Alaska Cat Trains

Not much Outside work going on today.>

With the wind chill it's actually about 15 below. It's not really blowing that hard today. On a WINDY day the stop sign 2 pictures back is practally laying on the ground(It's spring mounted).>

The access to the 'Break Shack' was just shoveled a couple hours ago. One of the windows on the back side of the same building is completely drifted over. The top of the window is at least 10 feet off the ground.

Above picture looks like a good bear entrance!

What is the average snowfall up there? I'm thinking not so much, it just doesn't go away?

Its too cold to snow much. According to WRCC/DRI Prudhoe gets an average of just 4 inches of precipitation per year, most of that in the form of snow (33"/year). That is comparable to Death Valley's 2 inches per year.

http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?ak7780

The only real accumulation we get on the 'North Slope' is the first snows in the fall (august 20), and the last snows in the spring (4th of July). Those pictures from last week were of about 8 to 10 inches. Usually it can snow for 12 or 15 hours and we get about half an inch of these tiny salt grain sized flakes. They don't stick together very well and the snow blows around like sand dunes, drifting 20 foot deep in places and leaving bare ground in others. >
Birds are already migrating to the Slope so I suspect we will have a good long summer. The Swans seem to stay the longest, sometimes leaving right as the lakes are freezing.

It's the last, or next to last day of May and it's was snowing when I arrived. Skiied yesterday at Chinook Pass.

Winter's on it way. all the Ducks and Caribou have split and the tundra has turned brown. Maybe they know something we don't? Havn't heard much from Big Al lately. Did he get his machine home from Alaska?
What do you do when you meet one of these coming down the road?

Looks pretty unassuming at a distance.

This is actually only a small one.

We have much larger models here.

Start back 2 frames>

This is the camp and half of the "RIG", the other half comes in 2 pieces.
this one weighs in at over a million pounds, but we have one that tops 3 million. Most run about 1.5 Million pounds(that's not sterling). Gotta go to a 5:30 planning meeting, I leave shortly for 3 weeks but when I get back it will be entirely white, frozen and snowed in.

When a "Rig Move" occurs it get's announced in advance. Something to the effect of: "Rig 4-ES will be moving from X-Pad to Z-Pad at such and such time" or " A wide and Impassable load will be crossing the Kuparic bridge from 3 to 5 PM" It's a good bet you may be late to the 'Chow Hall' if you get stuck behind it.

The Tractors pulling the 2 pieces in this Photo are 12 Foot wide, not the regular 8 foot wide, and are reffered to as:" Sow's". They usually have extra large engines(V12 or V16) , several transmissions, Planitary Rear's(differentials) like a Cat 988 Loader, and are usually rated for 500 to 1000 Tons. The Camp being pulled by the first SOW is 43 Feet Wide.
(Post Starts at #158)

Lyndon, How many axles are used to carry that load, and what do they have for tires?

Thanks for the pictures

Do the axles/wheels bolt on to the drill rig somehow ? How wide is the trailer under the Camp ?

Thank you very much Lyndon and also mtmogs for providing this perspective on the industry. I think everyone should view this. Not just for the tracked equipment yes quite impressive but to more understand scale of exploration now needed. I don't think most people on either side of the environmental/resource debate really grasp what it takes to meet the demand.
Thanks again, Pat

The vehicles, if you could call them that, usually limit the Axel Width to 24 Foot. Our road system is a minimum of 30 foot wide leaving just 3 feet on either side of the wide loads. They keep pipeways and signs way away from the road system to accomodate the large loads. As far as the number of axels goes: Most of the RIGS (Mobile drill Platforms) ride on just 8 GIANT tires that are all hydrolically driven and all can steer. The tires range between 10 and 18 Feet tall. New processing modules, called "MODS" usually come on special Low Boy trailers, some with as many as 200 tires, not including the tractor's or SOW. Really big loads often have as many as 5 Truck Tractors, usually 2 in front, and 3 pushing in the rear. In Prudhoe the 2 hauling companies, VECO & PEAK also have these 12 Foot wide Low-boy's that are rated 500 ton. They have 4 axels with 8 tires on each axel, total 32 tires per trailer. They put 2 of these 12 ft wide trailers side by side with a special adapter tongue. Pulled by a single SOW they have 64 tires on the trailer and another 10 on the tractor. This set up can routinely haul 1000 Tons on 74 tires. The SOW's tires are the size of the tires on a Cat 966 Loader. There are pictures of both set-up back a ways in this same thread. I'd look it up but I have to go straighten out some documentation problem at the main facility and I fly out in a few hours.

Oh what the hell, I guess I can be late for one meeting the day before I leave:

I forgot I had these, guess I didn't post them before after all!

If you look closely on the previous picture you can see one of the Ramps has stenciled on it 500,000 LBS. This is only one of 2 ramps used to load a very big crane that visits us a couple of times a year.

Re: Alaska Pipeline Security

It's 20 Deg F, and the wind is gusting to 41 MPH. It's the 'Real Arctic Stuff'. the Ocean is starting to freez over. We had a visiting Polar bear for the last 2 day's. He just packed out this morning.>
Security on the Alaska Pipeline is better than at the Millitary Base I was just working at. I am singularly qualified to make that statement as I was in charge of the 20 million $ security upgrade myself.
One day, right before Y2K, I was inspecting the installations of sattellite phones up and down the entire length (800 Miles) of the Trans Alaska Pipeline. I was at a pump station well above the Arctic Circle in the Guard Shack at the gate getting coffey and talking to the Security guy. The Phone rings. It's some GI's, who are a little hedgy about identifing themselves. (Actually they worked at the "DEW LINE" station near by, this , once called "White Alice" was the Early Warning Detetection system to watch for incoming Russian Missels at the height of the cold War) anyway, they informed us that some hunters, with an Irish Setter, drinking Tree Frog beer, had a fire going under the Pipeline at Mile ###. The Helicopter was imediately dispatched from the neighboring pumpstation and we jumped in to security vechiles and headed for the site. Security vehicles also were dispatched from the next pump station down the line. It was a drizzley, cold day, and sure enough here were these 2 guy's in hunting outfits with a small campfire going trying to use the Pipeline as a shelter. At this specific location the Pipeline is elevated roughly 18 Feet off the ground. It's a Steel Pipe, 4 Feet in diameter, with 6 to 8 inches of insulation on it, then covered in an aluminum outer skin. Bow hunting is allowed on the Right of Way, but no guns within 5 miles. After informing them that fires were strictly prohibited and putting out their fire one of the security guy's noted that they WERE drinking Tree Frog beer, and the DID have an Irish Setter with them. Not bad for Sattellite Surveillance! Especially when you factor in that the Sattellite is some 33,000 miles away. We did point out to the hunters that the Pipeline is pressurized to around 1000 PSI, and handels roughly a million barrels a day of OIL! which would fuel a fairly good size fire.
For some 7 years, the Trans Alaska Pipeline operated at in excess of 2 Million Barrells a day, providing roughly one fifth of the US's Oil. It is under a National Security Act, which brings in the FBI as well as a National Assuretiey Act which get's the CIA involved.
In this case "Big Brother" WAS WATCHING!

Very COOL!

9 Degrees F, snowing. Had a looog day at Northstar. Saw at least 50 or 60 Snow Cats getting ready for this years work. Most of the snow machines were here, at Deadhorse.

Kinda looks like a "Junk Pile". I put on a "Gumby Suit" this special survival suit that we are required to wear while riding in the helicopter. It's big and combersome, you feel like an old "Hard Hat" Diver. 9 passengers and pilot & copilot plus some cargo. As the heavily laiden chopper lifts off it clears the pad off about 4 inches of snow for a 50 foot radius. Got a pretty good view of Deadhorse on the way out.
The Island, Northstar, is some miles out in the Arctic Ocean. Yesterday I waited all day for the chopper but it didn't fly. Later, after a 2 hour drive back to my regular place on the "Slope" I found out that there was a Helicopter crash. Turns out it was another chopper that was spray washing some power lines. this resulted in spinal injuries for 2 parties. Not very reassuring! This picture is of Northstar in the Summer & the Winter.

On my way back to the camp I had to wait for 2 hours for that same rig in the photo spread back a few frames, to cross some bridges. Trucks were lined up for 2 miles. It was a 15 Hour day, in the Arctic.

Thanks for ALL your posts, Lyndon!!

I really enjoyed the Pipeline Security and Tree Frog Beer story. It inspired me to dig up a story to share...

http://www.forumsforums.com/3_9/showthread.php?t=11528

Thanks for sharing - I look for all your posts,

Vance

Thanks for all the photos and the insight into the remote operations. Having some past experience in remote site development, I can appreciate all the things that are uncontrolled and just must be endured (weather, unanticipated scheduling conflicts, etc.)
Thanks for sharing these threads as I look forward to many more. Be well and safe!

Ian.