Building on permafrost

The Institute of Frozen Soils attached to the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences is situated in Yakutsk.

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 to 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.

Several bodies of mammoths have been discovered in Siberia, frozen in the permafrost for thousands of years. It seems that the word " eternal" is absolutely -suitable to this hopelessly frozen ground. And yet, permafrost is only preserved if people do not interfere with nature. At times a footpath beaten in the tundra, a carpet of moss ruined by the caterpillar of a tractor, a new house can change the situation. Ground that has been frozen solid for centuries can suddenly turn into a boggy swamp. This can create great difficulties for builders. If they build a house without considering the specificity of frozen ground, the house will be short-lived. The ground will thaw and the building will collapse. This was the unfortunate end of many early projects in the permafrost zone.

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 experts, 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.