ON TOP More than half the line is above the permafrost.

North America's largest oil field was discovered in Prudhoe Bay, off the north coast of Alaska, in 1968 (ENR 12/9/ 76). In 1973 and 1974, the Arab oil-producing nations halted petroleum exports to the U. S. This produced gasoline shortages and high prices. In 1974, Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., Anchorage, began an 800-mile pipeline to carry crude oil from Prudhoe Bay south to the port of Valdez, where an Exxon tanker would run aground in 1989 and spill 10 million gal of fuel. Bechtel, Inc., San Francisco, managed pipeline work.

Environmentalists stopped the initial plan to bury the pipeline, claiming it would damage the permafrost. As a result, 420 miles were supported on pile bents at 50 to 70-ft intervals. Where burial was a necessity, cooling systems were installed to keep the permafrost from thawing. There are also 600 crossings for migrating animals, such as caribou.

The line is made up of 40-ft lengths of 48-in.-dia, 1Ž2-in.-thick steel pipe. To reduce field work, pairs of 40-ft sections were joined by automatic welding machines at two material depots and 80-ft lengths trucked to the field. This proved to be a good idea. Of 30,800 field welds, a 1975 radiograph audit showed that more than 10% needed remedial welding. Repair crews excavated 1,003 buried welds, some 25 ft deep in permafrost. The remedial welding cost $55 mil- lion.

The pipe was designed to accommodate the expansion and contraction caused by wide temperature extremes. The line crossed three earthquake zones. It was designed to move 20 ft from side to side and 5 ft vertically across the Denali fault zone.

Contractors lost time and money because of problems with equipment delivery and performance, a shortage of skilled labor and unexpected terrain problems. Still, the pipeline was completed in June 1977, as scheduled.

A Green Light for Construction
The first sign of growth in the construction industry, after several years of decline, occurred in 1977. Consumer spending picked up, jobless and inflation rates dropped and the Carter Administration put forth two-year $23-billion to $30-billion tax cuts and public works jobs programs. The GNP was up 5.2%, and ENR projected a 15.3% increase in dollar volume to produce over an 8% rise in physical volume (ENR 1/20/77, p. 51). Spending on highway construction was estimated to be the highest ever, at $8.6 billion, up 16.5% compared to a 6.4% dive in 1976. Bridge contracts were up by 13%. Mass transit led the increased spending list with outlays of $1.7 billion, up 29% over 1976. Atlanta's system was set to go into full swing as was Washington, D.C's 19-mile extension. Miami, Honolulu and Detroit were making progress.

Women and Minorities on the Move
An increased need for prospective trainees in construction careers brought the first mobile recruiting van to alert people in all walks of life about contracting jobs. The recruiting efforts of the nation's top two open shop contractors—Brown & Root Inc., Houston, and Daniel International Corp., Greenville, S.C.—attracted a large number of women and minorities. Just months after the program started, 30% of the participants were black or women. An official of Daniel claimed that women made some of the better welders and insulators, they had better attendance records and paid more attention to detail than men did and also had the patience to do a job right (ENR 1/6/77 p. 16).

The Invasion of the Shopping Centers
Under favorable financing conditions and a rise in consumer spending, shopping centers and malls typified construction projects in 1977—-a trend that was expected to continue for only several months. Awards in the first half of 1977 ran 31% ahead of 1976's pace. Projects in Texas, California and Florida accounted for more than a third of the volume. Contracts in Texas more than tripled 1976's figure because of liberal zoning laws in Houston that permitted shopping centers to be sited wherever a developer wished (ENR 8/25/77 p. 9). In contrast, legal impediments by lawyers for Maine's 2,500 Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Indians, who argued that the state failed to comply with the Indian Non-Intercourse Act of 1790, jeopardized the start of a major shopping center project in Bangor.