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Tag: transport

  • Antarctica airstrip melting fast

    Antarctica airstrip melting fast

    Australian plane in Antarctica

    The Australian runway on Antarctica is melting fast. The melting is causing problems in transport and there will be no flights from Australia to January.

    Australia will seek help from China with transport if needed.

    It is possible that a new airstrip of gravel will be made in the future.

    The $46 million Antarctic air link opened four years ago with the expectation of 20 flights to the Wilkins runway near Casey Station each season.

    Antarctic flights in 2009-2010 were supposed to be 20 for each season, but were 14 in the earlier season and only two in the latter. In 2011-2012 season all four planned flights were achieved and now for 2012-2013 there are six flights scheduled.

    Australian Antarctic Division chief Tony Fleming says that safety issues are very strict. “Once it gets to above minus five degrees in the ice, then there are safety parameters which mean we can’t [land] aircraft on that. Some way down in the ice, if it becomes above that temperature, we can’t guarantee the structural integrity of the surface.”

    The Wilkins runway is used to get vital equipment, medical supplies, people and food to the continent.

    Source:
    ABC

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  • Breakthrough of the Russians

    Breakthrough of the Russians

    Map of Northwest Passage and Northern Searoute

    Although the ice in the Arctic is slowly diminishing, regular sea transport has not begun in the area. Russians have perhaps the most interest in Arctic shipping due to the enormous resources near the Arctic Ocean, in their own backyard.

    But Russia has two mainfold problems. They need more icebreakers and more infrastructures to use the Northern Sea Route more regularly.

    Nikolay Patrushev, Russia’s Security Council’s secretary says instruments for navigation and communication and bases for search and rescue services are not sufficient. Russia plans to build a series of new search and rescue vessels and make the port of Amderma into a main base for a new emergency unit. Six icebreakers are being built, three of them nuclear powered.

    Tankers with a draught of over 12 meters can now use the Northern Sea Route and Russia’s second largest producer of natural gas, Novatek, is sending the largest tanker ever through the Northeast Passage in August.

    Russia’s Ministry of Transport believes cargo transport through NSR will increase from last year’s 1.8 million tons to 64 million tons by 2020, according to the BarentsObserver.