Underground Construction - April 2021 - 12

UNDERGROUND CONSTRUCTION THROUGH THE DECADES

1970s: Bursting the
Pipeline Construction
Bubble
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is
part of an ongoing series outlining the
past several decades of underground
infrastructure construction and
rehabilitation as seen through the lens
of Underground Construction magazine
which is celebrating its 75th anniversary
in 2021. This month, we review
highlights from the 70s. To read about
previous decades dating back to the
1940s, please check out our anniversary
coverage at UCONonline.com.

The downward trend that began in 1969 deepened, with U.S.
pipeline construction further dropping in 1970 - to 13,534 miles
- as a number of contracts were canceled.
The crunch was also felt at the magazine, where ads for pipeline
construction equipment auctions started appearing.

1970
Alyeska Pipeline Service Company
was established to design, construct,
operate and maintain the proposed
Trans-Alaska Pipeline.
Leo Barbera founded American Augers,
offering hydrostatic drive machines
with a built-in slip clutch.

1971
Rebuilding of the Grand Canyon's
water system pipeline was tagged
as the most difficult project to-date.
Martin Cherrington completed the
ﬁrst river crossing (about 500 feet),
using HDD, under the Pajaro River,
to install a 4-inch gas line.

12

APRIL 2021 | UCONonline.com

Still, it was - and is - the third-ranked decade for pipeline
construction, and diverse and distinctive projects, technology
developments and industry issues/events remained the focus
of the magazine.

Industry trends
At the beginning of the decade, the focus was on worldwide
construction, with companies planning to spend $5.3 billion in
1971 for 23,804 miles - about a third of the projects overseas.
Two factors expected to help were an easing of the money supply
and President Nixon's decision to allow sharply increased oil
imports, thus stimulating further increases in Canadian pipeline
capacity delivery. The nation was stunned to learn that domestic oil
production had ﬁnally peaked - or so was the belief at that time.
Interestingly, the magazine quoted a federal report, in
April 1971, suggesting that by 1995, natural gas consumption
in the U.S. would require 58.l trillion cubic feet of gas per
year, or 2.5 times the 1970 usage of 21.4 trillion cubic feet.

CIPP was introduced for gravity
sewer applications.

Mideast war led to the oil embargo
and ﬁrst energy crisis of the decade.

1972

New method of replacing old pipelines
with polyethylene was introduced.

First major hot oil pipeline system was
built to serve two electric generating
plants in Maryland.
Explorer Pipeline, a 1,400-mile link
for reﬁned products supply from the
Gulf Coast to Midwest that was
constructed earlier in the decade,
was completed and began operating.

1973
United Gas' $59-million Sea Robin System
expansion was completed, providing
the furthest extension from the shoreline
of any project and ﬁrst use of 36-inch pipe
in the Gulf of Mexico.

1974
The FPC determined that area-wide
pricing for wellhead gas rates was
unfeasible.

1975
Delayed by opponents' objections and
lawsuits, construction ﬁnally began
on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.
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Underground Construction - April 2021

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