Given that this company has more than one pipeline, some of the overhead of the Alaskan Pipeline would be spread across multiple pipelines (not new hires), that said, 250 to 300 is very much a lowball. I would expect direct contracts would employ more than that for just trimming trees and killing vegetation along the right of way.
The Keystone XL pipeline will have 33 pump stations in the United States and eight in Canada.
The Alyeska (TAPS) was only built with 11; Only 5 of them operate today with another as a backup.