1,600 km of road in Antarctica

2003/01/24 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Garraioak
• Geografia

Americans start building 1,600 kilometers of road in Antarctica. The road will connect the coastal station of McMurdo with the Scott-Amundsen station located in the South Pole for the transport of heavy scientific equipment. The project is to be carried out within two years.

Today you can only get to Scott-Amunds station by air, which greatly limits communication. All equipment you want cannot be transported and depends on time. It is estimated that if you have a road you can use it for a hundred days a year. Since the North Pole is 3,000 meters high, it takes twenty days to get there by road and ten to return.

This is the fiber optic installation between both bases along with the road. The Scott-Amunds base is out of reach of most communications satellites and cannot send real-time research data to the labs they use on their polar equipment. Fiber would solve this problem.

But the construction of the road will not be easy. They should clean the path and remove the ice or fill the holes. From the Leverett glacier, you will cross the mountains of Queen Maud, including the mountains. Cleaning and repair is planned for maintenance in spring. The project will involve a total of twelve million euros.

Environmentalists, for the moment, have not made big protests. A pact that prevents the commercial exploitation of Antarctica, in force until 2041, crosses a lifeless region. In addition, the road can only be used by official convoys.