| | How would you like to be caught in a mess like that?
This is the story of Russia's Lena Highway, aka the .
"". As you can readily see for yourself from the picture, in the summertime, the Lena Highway turns completely to mud whenever it rains.
There are several Internet sites that consider the Lena Highway to be the worst road in the world.
Personally I would give this dubious honor toBolivia's Road of Death ().
''. .
Surprisingly, for most of the year, the driving is excellent. The road to Yakutsk is so frozen that the road is frozen solid. It is only in the summer that the road periodically becomes impassable. In the autumn the road freezes back and becomes even better thanmost soil roadsAnd even the boats are not much help.... the Lena Riveris impassable for large stretches of the year when it is full of loose ice, or when the ice cover is not sufficiently thick to support traffic, or when the water level is high and the river turbulent with spring flooding.
In the autumn the road freezes back and becomes even better than usual soil roads, but that is little consolation to those stuck in the summertime mud. The pictures youA car can be trapped in the quagmire for days. According to witnesses, hunger and lack of the fuelare all part of these mud traps. One womanevengavebirth to a child right in the public bus she was riding because no ambulance could possibly get to her.
Making things worse, people are afraid to come to the rescue. There is a report of construction teams that were afraid to appear on site when called. It turned out that during their previous visitthey were beaten by people whohad beenstuck in the jam for a few days. So now the cars and trucks are left to fend for themselves. Only in Russia.
Lawlessness is common. Peopleoftenbreak the locks on the trucks in a search of food and warm clothing. Fuel, food, firearms and steel tow-linecablesare needed mostduring the rainy days onthe Lena Highway.
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | If you study this picture, you realize just how hopeless this situation is. It could be days before they get out of this mess.
Surely there is modern technology to fight this problem. This is ridiculous.
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From: Paul D
Sent: Saturday, March 20, 2010 6:43 PM
To: dance@ssqq.com
Subject: RE: Russian Road After seeing the page on the road to Yakutsk and your despairat the fact that the Russian government seems to do nothing about the road (or can do nothing), and that you stated there must be some modern technology to make this a passable road -- well, there is a way to make a very passable, all weather road -- and it is not modern technology, but a modern understanding of how roads must be built on permafrost.
I watched road construction in Alaska back in the 80's. The construction crews built a modern 4 lane divided highway over permafrost - and it functioned very well -- year-round. However, it does require a lot of digging out for the road (a very large trench, much wider than the actual road and quite deep) and backfilling with rock and gravel. This allows the heat from the road to dissipate so the permafrost does not melt and cause the road to break up.
It just costs money and time - neither of which the Russian government is willing to spend on a mere road.
Regards,Paul Davis
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