Yesterday on the way
from Fairbanks to Delta Junction was our first sighting of the Alaska Pipeline.
It is made in a zig-zag pattern to allow for pipe expansion or contraction due
to temperature changes or movement caused by forces, such as earthquakes. The pipeline runs 800 miles from the oil
fields of Prudhoe Bay to the dock at Valdez and carries more than 2 million
barrels of oil a day. It is 48 inches in
diameter and insulated with 3 3/4 inches of fibreglass. All that is jacketed in galvanized steel and
in some sections, refrigerated with a brine mixture to keep the line from
melting through the permafrost.
Delta Junction is the
official end of the Alaska Highway.
Established as a highway construction camp in 1918. The Richardson Highway was established as a
wagon road in 1920. With the coming of the Alaska Highway during WWII, a
community grew up at the junction of the Richardson Highway and the new Alaska
or Alcan Highway.
Today we rejoined the
convoy group at the Deltana Fair Ground in Delta Junction for a rack &
stack and lunch which was provided by the towns people. Talking to the local
people is very interesting as you get an insight into the life in the freezing
cold zones. One lady said that she had 4
sources of power/heating in case one failed she had a backup with the
others. Her husband was a linesman and
had worked on the pipeline and then worked for many years at Prudhoe Bay - they
had spent more of their married life apart than together.
We were driven by a
female school bus driver to the museum and official sign stating the end of the
Alaska Highway for a photo shoot. The school buses are all named so that the
children don't get on the wrong bus and we were on the "Duck" bus and
behaved just as naughty kids do. We were
provided with free cake and icecream and went back to our van with full
tummies. Jim was interviewed by a local radio station reporter about our trip and "George" as he heard Jim's "Aussie" accent and just had to get that accent on his radio station.
We drove on to the
Gerstle River Black Veterans Memorial Bridge which was built in 1944. The bridge is 1 of 4 steel through
truss-style bridge constructions on the Alaska Highway. It was renamed in 1993 to commemorate the
3,695 black soldiers of the 93rd, 95th, 97th and 388th US Army Corps of Engineers for their contribution to constructing the
highway.
Our night stop was at
Tok which is known as the Dog Capital of Alaska as it has a heavy influx of
both breeders and mushers. When we
arrived a group of Aussies were leaving the Fast Eddy’s restaurant as they were
on a bus tour. We happened to catch up
with one of the guys the following morning and he lives a couple of suburbs
away from us in Helena Valley, West Aust.
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