So you think you've got a bad commute...
September 25, 2006 5:06 PM   Subscribe

600 cars and trucks stuck in the russian mud on what is supposed to be a highway. From the text:"Fuel, food, firearms and steel tow-line are the things that are needed most these days on this Federal highway"
posted by 445supermag (47 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Paris->Dakar is a joyride
posted by elpapacito at 5:09 PM on September 25, 2006


Man, that's some serious mud. Unimog-swallowing mud.
posted by loquacious at 5:11 PM on September 25, 2006


Damn, that looks like chocolate cake frosting. I think what they need are some Unimogs.
posted by ninjew at 5:14 PM on September 25, 2006


On posting: damn you!
posted by ninjew at 5:15 PM on September 25, 2006


I think this is Oregon, actually. Except the people look a bit more refined.
posted by docpops at 5:16 PM on September 25, 2006


For maximum fun if you're going to be stuck in the mud in Russia, make sure you have three women with you, and leave your pants in the car.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 5:25 PM on September 25, 2006 [1 favorite]


Some major Russian roads were never asphalt or concrete paved because they were built over permafrost, and sand and gravel were the best traffic surfaces for major roads, as they remain in parts of Canada and Alaska. But as the permafrost permanently melts, the fuel crisis the author of the linked Web site complains of may be solved, by bubbling founts of Pleistocene age methane gas all about. It'll be plenty warm in the fire swamp, then.
posted by paulsc at 5:28 PM on September 25, 2006


It's not too surprising that area is not well built up; it's in the middle of Siberia.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 5:38 PM on September 25, 2006


In Soviet Russia, engine is you!
posted by ninjew at 5:44 PM on September 25, 2006 [3 favorites]


Reminds me of the roads they were taking in Siberia in the TV show "Long Way Round". They essentially are unusable in the summer because of the mud and unbridged seasonal rivers.
posted by smackfu at 5:59 PM on September 25, 2006


Hmm, I wonder why the need for firearms? Wildlife? Bandits? Boredom?

In all seriousness, this would suck (ignore the pun). Imagine trying to get to work one day and having your car stuck up to the doors in mud. Not cool.
posted by quin at 6:01 PM on September 25, 2006


Permafrost melt is scary, indeed.
posted by five fresh fish at 6:05 PM on September 25, 2006


Imagine trying to get to work one day and having your car stuck up to the doors in mud.

I've done that, and would rather not repeat the experience. I suspect that some of the drivers pictured there have never seen mud this deep before. Otherwise it's hard to believe they could be sufficiently optimistic to get stuck that badly.
posted by sfenders at 6:23 PM on September 25, 2006


Wow, that is not only a serious travelling inconvenience, but a disaster for fish. The land looks flat but that mud is going to flow somewhere. Yikes. It's not often that I am proud of our U.S. highway system but ....
posted by Dougoh at 6:28 PM on September 25, 2006


Forget the Unimog, what you really need for that road is this Zaporozhet.
posted by sfenders at 6:33 PM on September 25, 2006


When the Mongols were rampaging around that part of the world, they used to campaign in the winter because the whole area was impassable in summer.

In WWII, the Russians used to talk about their two greatest allies: General Mud and General Winter. (At different times of year, of course.)
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 6:38 PM on September 25, 2006


UAZ^, UAZ, UAZ!
posted by cenoxo at 7:05 PM on September 25, 2006


I think this is Oregon, actually. Except the people look a bit more refined.

Heh. It's a well-known fact that Oregon mud is as clean as a communion wafer plate and not at all sticky. This Russian mud is obviously filthy communist mud, designed to suck everyone equally down into it's soggy mire.
posted by loquacious at 7:08 PM on September 25, 2006




looks like Coventry
posted by StrasbourgSecaucus at 7:15 PM on September 25, 2006


"UAZ Hunter is your freedom. It maintains excellent off-road capability and agreeable temper."

That would be the first Russian with an agreeable temper I've ever known.
posted by paulsc at 7:23 PM on September 25, 2006


sfenders: is that a bear eating out a chick on that car? yow.

looks like the road is regularly maintained--- machine graded and built up quite a bit. they purposefully add that sand/filler, and it just turns to muck when the permafrost isn't permanently frosty anymore. probably wouldn't work even with a few inches of asphalt on top. global warming is a real mire.
posted by carsonb at 7:40 PM on September 25, 2006


abandoned city ... this site has a lot of fascinating things on it, it's well worth surfing through
posted by pyramid termite at 7:44 PM on September 25, 2006


Any 4x4 vehicle can get stuck if it sinks up to its axle and spins wheels. But I would take it on in a Toyota 4Runner.
posted by stbalbach at 7:45 PM on September 25, 2006


This 4x4 could've made it though the mud I bet.
posted by yeti at 8:01 PM on September 25, 2006


Hmm, I wonder why the need for firearms?

To play Russian Roulette, of course.
posted by spazzm at 8:35 PM on September 25, 2006


Match stick houses look awesome. Need to try this some day.
posted by litghost at 8:39 PM on September 25, 2006


Ex Russia semper aliquid novi.
posted by Slithy_Tove at 8:44 PM on September 25, 2006


litghost: mmm, the pyro in me says YES!
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 9:05 PM on September 25, 2006


OMG... has anyone actually looked at where that is? Yakutsk is in eastern Siberia. It's a pretty desolate area. I can only hope that they're not too far from the city and that there's enough food and water to go around. I'd imagine those Russians are a hardy and resourceful lot, though.

Great post! And... holy crap!
posted by hodyoaten at 9:23 PM on September 25, 2006


Yeah, it does look like Coventry or Bonnaroo '04. I'll never forget walking into a Georgia diner coming home from that Bonnaroo [after getting our car stuck getting out] covered nearly head to two in mud, smelling as such, and sitting down to order some good comfort food.

Nice link.
posted by trinarian at 9:35 PM on September 25, 2006


A mule. Got to git me a mule.
posted by davy at 10:32 PM on September 25, 2006


tempofrost
posted by Kifer85 at 10:59 PM on September 25, 2006


BTW, this is not permafrost melt. There are trees in the background, that look like typical taiga forest. Trees—and other plants—won't grow where permafrost extends to the surface. There *may* be deep permafrost, and it may be melting, but all we're seeing here is surface mud, in an area which normally isn't frozen for much of the year.
posted by Slithy_Tove at 12:19 AM on September 26, 2006


> BTW, this is not permafrost melt.

Ssssh, certainly it's global warming, don't harsh our we're-fucked, it's-the-end-of-the-world mellow.
posted by jfuller at 3:11 AM on September 26, 2006


Give me a hummer!
posted by nea7 at 3:44 AM on September 26, 2006


Just needs a good British 4x4.
posted by punkfloyd at 5:15 AM on September 26, 2006


i'm puzzled about something ... we've got dirt and gravel roads all over the u s and at least where i live, i don't recall this being a major problem ... and if it's not the permafrost, then could it be that they just don't know how to build roads so they drain properly? ... it rains pretty heavily in michigan at times, but i never see something like this
posted by pyramid termite at 5:28 AM on September 26, 2006


Unimog-swallowing mud? Wehrmacht-swallowing mud, as Guderian & Co. learned to their dismay starting in October 1941.
posted by pax digita at 5:29 AM on September 26, 2006


Yakutsk is built on permafrost. This is what the city will look like if it melts.
posted by ikalliom at 5:34 AM on September 26, 2006


They should just rename the highway "Museum of Russian Transport Network." Problem solved!

pyramid termite: Russia is nothing like Michigan. The roads used to be like this all over the country; villages were completely cut off from the beginning of spring thaw for a month or two (and once the rains ended and the mud dried, dust made them almost as unpleasant—winter was the best time to get around).
posted by languagehat at 5:57 AM on September 26, 2006


The Road of Bones, that's the one I was thinking of.
posted by smackfu at 6:30 AM on September 26, 2006


In Houston, the billion dollar muni bond issue would take about an hour and the construction of eight lanes of elevated, on-ramped paved steel-rebarred glory would take about a week on this site. Hell, we'd go ahead and clear-cut those trees to make room for the Home Depot and Borders, too.
posted by aliasless at 6:37 AM on September 26, 2006


pyramid termite writes "i'm puzzled about something ... we've got dirt and gravel roads all over the u s and at least where i live, i don't recall this being a major problem"

I've seen mud like this in a few places in Canada. Building a hard surface road is cost prohibitive because the mud is tens of metres deep. You'd have to excavate down till you hit something besides the mud then haul in solid fill to bring your grade above grade. That or build on pilings essentially constructing a bridge for the entire distance. I did some GIS work for a feasability study of building a road over a section of terrain like this and it was looking to cost C$10 million per lane kilometre. Typical flat land paved higways go for somewhere around $250K per lane kilometre.
posted by Mitheral at 7:19 AM on September 26, 2006


From the Road of Bones entry: "The road is in a state of disrepair and is untraversable by standard road vehicles because of washed-out bridges and sections of road reclaimed by streams. During winter, frozen water actually helps river crossings."

Would Trotsky have done any better?
posted by davy at 7:40 AM on September 26, 2006


we've got dirt and gravel roads all over the u s and at least where i live, i don't recall this being a major problem

As a kid, I was stuck on a road like this in Northern BC. Ours wasn't melting permafrost by a long shot: it was just what the road did after a month of rain. Unfortunately, we were at the wrong end of that road and had to make it to the other end. It wasn't pretty. Us whining kids were probably as close to death as we ever came, and the mud would have perfectly hidden the bodies...
posted by five fresh fish at 8:49 AM on September 26, 2006


davy, of course Trotsky would have done better. Look what a good job he did with the Red Army.

He was right about Stalin, though.
posted by QIbHom at 4:46 PM on September 26, 2006


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