The Alaska Pipeline's Permafrost Challenge

The Alaska Pipeline could not be buried under the Arctic tundra. More

The oilmen planned to build the Alaska pipeline the same way they'd built every other pipeline in the world -- dig a ditch and bury it. This would not work in the arctic. Beneath a thin, insulating cover of tundra and vegetation, much of Alaska sits on permanently frozen ground called permafrost. In some places, it's mostly gravel, but in others it's mostly ice.

AIR DATE 5/15/06