Roads are popping up all around the world, but the most recent highway planned for the arctic circle is bringing a lot of attention to the small villages it will affect. Permanent roads cause a tricky task for the people making the roads because of the ice and permafrost in the region. The frozen ground known as permafrost can cause roads to buckle when it melts and we all know that is becoming more relevant in the past decade. This new road is going to be 85 miles long and will be built in Canada’s Northwest Territories. According to the article published in New York Times, the road will cost about 216 million dollars and will require eight bridges and over 177 million cubic feet of material be moved. The road construction will also be difficult because the road can only be built during the winter months when the lakes are frozen, and will allow for trucks to drive over the lakes to bring supplies to builders.
The article relates to what we have been talking about in class because in the past few weeks we have been talking about how the warming in the poles has caused ice to melt. A lot of roads that are already in place have started to buckle because the permafrost is melting causing the road to sink and become distorted. Upon further research, I found that in the arctic the 30-100 cm of permafrost thaws and freezes each year and the area below that remains frozen year all year. The thawing and freezing of the ground will cause for a lot of unforeseen problems for builders who are going to be working on the project. It will be interesting to see the success of the road construction and what this will mean for future roads being installed in the arctic area.
Research:
Kujawinski, Peter. “The Road to the Top of the World.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 2016. Web. 14 Feb. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/travel/canada-tuk-northwest-territory.html>.
“Arctic Change – Land: Permafrost.” Arctic Change – Land: Permafrost. Web. 14 Feb. 2016. <http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/detect/land-permafrost.shtml>.