Building on permafrost

Perhaps you think that you cannot find places that never thaw out anywhere except in the Far North? This is not so. The permafrost zones are almost under half of the Soviet Union. To the east of the Yenisei, there is solid permafrost from the Arctic Ocean of the Chinese and Mongolian borders. A quarter of the land on our planet is frozen. The whole of Antarctica, nearly the whole of Greenland, three quarters of Alaska, and two thirds of Canada are clothed in an icy armour.

Today one can see tall blocks of flats and huge industrial enterprises in the Far North. They are not exactly ordinary. Walking along the streets of Yakutsk one notices that all the buildings are raised off the ground on concrete piles. This is done to prevent the ground from thawing out. It was suggested by permafrost expert, who proved that permafrost can act as a solid foundation for any building if it is handled properly.

Way back in the 30s the Institute began to work out theories for constructing roads and railways in permafrost zones, and for building blocks of flats, factories, gold mines and airports. New problems kept coming up as time went by. The construction of hydroelectric power stations, for instance. Since 1970 several big power stations have been built in the Polar Circle.

The discovery of rich oil and gas deposits in the North has forced permafrost experts to solve the problem of laying pipelines in frozen ground. There are pipelines in Yakutia and on the Taimyr Peninsula beyond the Arctic Circle now. A giant trunk pipeline will take gas from Yakutia to the Pacific coast.