No, that's not a telephone pole blown down by a hurricane.
It's just leaning 'cause the ground underneath it getting mushy.
And this is something else you see and feel from that same problem:
The road undulates. It's like a kid's roller coaster.
And you better go slow or your shocks won't last half way down the Al-Can.
It's particularly bad just south of the Alaska-Canadian border. On this part of the trip plan on 45 MPH as your top speed!
Originally I had thought that the Canadian government didn't want to spend money on a road that preferentially took Americans to Alaska.
But they tell me it's the shifting ground form the permafrost. They just can't even it out because it is constantly shifting!
So, if the permafrost is so likely to melt, you might ask, "How come the Alaskan oil pipeline has not ruptured from the moving ground?"
Well, here is the answer:
See those outer-space like devices on top of the support poles?
They are some sort of passive condenser that takes the winter's cold weather down into the ground.
That way months and months of temperature in the negative 40's to negative 70's can keep the permafrost frozen, even when the short summer's temperature gets to a positive 85 degrees.
Don't ask me how come they don't carry the summer's heat into the ground. I don't know if they have a relay in there that transmits cold temperatures only in one direction.
Or maybe it does, but the cold days far outnumber the host ones here.
Anyway, the design has been working for 40+ years.
Pretty cool, eh?.
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