Not since Hannibal brought his elephants over the Alps to defeat the Romans in 218 B.C. had anyone attempted a mountain-hurdling task so complicated. In freezing temperatures and four-foot snowdrifts near the northern Italian town of Paluzza last week, workers prepared to blast out a tunnel for a 40-in. pipeline that will connect the port of Trieste with refineries in West Germany. The pipeline will require nearly four miles of tunnels, but most of its journey will have to be made, like Hannibal's, across the frozen peaks and deep valleys of the Alps. Scheduled to begin operating in 1967,...
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