Approximately 15,000 soil samples were taken. It took over 3 years to build the pipeline. Two thousand contractors and subcontractors were employed. About 420 miles of the pipeline is above-ground. Specially designed vertical supports were placed in drilled holes or driven into the ground.
Heat is transferred through the walls of the heat pipes to aluminum radiators atop the pipes.
The pipe is underlain with a layer of fine bedding material and covered with prepared gravel padding and soil fill material, in a ditch from 8 ft. to 16 ft. Zinc ribbons, which serve as sacrificial anodes to inhibit corrosion of the pipe, are buried alongside the pipeline. The Atigun pipe replacement section, 8.5 miles in length, has four magnesium ribbon sacrificial anodes installed. The zinc anodes act like grounding rods to safely return these currents back to the earth, reducing the risk of damage to the pipeline. Special burial, refrigerated In some areas the line was insulated and buried in a refrigerated ditch.