21 Days North of the Arctic Circle

[Lyndon]

The 3 Temporary Camps at Texaco Pad for the pipeline crew. Only 2 are very visable. The third is hiding in the back, you can just see the front of it over the tractor trailer in the center of the photo. They are set up in a horseshoe arraingement.

Huge generators are all blasting away that heat and light each camp. A set-up like this will use 1000 gallons of fuel a day.

 

[Lyndon]

This is a Caribou Shack. It and a dozen more like it will be used by the welders to weld the new pipeline together. They are placed straddle of the pipe by a special Side Boom Tractor and allow the welders to work out of the wind.

 

[Lyndon]

Pipelayers/sideboom

 

[Lyndon]

Good Morning. Day 10, it's -25, with a 8 MPH winds and the windchill is down around -48. This first photo I took yesterday, and almost deleted it. These strange looking objects are VIBRATION DAMPNERS. They prevent the pipe from going into oscillations during high winds. There are several pipes in this rack. One has the dangling Ball Type, the others have lthe adjustable cantilever "hammer" style. Too dark out for pictures this morning.

 

[Lyndon]

I think we are at Day 11, it's easy to loose track when you work 21 consecutive 12 hour day's. Didn't feel to good yesterday. That was compounded by lots of work. Feeling much better today, but the camera went 'on-strike' right when I needed it to document something, so probably not much for pictures today. It was -28 this morning, but has warmed up to -22 and is a beautiful clear blue sky day.

 

[Lyndon]

I suppose I should have done a thread on TAPS, acronym for the Trans Alaska Pipeline Service co. THEY had 44 Snow Cats! While were waiting for the camera to recharge:

 

[Lyndon]

As I worked the entire 800 mile corridor of the pipeline, at all 12 Pump Stations, The VMT(Valdez Marine Terminal) and a series of private airports that they operate, I got a very thurough overview. I have personal pictures standing at the 0 Mile marker at Pump 1 in Prudhoe and right on down to the VMT where I have a picture standing in front of the 800 Mile Marker at the VMT. I'll see about digging up the pictures and put them on another thread.

 

[Lyndon]

Only Pump Station's 1 thru 4 are truely "North of the Arctic Circle" this is the start of the trans alaska pipeline.

 

[Lyndon]

"T" Shirts and Ball Caps portray this as: ALASKA STATE BIRD

The Mosquito's don't actually get quite this big, but there certainly are more of them that anywhere else in the world. Fortunately the season is short.

They can get so thick that it makes it seem like it's 'Overcast' on a bright sunny day! They can literally damp-out the sun.

 

[Lyndon]

Good Afternoon. It's about 2:30 on Day 12. It's been snowing for about 24 hours. Temp is -19. When it warms up like this, then snows, that is generally followed by a "BLOW". It seems like Prudhoe is the windiest place on earth sometimes. 70MPH periodically, over 100 on ocassion. One Oilfield "T" shirt reads: Prudhoe Bay Wind Festival, Jan 1 thru Dec 31..
This little windmill powers a flashing light at an intersection. It hardley ever stops turning. It was "flying" when I took the picture.

And the Signs are spring loaded at the bases and will lay right down on the ground in a stiff wind.

 

[Lyndon]

We wear all FRC's. That is Fire Resistant Clothing. Our mechanics suits, arctic parkas, 'Bib's'. This is a real Arctic Parka. good for about 60 below.

 

[Lyndon]

A Team of Military personel, and some professional mountain climbers did a test comparing: 1) Arctic Clothing from Sporting Goods stores and Outfitters, 2) Military Issued (US) Arctic Gear, and lastly 3) OIL COMPANY Arctic Gear. Their assesments were pretty unanimous. One of the GI's commenting: Boy this is the Real S@#*! They all agreed that the OIL company stuff was superior. This is a "Bomber Parka" it differs from an Arctic Parka in that it doesn't have the Fox Fur collar, which you only need when it starts blowing, then it is highly effective.

 

[Lyndon]

The Hard Hat in this picture also has an arctic FRC Liner, very useful. We are required to carry Arctic gear 100% of the time, incase your truck breaks down. That what's in the bag. One Arctic parka, Arctic 'BIBs', Mittens, a Face Shield, and a pair of Arctic boots, usually rated to 90 below.

 

[Lyndon]

We are also required to wear some type of traction devices on our shoes. This is one of many "Slip-on" varieties available. Boot Chains.

 

[Lyndon]

If there's one thing that we are really serious about in the Alaska Oil fields it's Spill Containment. We kick one of these little drip-liners under before fueling 100% of the time, no exceptions. The alternative is a Plane ticket home, and you don't get invited back!

 

[Lyndon]

At the start of this thread when I said "Grab Your Arctic Gear" I was serious. Failure to carry it is grounds for termination.>
This is a DUCK POND. I carry one in the back of my truck and place it under the engine everytime I stop somewhere to inspect. Everything, Trucks, cranes, loaders, graders.... get parked over one of these. If a vehicle has recuring leakage problems we just get rid of it and get a NEW one! (not a new duck Pond, a NEW LOADER!) They are quite intollerant of old leaky equipment.

 

[Lyndon]

Because we get such serious winds so much of the time, Duck Ponds have to be tethered to the trucks as they have a tendancy to blow away. I've seen a whole row of vehicles with their Duck ponds flying like kites off the mirriors of a row of vehicles.

 

[Lyndon]

These next 7 pictures are a "PAN" or 360 degree view of A-Pad. It's a busy place today.

 

[Lyndon]

The Centrilift shop where they service "Down Hole" pumps.

 

[Lyndon]

In a circle each pict is to the right of the previous one, taken from the center of A-pad. Trenching operations are on-going behind Centrilift shop, and some offices for the Pipeline construction project are to it's right.

 

[Lyndon]

The rig Camp, and the new 1,000,000$ Tent. It's heated, and 100 by 200.

 

[Lyndon]

The Insulator's shack, then the Scaffold builders shop, then the Mechanical shop for the welders/pipefitters, then the 'break shack'

 

[Lyndon]

The Mechanics shop, not to be confused with the Mechanical Shop. In the Mechanics shop they fix machinery and vehicles. in the Machanical Shop they weld, grind, fabricate, and pressure test Pipe, usually reffered to as "Spools".

 

[Lyndon]

Last shot of A-Pad.

 

[pixie]

WOW This tour is great !!

I had been going to ask you what kind of boots you used... are they bulky and heavy ?

I could use a gross of drip liners.....

 

[Lyndon]

Inside Centrilift Shop where they store and service 100 to 800 HP "Down-Hole" pumps. these submersible pumps can be up to 60 feet long, and may be at the bottom of a well 4 miles deep.

 

[Lyndon]

One of the Actual Pumps. This is a small one. They operate at around 2500 volts off a "Variable Frequency Drive" that allows one to adjust the rate it pumps at. They incorperate some ingenious features to read the temperature and pressures at the bottom of the well from the surface. The whole thing consists of both pieces screwed together.

 

[Lyndon]

Day 13. -42, 5MPH winds, -60 with the windchill. the truck took 5 tries to get started. They will be moving Doyan Rig 14, a BIG one, off one of our drill sites, and it will be moving 60 miles to the east. It's monster 3 story Camp will also be leaving. Should get some good picts today. 12 foot wide SOW's that sort of stuff. One of our field engineers here, an alaskan, has a Bombardier Dual Drive Muskeg. His has an even bigger Dodge Flat Head Six that I didn't know they made, a 265 CU. He drives his Muskeg in 40 Miles to his mine/hunting camp. He uses a PTO off the Muskeg to power his pumps and sluce box for his mine. I don't know, 40 miles across Tundra in a Muskeg? Sounds tuff! There might actually be something to that "It's touigher in Alaska" slogan after all.

 

[Lyndon]

There's a beautiful full moon over the Slope today. It's 1968 miles from my house in Seattle to Fairbanks Via tha Alaska Highway. I've made this trip 7 times with a Truch and Trailer. Once pulling a Snow Cat, once Pullinng 2 snow cat's, and once pulling a snow cat, and 2 huge, heavy Generator set's. From Fairbanks to Deadhorse (Prudhoe Bay) it's 498 miles, just 2 miles shy of 500, up the notorius "Haul Road", gravel and Ice and Snow the whole way. At Atigan Pass, 4000' there are avalanches, man-made, on a daily basis during the winter. Many truckers have died there. Today we received 10 trailer truck loads of Pipe. It's too dark for pictures yet, but I'll get some when it get's light. It's another 38 Miles from Dead Horse to Milne Point. so just from the North West corner of the US (Seattle)to Milne Pt. is...2504 miles. The Pipe, a pre-fabricated, insulated with an outer metal jacket, was manufactured in the "Lower 48" either in Alabama or Pennsylvania, so it is likely that some of these truckers have never been North Of the Arctic Circle. That also means that they may have driven some 5000 miles, across Atigan Pass. They are all out waiting in the cabs of there trucks for it to get light so that they can unload on the newley constructed Ice Pad that is the storage area for the pipeline job. This is a Salute to these Truck drivers that have just made a long hazardous trip. I hope they make it home in one piece and have enjoyed their Arctic Adventure, here 300 miles North of the Arctic circle.

 

[Lyndon]

Here's the Pipe. It's not too many truckers that can brag: I just made a delivery one 1/5 th of the way around the world to a place where "Hell" does freez over. (the round trip, of 10,000 miles being more than a 1/3rd of the circumference of the Earth!)