From the Antarctic: Building a highway to the Pole
19.11.2003 By SIMON COLLINS, science reporter A convoy of American vehicles passed near New Zealand's Scott Base yesterday on its way to survey a new road to the South Pole, raising the pressure on the world's last great wilderness a notch.
Bulldozers and other vehicles carrying huts, tanks and heavy equipment stretched across the horizon, moving slowly southward from the main United States Antarctic base at McMurdo Station.
The controversial US plan for the 1400km ice road - still officially subject to consultation with other nations - is designed to reduce the need for flights to the Pole.
Airplanes pump out carbon dioxide and other pollutants and carry a risk of accidents.
In the past year alone the United States made 293 polar flights, supplying workers and equipment to rebuild its research base, which sits on top of the Pole.
The current dome-shaped base will be dismantled when the new, more utilitarian structure is finished in 2007.
But the ice road will create exhaust fumes from land vehicles and bring its own risks to travellers braving the continent's harsh and unpredictable weather.
