. Authorities decided that an additional attempt would be made to get many of the barges bearing the modules through the Arctic ice pack. And it worked. But by the time the modules reached Prudhoe Bay, winter had closed in, locking several barges in the bay. Until the 1976 breakup, the builders were faced with a decision. Should they sit and wait out the winter for offloading next spring? Or should an effort be made to bring the modules onshore in the face of the winter elements? It Was decided they could get the job done despite the numbing cold and howling winds. The first step was to build gravel causeways from shore to each of the barges and then to inch 1,300ton modules onto carriers and creep along the causeway to their proposed sites. The unloading process never knew the difference between night and daylight hours. And what had been scheduled to be completed in the perpetual daylight of the summer went through the Arctic night of winter. The modules were hauled over five foot thick gravel roads and put into place on similar five foot gravel pads. The pads protected the delicate tundra beneath. The modules were hauled into place and leveled and aligned on piles topped with concrete capsules 3ft in diameter and 4ft high through the use of a unique hydraulic jacking system that aligned the buildings vertically and horizontally. Aligning the modules required up to 12 jacks, all controlled from a single console. And the module base plates had to be welded to prevent movement of the pile caps in high winds. The flow station consists of 20 interconnected modules with piping up to 30 inches in diameter. Performs all of the necessary functions of a crude oil facility operating in the more friendly climates of Oklahoma, Texas or the Middle East. Hundreds of instruments were installed under the most difficult of conditions and miles of small tubing and wires were put into place. There was no local power company to plug into, so PKS had to install its own power plant. Warehousing was a part of the operation, but when materials were stored outside, it sometimes became a difficult job even to find the materials under their blanket of ice and snow. At the end of the work shift, the quarter's housing work personnel became the center of a small city serving some 1700 appetites with square yards of steak. A supply of tools and equipment to keep the workers going was assured by the PKS support office in Anchorage where they worked 10 hour shifts, but only six days a week. Payroll information was transmitted by satellite telephone circuit to PKS computers in Omaha. Data was sent back the same way to check printers in Anchorage. Then the checks were flown north to Prudhoe to make sure they were delivered on time. Prudhoe Bay work was finished well ahead of the time the oil spigot was first turned and the PKS President, Bob Wilson noted in the winter of 7677 that the company had worked 1 million man hours at Prudhoe without a single lost time accident. That amazing safety performance brought this response from Atlantic Richfield Executive. This record is unusual in the lower 48 states and almost unheard of in the Arctic. When one considers the hazards and the great number of potential accident situations that could occur on a job of this magnitude, you begin to realize the tribute that is due your people. They have achieved this record in spite of the harsh environment that necessitates heavy work, clothing that restricts movement, dexterity and vision. You ought to be extremely proud. PKS people were proud, but they were busy, too. While some were mopping up at Prudhoe, others were continuing work on the pipeline itself. PK PKS was part of a joint venture that included the Williams Brothers Company of Tulsa, Oklahoma, pipeline constructors, plus three others. The five were awarded a contract to build Sections 5 and 6 of the pipeline roughly the northern 200 miles over the Brooks Range and virtually to the Arctic Ocean. PKS assumed the primary responsibility for the earth moving and the crushing and screening of granular materials, but ultimately it did much more, including drilling some 20,000 holes for the vertical supports of that part of the pipeline. Routed above the surface of the ground, the pipeline tried to follow a route where there was good gravel, and for 100 miles of the way it paralleled the Sag River. Working conditions weren't too bad during the summer, not Unlike what most PKs people were used to. But Ed lynch remembers a snowfall on August 29th. The snow was splitting and it was bitter cold, and I thought, oh, oh, we'll never see the sun again until next summer. But it wasn't true. The snow ended. June, July and August were the only months of good weather. But that didn't stop the project. Construction continued through the cheerless winters. It wasn't as difficult as you might think, said Lynch. Half of the battle is to be adequately prepared with proper clothing and proper equipment in a proper camp. Certainly some days were impossible, but I think some periods of winter in Wyoming are even worse. It's the chill factor in Wyoming that gets you. Arctic winters prove that men can work under extremes more severe than metal can. The equipment would give up before the men. We kept the machines running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, said Lynch. If a piece shut down at 40 below zero and got frozen up, then you had a real problem. Sometimes a piece of machinery could be shut off for an hour or two for repairs while it remained hot so that it would start again. Sometimes it would be necessary to erect a tent around the piece of equipment and bring in heaters. The trick was to get the machine into a shop before it broke down so that repairs could be made inside, not 30 or 40 miles out into the bleak countryside. Sometimes the bitter cold simply crystallized the metal and it broke. The Sag river reminded PKS people of the Platte, and sand and gravel and rock were removed from alongside it for the aggregate, several million cubic yards of it. Borrow pits, the term is taken from the fact that gravel is borrowed from the river. Were to be established up and down the pipeline route. But after work was begun, it was discovered that not as many borrow pits would be allowed by Alaska authorities. They were concerned about preserving the fish life in the Sag river, and consequently some hauls from borrow pits to work sites were as long as 10 to 12 miles. There were three choices for borrow gravel, rock or permafrost. Since permafrost is simply frozen slop, it was avoided wherever possible. In winter, the frozen gravel was blasted loose, and sometimes the blasters got frozen boulders rather than workable gravel. In summer, they would work off the top of the gravel deposit at a rate of about 6 inches per day. That's how much would thaw off the top in a 24 hour period. About half of the 200 miles of the pipeline by the joint venture was above ground, half below, which meant the ditches had to be blasted out of the permafrost as well. Camps were established along the pipeline, portable facilities that were built in Canada and trucked in. Each camp, held from 1,000 to 2,000 workers, was operated by an independent catering firm and provided excellent food and shelter. A work schedule was established that allowed craftsmen to work eight weeks and then take two weeks of R and R in Anchorage or Fairbanks. Workers who went up to the pipeline, understanding the conditions for the most part, had little trouble with their assignments. They could quit any time they wanted to, but the eight weeks on and time off proposition made it more acceptable. Yet the isolation made its imprints, too. Ed lynch tells of walking into an office at Prudhoe Bay and being asked by a young man, perhaps 19 or 20, who won the football game. What game, Nebraska? Ed asked. Is this Saturday? Sure is, replied the young man. I bet $100 on the outcome. Here's a young fellow betting $100 at a crack because he has more money than he ever had in his life. And I don't even know it's Saturday, said Lynch. Not all working men bet their salaries. The going wage was in the neighborhood of $60,000 a year, plus room and board. And lynch knew of one fellow who worked for two years and bought a farm in the Lower 48. Some would get upset over seemingly trivial matters and suddenly quit. Perhaps they were moved from one piece of machinery to another. That might be enough. To trigger a deep frustration and resentment against working conditions. Pipeline not only caught the imagination of the entire world, but especially members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, otherwise known as opec. Then a scandal hit the pipeline project. A scandal that ordinarily would have been so insignificant as to hardly bear mentioning. But because it was the pipeline, this grandiose project spanned nearly 800 miles of hostile country with a man made structure. It was blown into something that rocketed around the world. The problem involved some welds. Every welded joint in the pipeline was X rayed to detect flaws. This X ray inspection was done by an independent company, not by any of the construction firms. But mud, once slung, tends to splatter somewhere along the length of the pipeline. A total of 33 Weld x rays were apparently falsified. Either the X rays were never taken, or they were taken and lost. Or they were taken and some inspector thought at best they were misplaced. In any case, 33 duplicated X rays were substituted for the missing ones and the duplication was discovered. An inspector for the state of Alaska later told a PKS executive that perhaps 175 welds should have been X rayed again. In the end, 4,000 were repeated. Of this number, 2,000 were in the 200 miles of pipeline laid either in ditches or above ground structures by the PKS joint venture. For the underground sections, the ground cover had to be removed, often frozen. A wrapping removed and the welds re X rayed. If the ground wasn't frozen, sometimes the ditch filled with water and that had to be pumped out. Pete Kiewit came up on an inspection flight and saw what looked like thousands of holes pockmarking the route of the line. Needless to say, he was upset. Flabbergasted is the word Ed lynch uses to describe Pete's reaction. He had been involved in ungainly projects before, said Lynch. He thought there was no way we could get the work corrected by winter. But I assured him we could and did. Some sections of pipe were 40ft long, some 60ft and some 80ft. So often it was guesswork to determine the location of the welds. And maybe up to 60 or 70ft of pipe would have to be unearthed. The 48 inch diameter steel pipe varied in thickness but averaged points, but averaged 0.62 inches thick. Some of the imperfect welds could be corrected by having a welder crawl inside the pipe. Others required removing a segment of pipe and replacing it, a procedure that required two welds to replace one Then the dirt was recompacted around the pipeline. Pete Kiewit was deeply concerned about the Kiewit reputation and worried that some of the poor performance of others might soil PKS's linen. But nearly every official Alaska people and the design and the construction management firms who played a major role in the project came away with respect for pks. Not only in the way PKS handled its own responsibilities, but the way it helped correct the mistakes of others. Two other minor problems developed once water froze inside the pipe and had to be bored out, and once the shifting ground of the Brooks Range Mountains caused a break which was quickly repaired. But all in all, the pipeline was performed beautifully and oil was flowing the summer of 77, right on schedule, it flowed to Valdez or simultaneously with its Prudhoe Bay and pipeline work. PKS was constructing the oil loading facilities in a joint venture with the Willamette Western corporation on a $150 million contract. The joint venture was known as Key West. How clever. The project involved building four tanker berths, three fixed and one floating just off the shoreline in deep water. As with the two other projects, Valdez required a mix of talents and began with mobilization of men and material in the Richmond, Washington and Portland, Oregon area. Whatever was going to be needed from the largest derrick to the smallest wrench had to be brought up from the lower 48 states. Barges which brought up equipment remained on the job site and were used for storing the steel structures. Steel dock sections were fabricated by Kaiser Steel Company in California and the Nip and Steel Corporation of Japan, all of which had to be brought in via ship or barge and tug. It was a touchy business. High winds and rough seas were a part of the sea lanes. The year round drills that were going to be drilling holes for the foundation of the fixed berths were tested at Portland on rock harder than anything they would come up against at Valdez. The hulls were 24 to 54 inches in diameter and averaged 35ft in depth through bedrock that sometimes was covered in 80ft of water and another 50 or so feet of mud. Much of the bedrock lay at a 60 degree angle from the horizontal. Two of the three fixed berths were more than 1200ft from shoreline, thereby requiring long access trestles to and from the berths. The floating berth was the most unusual and was decided upon by designers because the water was too deep for adequate piling. Two of the largest fixed berths were built during the first two seasons at Valdez. And while they were under construction, preparations were being made for the fabrication and transportation of the floating berth. It was put together at the Nip and steel fabrication yards. And it was so big that workers at one end used walkie talkies to communicate with workers at the other end. Originally, the 3,300 ton tubular steel structure was to be floated from Tokyo to Valdez. But finally a decision was made to load it on a submersible barge measuring 100ft by 400ft and tow it across the ocean. When this ungainly cargo arrived at Valdez, it was greeted by typical Valdez weather. It snowed five separate times during a 12 hour period. The shoreside anchor for the berth consisted of two giant ball sockets which allow the floating berth to rise and fall with the 19 foot tides. Connection of the floating steel with the fixed socket went surprisingly smoothly. A real gentle push called the PKS man to the tugboat captain. Three feet, two feet, one foot. Mark. It was done. Valdez weather was different from the weather up at Prudhoe, where it snowed but little. Although snow blew in from the north, at Valdez the workmen had to put up with nearly 60 inches of precipitation a year, Much of it in the form of 30ft of heavy wet snow. Often a shift's work began with removing the accumulated ice and snow. And life jackets were as much a part of the gear as hard hats. Up to 3,500 working men and women were on hand at a time. The men took a little time off on July 4, 1976 to help the citizens of Valdez celebrate with a bicentennial day parade. Then went back to work. And at the end all the tools and machinery brought up had to be loaded and tied down again and transported back to the Richmond Portland area. The berths, several buildings and storage tanks with a capacity of 510,000 barrels were ready for business when the first oil arrived from Prudhoe. Today the oil is flowing. So that is another reading from the book, the Key Wit story. I have not actually finished the book yet, so if I wander into the. So if I wander into any other exciting chapters, I will make a note and potentially read them for you all. I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did. It's actually. It's just completely mind boggling. What people have done in the past to build our world. I think we take it for granted. I know I take it for granted. But reading accounts like this that are so brilliant and well written are just quite eye opening. So like I said, hopefully you enjoyed that. If you have anything else you'd like me to read, send us a note. Dirktalkillwood.com we would love to hear hear from you. If you enjoyed it, send it to someone else who might enjoy it. We appreciate you always sharing the podcast and we will see you on the next one. Stay dirty everybody.