ALASKA: BUILDING 'THE GREAT LAND'

摘要

Prior to statehood in 1959, Alaska was a territory. Comprising a 656,000-square-mile area characterized by vast and remote wilderness with major climatic and terrain challenges, civil engineers and civil engineering have played a major role in Alaska's development. To commemorate the Alaska Section's 50th anniversary in 2001 and the Society's 150th anniversary in 2002, the Alaska Section of ASCE decided, as a volunteer effort, to assemble a PowerPoint~(~R) presentation portraying highlights of the state's civil engineering history over the past 100 years or more. A major purpose of the project was to inform and encourage young people contemplating an engineering career and, to date, the presentation has been well received in a number of schools in the state. For convenience, the presentation is subdivided into Mining, Rail, Military, Highways, Dams, Oil & Gas, Ports & Harbors, Aviation, and Public Health and Sanitation. It also includes segments on the 1964 Earthquake, Alaska's two Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement (OCEA) award-winning projects, and several proposed projects that were either abandoned or have not yet been constructed. Assembled from a variety of sources including members' project files, many of the photos have never before been published. The following presents highlights of the presentation including several of Alaska's "engineering heroes" down through the years. A bibliography at the end provides additional recommended reading.