The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS), usually called the Alyeska Pipeline in Alaska or the Alaska Pipeline elsewhere, is a major
U.S. oil pipeline connecting
oil fields in northern
Alaska to a sea port where the oil can be shipped to the
Lower 48 states for refining.The main Trans-
Alaska Pipeline runs north to south, almost
800 miles (1,300
km), from the
Arctic Ocean at
Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to the
Gulf of Alaska at
Valdez, Alaska, passing near several Alaskan towns, including
Wiseman,
Bettles,
Livengood,
Fox,
Fairbanks, and
Glennallen [see map].Construction of the pipeline presented significant challenges due to the remoteness of the terrain and the harshness of the environment it had to pass through. Between Arctic Alaska and Valdez, there were three
mountain ranges, active
fault lines, miles of unstable, boggy ground underlain with frost, and migration paths of caribou and moose. Geological activity has damaged the pipeline on several occasions.
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