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Can you drive to Alaska?
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krats1976

Joined: 14 May 2003

Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:33 am Post subject:

laogaiguk wrote:

Yep, that is what I am talking about. But you forget global warming, whether it's true or not doesn't matter, things are getting warmer up there. You will start to see some territorial problems and a good way to get around that is show you already have an infrastructure there. Probably not so much in our lives, but the north will probably become much more accessible and important Smile

Darn you!! You responded too fast.

Check my edit. Wink

If you want to see what happens when the permafrost melts, watch a documentary on the building of the Alaska Highway...

laogaiguk

Joined: 06 Dec 2005
Location: somewhere in Korea

Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:35 am Post subject:

krats1976 wrote:

laogaiguk wrote:

Darn you!! You responded too fast.

Check my edit. Wink

If you want to see what happens when the permafrost melts, watch a documentary on the building of the Alaska Highway...

Ya, that's true. But who knows what new technology they will have in 50 or even 100 years??? Actually, we probably won't need a bridge then Smile

krats1976

Joined: 14 May 2003

Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:39 am Post subject:

laogaiguk wrote:

krats1976 wrote:

laogaiguk wrote:

Darn you!! You responded too fast.

Check my edit. Wink

If you want to see what happens when the permafrost melts, watch a documentary on the building of the Alaska Highway...

Ya, that's true. But who knows what new technology they will have in 50 or even 100 years??? Actually, we probably won't need a bridge then Smile

Yeah, like solar powered tracless floating train things that just float over the Strait (which, due to the melting of the ice caps will be much wider, BTW).

Sweeeet. Cool

Tiger Beer

Joined: 07 Feb 2003

Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 9:23 am Post subject:

krats1976 wrote:

laogaiguk wrote:

I watched a documentary ona bridge connecting Russia and Alaska. A lot is planned but it's not even close to even (or ever) becoming a reality.

Are you talking about that Disovery Extreme Engineering episode? I saw it too... and it's a very stupid idea. Not only would the construction of the bridge itself be astronomical in price, but there are no roads TO the danged Bering Strait to begin with!! They'd have to build a very, very, very long road connecting Fairbanks to Nome, through hundreds of miles of permafrost. Then, thanks to the permafrost, they'd have to rebuild those hundreds of miles of roads every few years or so. To say the cost is 'prohibitive' would be a HUGE understatement.

And, for what? Some tourists? Certainly not for freight traffic. It's much cheaper to send stuff by ship than by truck, even if a road already exists. Not even for rail traffic. I mean, it hasn't ever been considered cost effective to even build a railroad from the Lower 48, through Canada to Alaska. So, who'd want to build one to Russia?

The only practical use of such a bridge would be an oil pipeline, and that's assuming that Russia ever manages to get it's Siberian oil fields producing effetiently.

All that said... it was a cool episode. Wink

Hmm.. the idea of being able to drive from North America into Asia is an interesting one.

krats1976

Joined: 14 May 2003

Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 4:05 pm Post subject:

Tiger Beer wrote:

Hmm.. the idea of being able to drive from North America into Asia is an interesting one.

Absolutely. It'd be a wicked road trip. The show also talked about a rail line that would make it possible to travel the entire world by train.

Interesting, yes. But is 'interesting' enough to warrant a billion dollar bridge & millions of dollars a year in highway repairs?

jaganath69

Joined: 17 Jul 2003

Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 5:48 pm Post subject:

I can't believe noone has mentioned the Darien Gap yet, that 160 odd Kilometres of swamp and jungle that make a full road trip from S America to N America impossible. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dari%C3%A9n_Gap

RokofKangnam

Joined: 20 Sep 2005
Location: Between a ROK and a Hard Place

Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 6:59 pm Post subject:

jaganath69 wrote:

I can't believe noone has mentioned the Darien Gap yet, that 160 odd Kilometres of swamp and jungle that make a full road trip from S America to N America impossible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dari%C3%A9n_Gap

Yet very easy to bypass.

Anyone who has "driven" from South America to Alaska has ferried through with the exception of some die hard adventurers, and I can only think of one who has done it.

Still counts as driving as far as most are concerned.

Good thread.

ez2engage2

Joined: 19 Jul 2003

Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2006 3:17 am Post subject:

I asked the family from Argentina what kind of car they were driving but they didn't speak English too well. He said somthing to the effect of switching to minivan in Mexico. Darien Gap is interesting, so the road doesn't connect all the way through. Their plan was flying to Hawaii from Anchorage, I think. One hellofa vacation!

ChopChaeJoe

Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Location: Seoul

Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2006 3:27 pm Post subject:

jaganath69 wrote:

The link you provide describes vehicles who have made it through the gap. So it's not impossible, just very difficult, foolhardy even given the paramilitary groups warring each other.

Novernae

Joined: 02 Mar 2005

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 4:22 am Post subject:

jaganath69 wrote:

You beat me to it! I bused from Maine to Argentina, but I flew over the Darien Gap...

Edit: It's not technically impossible to travel through the gap, but it's dangerous, expensive, uncertain, and lengthy. Really, it's an adventure, and one I nearly took. A stupid Panamanian law kept me from trying. Stupid Panamanian laws.

Last edited by Novernae on Sun Aug 20, 2006 6:01 am; edited 1 time in total

Tiger Beer

Joined: 07 Feb 2003

Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2006 5:33 am Post subject:

Has anyone been to Juneau? What is it like? Also, are they still talking about moving the capital more northward?

krats1976

Joined: 14 May 2003

Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2006 11:12 pm Post subject:

Tiger Beer wrote:

Has anyone been to Juneau?

What is it like?

Also, are they still talking about moving the capital more northward?

Passed by it on the ferry once. Laughing

From what I hear, it's an OK town, but not a place to spend too much time.

Yes, they are still talking about moving it. Actually, a law was passed more than a decade ago authorizing the move to the Mat-Su Valley (about an hour north of Anchorage), but lawmakers have never managed to pass a bill appropriating the money, thanks to very strong lobbying & campaigning on the part of Juneau-Douglass citizens.

Anchorage is constantly trying to get it moved there. In the last election, they tried to be really weasely & proposed a law moving it temporarily to Anchorage until satisfactory infrastructure could be built in the Mat-Su Valley, knowing full well that once everything got settled in Anchorage, no one would want to spend the time & money to move everything again.

No one fell for it.

So, the capital remains in Juneau, a city accessible only by water and air (and often only by water since wind currents there often make it impossible for planes to land).

Ahh I love Alaska. Very Happy

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