The highway at the nd of the world

摘要

You can imagine the job advert: "Highway engineer needed. Must like the cold and be prepared to travel to the ends of the Earth. Own snowshoes an advantage." The requirements might sound peculiar, but they are just what is needed for one of the most unusual engineering projects ever attempted. Almost a century after the explorers Amundsen and Scott battled their way from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole, a US team is heading the same way but constructing a road as they go. For the past two months, in the 24-hour daylight of the southern summer, their bulldozers have chugged and rumbled across the ice, bashing out a route from the coast towards the pole. Due for completion by March 2005, this road will stretch for more than 1600 kilometres across some of the most inhospitable terrain in the world. But how can they hope to construct a highway across ice that is constantly shifting? And what might this road do to the pristine environment it passes through?