Road between Sisimiut and Kangerlussuaq

The town of Sisimiut is the second most populous in Greenland, with around 5,600 inhabitants. The town’s harbour is the northernmost in the country, where layers of ice do not hinder sailing in the winter. Fishing is the largest industry in Sisimiut, and residents there have long discussed getting a road to Kangerlussuaq and thus having the possibility to export fish through the international airport there. The road will also open tourist access to the area, connect the residents of the rural community, and simplify the access of scientists to the wilderness of Greenland.

The conditions for road construction are diverse and quite complex. Mountains and hilly terrain up to 500 m high have to be crossed, rocks and cuttings must be blasted, and it will be necessary to open more mines along the road to extract material for road construction. Loose layers of soil that are considered suitable are rare, and therefore material processing will be quite a large part of construction, even more extensive than the road construction itself. For the most part, there are patches of rock and wet soil and there is permafrost in the ground, which causes the top layer of the soil to be constantly moving.