Comments (19)

• Richard

  And I thought the state of the roads in Britain were bad...

  Published: April 16, 2009 10:37 AM

• prettyskin

  What road? Mud path.

  Published: April 16, 2009 10:47 AM

• Larry N. Martin

  That's the kind of road where you really need a 4WD SUV!

  Published: April 16, 2009 10:52 AM

• paul

  Looks like my street in Chicago3

  Published: April 16, 2009 11:57 AM

• Andras

  Clearly the state is out of the picture. Only when someone start to improve the situation it returns.
  By the way, these conditions are only temporary for the three days of summer. Winter soon comes and freezes the roads. Who need asphalt then? You will need dogsleds!

  Published: April 16, 2009 12:23 PM

• at

  just a fact - Moscow to Yakutsk distance = 3000 miles. no direct highway actually there.

  Published: April 16, 2009 12:32 PM

• David Spellman

  If this highway in Russia were privately owned, you can bet it would be a paved all-weather road that was passable 365-days a year. And if the toll was too high, you can bet there would be another road built to compete with it and drive the cost down.

  Published: April 16, 2009 12:34 PM

• Christopher Lempa

  This article touches on individuals trying to fix state roads and getting punished for it: http://www.strike-the-root.com/91/kleen/kleen2.html

  Published: April 16, 2009 12:41 PM

• Yancey Ward

  Wow, a picture of I-84 in Waterbury, CT.

  Published: April 16, 2009 12:52 PM

• Pedro Velhinho

  Napoleon and Hitler had a few problems over there. Now I understand why...

  Published: April 16, 2009 1:52 PM

• Speedmaster

  LOL! ;-)

  Published: April 16, 2009 2:01 PM

• Jonathan

  A. Why were the interstates first created in the US? B. Why was tax payer money used?

  A: Interstate highways were built to interconnect military bases for ease of travel of the troops in the case of a national emergency. See the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956.

  B. Who else would pay for it? The military industrial complex? Wait Eisenhower coined that phrase because he was partly responsible for creating it apparently.

  The only issue I would have with privatized road/interstates is who could afford to own and operate them? All the big corporations are worthless. White Castle is debt free we could ask them to buy a road. But seriously. I would hope that the PRC would not be the one owning and operating our road system in the US. They own and operate everything else.

  Published: April 16, 2009 2:18 PM

• Stephen W. Carson

  Though the post is a joke, the highway is for real. Just google "highway Lena" or read this Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M56_Lena_highway_(Russia)

  Published: April 16, 2009 3:37 PM

• Vanmind

  Break out the ShamWows...

  Published: April 16, 2009 4:25 PM

• Intern Austronomist

  This is a true federal highway - M56. The state of the road is not the worst thing yet. The road goes along the Lena river. The problem is it is on the other side of Yakutsk and as the road approaches Yakutsk ... there's no bridge across the river period. They just didn't build it. The only way is to cross the river is to drive when the river is frozen. Unfortunately, the privatization of the highway will help only temporarily, because the state will get the road back by any means (phony embezzlement charges, "failure" to follow environmental requirements, you name it).

  Published: April 16, 2009 10:18 PM

• Libertas est Veritas

  And in testament to Communism, the highway connects to the Kolyma highway. Which is known as the Road of Bones, because the remains of the gulag inmates who died building it were laid under the road...

  Published: April 17, 2009 3:48 AM

• Marc Sheffner

  Hitler very kindly donated extremely well built roads to the Austrians. It was just pure coincidence, or historical irony, that the German military later used those roads to invade the country.

  Published: April 17, 2009 4:13 AM

• Marc Sheffner

  The Devil's advocate in me asks, what's wrong with this? the benefits of our interstate highway system are a direct result of our decision to put our highways in the public trust, rather than allowing them to be privately owned. Imagine selling our highway system to General Motors, and letting them decide which cars are allowed on the road. It’s unthinkable... Van Jones’ new job in the Obama administration is to ensure that our green-energy programs create benefits across the socioeconomic spectrum. Jones is already saying that greening the power grid could create the kind of jobs that lift people out of poverty. What he isn’t saying is that our power grid has always had that potential. He needs to point out that the reason it hasn’t happened is that private ownership of the grid has given utilities too much control.

  Published: April 17, 2009 5:05 AM

• Borislav

  Aвтомагистраль is not not highway ;-).

  Published: April 17, 2009 11:34 AM