Trans-Alaska Pipeline System Construction Project

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System Construction Project was undertaken by a consortium of oil companies, organized as the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, to move crude oil from the newly discovered Prudhoe Bay field on Alaska's North Slope to the port of Valdez. Congress cleared the project's main legal obstacle with the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act of 1973, passed amid the same oil crisis that drove other nations' energy initiatives, and construction proceeded from 1974 to 1977 across difficult Arctic terrain and permafrost. The project required specialized engineering, including elevated sections to protect permafrost and accommodate caribou migration, and its completion transformed Alaska's economy and made the United States a significant new oil-producing region.