By William “Skip” Deegans
Using a massive fleet of large machines that needs a wide disturbed right-of-way to maneuver, our region’s Mountain Valley Pipeline project contrasts sharply with this week’s photo of an early installation of a gas pipeline in West Virginia. The photo shows a handmade wooden lever that was used to lift the pipe. One of the most labor-intensive jobs on a modern pipeline is joining the pipes by skilled welders. As shown in the left corner of the photo, these workers figured a clever way of joining the pipe with minimal labor.
The first natural gas pipeline in North America was 25 kilometers (about 15 miles) and was laid in Quebec, Canada. The world’s longest natural gas pipeline is the West-East Gas Pipeline in China. It is 8,707 kilometers (about 5,410 miles) and connects the Tarim Basin gas fields in Xianjing to Shanghai.
Photo: Courtesy of the West Virginia State Archives.
Sources: Canadian Energy Pipeline Assoc., China National Petroleum Corporation.
