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'Ice Highway' To Open Earth's Last Frontier
JayBonci writes "CNN is carrying a story on an Ice Highway to make it easier to access the South Pole. The 1,020 mile "highway" may be completed as soon as 2006. Because of the nature of the ever-shifting ice, maintenance is going to be difficult to say the least, but it will provide greater access to the region for supplies and scientists."
Trucking is a lot cheaper than flying, considered on the basis of cost per kilo moved. That's why everything is expensive in the Arctic. Further south (by Arctic standards), parts of northern Manitoba are served by "winter roads" kind of like this. Once everything freezes up, it's a good way to move things.
Interestingly, global warming is one possible culprit contributing to a recent problem: the weather "window" for winter roads is becoming more narrow. Bummer for the folks who live in places without alternatives besides air. At least in the Arctic, most places are accessible by sea-lift in the summer. Cheers!
Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges.
Posted by michael on Friday January 24, @10:21PM
from the south-pole-highway-patrol-now-hiring dept.
tetrad writes "The New Scientist magazine reports that the US is building a road to the South Pole. The "highway" would cross the Ross Ice Shelf and then pass through the Transantarctic Mountains (map here). Convoys of tractors will be the only traffic on the road, bringing fuel and heavy equipment to the South Pole, as well as enabling the installation of a $250M fibre-optic communications cable (discussed previously)."
If this TV show adds anything to the story above (which I rather doubt), apologies.