Tuesday, 12 June 2018

Putting Pieces Together With Pipeline Stringing

By Peter Ellis


For more than ninety nine percent of its existence, human society existed as hunter gatherers. Early humans formed tribes and these tribes were nomadic, moving from place to place in search of food and other resources. Eventually though, society evolved as it is wont to do and then people settled down. They did so near sources of fresh, potable water, because the crops they were growing and the livestock they were raising needed water, as did their actual bodies. Eventually, these settlements became so expansive that the not all the people living in them could readily access the water. As such, infrastructure to transport water had to be put in place, in order to assure that all people had access to the resources they needed. Eventually, society had to resort to pipeline stringing.

To make a pipeline, one needs segments. Each of these segments is a long, cylindrical tube. These segments must then fitted together in order to assemble a pipeline.

There are a number of ways to transport liquid. It can be transported in barrels over the sea, or in a single sealed canister over land. However, using a piping system allows a liquid to be transported in great quantities over vast distances in a relatively short amount of time.

Of course, building pipelines are not a cheap undertaking. Thankfully, most of the entities that do so are entities that are able to eat the cost. Most pipelines are owned and operated by private corporations, and as such, they are able to procure the necessary funds in order to finance such a project. Other users include governments, who will have even more resources than a corporate entity.

A lot of heavy machinery is going to be involved in such an undertaking. There will have to be diggers, to make the trenches that the segments are to go into. There will also need to be flatbed trucks to transport the segments themselves. A crane may be necessary in the event that one or more sections of the pipeline be elevated. Ultimately, what is really needed is going to be people.

No one wants a shoddy product. As such, any firm that is hired to do the actual building should have a glowing reputation. Anything less should be unacceptable.

Transporting oil is always going to be a delicate undertaking. The slightest miscalculation can result in an oil spill. The same goes even in a conduit. One crack can spell significant ecological disaster.

But other than ecological impacts, piping can also have other controversies. Because the segments need to go through land, sometimes it can go through land that is culturally significant to one group of people. This can lead to protests which delay construction and even sabotage on the part of activists.

But in the end, infrastructure is necessary. Modern life has made people expectant of certain luxuries. These luxuries need to be delivered to the populace and the means to do so has to be carefully constructed.




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