A group of seven oil companies has formed the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company to design, construct, operate and maintain the trans-Alaska pipeline system. The total pipeline will be approximately 789 miles long, some 641 miles of which will be across Federal lands. The project will include pump stations, camp sites for use during construction, airfields for use during both construction and operation of the line, a communications system, and material sites for construction and access roads. The terminal site at Valdez will consist of a tank farm and dock facilities from which ocean-going tankers will transport crude oil to markets. Prior to construction of the pipeline north of the Yukon River, a road will be built for access and the movement of equipment, materials and personnel during pipeline construction activity. This road (to become a part of the State of Alaska Highway System) will be approximately 373 miles in length, of which about 365 miles will traverse public lands. Of the approximately 586,000 square miles of land in Alaska, the project will utilize less than one one-hundredth of one percent of the total.
The project is now more than a year behind its original schedule as a result of a court injunction stemming from the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.