Lena Highway (Russian Highway From Hell)

Wed, Jul 15, 2009

As there is a saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. So before watching pictures down read few words before also so that you can know what is that muddy way? Where it’s located?

This is Russian Federal Highway and it is between capital city Moscow and Siberian city Yahutsk. This muddy swamp road is called Lena Highway and its 600 miles long. This road is parallel to the Lena River on the final leg to Yakutsk.

Though it is federal Highway, but it’s not the Highway, as you can see from pictures as you scroll down, in my opinion it called highway because it makes people’s blood pressure(BP) high and vehicle down in mud.

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Its not like that Russian Government is so poor to make a concrete road there, there in pictures you can see its dirt road, and naturally its on such surface

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that concrete road cant be made on that. In winters it gets frozen and makes and excellent surface, those vehicles can run on it at speed of 70 Km/h. But in summers with any significant rain it becomes a mud swamp, which often swallows the whole small vehicles.

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It is said that this road melts down to 1 meter every summer from 2 to 3 months mostly in July and August and that makes it impossible to build a usual concrete or asphalt road.

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Though Russian Government had tried but cant succeeded.

But this is true that Siberian city Yakutsk is always cut off from world in much time of summer.

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Yakutsk is only accessible through boat or plane. Though we are in 21^st century but still Yakutsk is far from world.

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People there living is poor and suffering and this road makes their sufferings more in summer because they cant afford a plane to fly out and back in summers.

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I read that in a story about flood caused by Lena River it is said in that Yakutsk even don’t haves railroad. That means in summers Yakutsk is almost inaccessible except boat of plane.

Once a car was trapped on that boggy road for days, as witnesses told hunger and lack of fuel is big problem on this road even a woman given a birth to a child in a public bus, she was riding in that because no ambulance possibly could get to her.

Because of hard conditions people are afraid to come for rescue. There is a report of construction teams who refused to go on site because on their last visit the people who were stuck there for days beat them. Lawlessness is common on that road usually people break the locks on the trucks to get food, warm clothes.

On Lena Highway to drive safe fuel, food, firearms and steel tow-line cables are needed mostly during the rainy days.

Though Russia is infamous for bad roads but this Highway can be called easily HIGHWAY FROM HELL.

Hope that Russian Government will do something for that road as America had already build a the Alcan Highway under similar conditions like Lena Highway.

Most of these pictures were taken on major traffic jam on Lena Highway in 2006.