accessibility

• alaska has a population density of less than 1 person per square kilometre, this makes it unfeasible to provide roads, which means anyone wanting to travel must do so over un surfaced, rutted roads across the tundra
• for several months of the year, ice and snow makes most tracks unusable
• the vast majority of alaska is covered with permafrost, this means that during summer, there is a seasonal melting of the top layer that covers many of the roads
• over time, the seasonal melting and refreezing of the active/ top layer leads to huge uneven areas called thermokarst making travel impossible in some places
• in addition, frost heave - where pebbles and stones rise slowly up to the surface which can make tracks dangerous to drive on
• it is difficult to make use of alaskas oil and gas reserves because of the pipeline that has to be created. it is expensive and took a lot of time to build and each still cost $3000 to build. there are restrictions on where you can build and how you can transport it