Russian Highway from Hell

http://ssqq.com/archive/vinlin27c.htm ^ | 2007 | Written by Rick Archer

[meyer]

I read once that there are more miles of paved road in Ohio than in Russia,...

I think this is highly dependent on your definition of "paved". There are some real axle-busters in the Cleveland area these days. Probably would be better off if they just spread gravel.

[HereInTheHeartland]

This is NOT a highway in Russia. It is instead the result of a time traveler visiting I80 in the Sierra Nevadas. It is at some point in the future; after many years of Obamanomics.

[oyez]

So isolated that they have to pipe in sunshine, that is if the pipeline is up and running. This time of year they could possibly get 16 hours of sunlight a day. December should be good for four hours.

[oyez]

After the winter there is more pot holes than pavement.

[meyer]

After the winter there is more pot holes than pavement.

I remember when the potholes on Brookpark road would display the brick pavement and streetcar tracks beneath the asphalt covering. I don't know if they ever rebuilt that road or not, or if maybe they just added a few more inches of asphalt above the brick road base. I've lived in Tennessee for the last 8 or 9 years.

[colorado tanker]

The Kolyma Highway, from Yakutsk to Magadan was known as the Road of Bones for all the deaths of the slave laborers who built the road.

Stalin established many labor camps in the region to support the gold and other mines.

[justlurking]

I'm not sure the technology exists to solve this problem.

It exists. It's just enormously expensive.

The freeze/thaw cycle and the torrential rains make a surface road impractical. But, an elevated road would work fine, as long as the footings are dug or driven down to below the frost line.

[Eska]

I live at the end of the Taylor highway in Eagle, Alaska; highway has been washed out including bridges for 3 weeks; maybe single lane nx weekend. Dang Feds won’t let state have permits to fix it right, so they keep putting up single lane sections and road keeps giving way off the cliff.

That didn’t look so bad in Russia

[Cobra64]

Future of our American road system when we are weaned off all petroleum products, including asphalt!

[IronJack]

I don’t know ... I’ve driven in downtown Minneapolis ...

[SnuffaBolshevik]

Car bogged down, little lady?

I can pull you out.

No credit card? Not a prob.

[Cobra64]

My first thought went to pontoon bridges. Why not pontoon roads

A simpler, better solution would be to just pave the road.

[Pan_Yan]

Kremlin policies, Kremlin results.

Another obsevation from these photos proves that point. Notice how many of the cars are Russian built? Not many. Most are from Japan with a few European and American cars mixed in.

[CORedneck]

Was a nice Z car !

[Nervous Tick]

Town doesn’t look too bad.

[Steve Van Doorn]

This month Russian government gave a contract to the French to build this:

[Nervous Tick]

The next article after the one you posted — on the Bolivian Death Road — is also quite interesting.

thx

[Pan_Yan]

Catch 22. When the town looks nice the roads are impassable mud. When the road is open the town is -45 degrees and looks like this:

[Nervous Tick]

>> Catch 22.

Roger.

I’m going to scratch Yakutsk off my list of places to retire, then. :-)

[Hugin]

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 visit they were beaten by people who had been stuck in the jam for a few days. So now the cars and trucks are left to fend for themselves.

One solution for both problems. Surely there must be a few of these still around.