Building the longest road in Greenland

作者：Karina Lumholt

Qaqortoq的人口少于3,000，是格陵兰南部居民最多的城市。也是fourth largest cityon the island.

As all populated places in Greenland, Qaqortoq is not connected to other places by roads. The city is linked by helicopter to the Narsarsuaq Airport, which is located 90 kilometres away. These helicopters can only transport nine people at a time. The only other way to get to Qaqortoq is by boat, and this can only be done as long as it is warm.

Transport to and from Qaqortoq is challenging and expensive due to:

• Vast distances
• 严重的气候
• Difficult terrain

It is actually less expensive to construct a new airport than to connect the towns with roads. A new airport can be of major importance for economic growth, provide employment and encourage tourism, which plays an increasing role in Greenland’s economy.

In 2014, Greenland’s Parliament,Inatsisartut, granted funding for the construction of a6.2公里leading to the future airport. Qaqortoq Entreprenørforretning won the contract and worked on the construction of the road.

An adventure in its own right

格陵兰的运输系统确实是一次冒险。没有道路，没有铁路 - 自然规则。从历史上看，主要的运输方式是在夏季乘船和冬季狗雪橇。

There are only a total of 150 km of roads in the whole country and only 60 km of these are paved. The 6.2 km road in Qaqortoq is thelongest single roadthat has been built since World War II.

在格陵兰南部建造一条道路非常困难和昂贵。没有建筑材料，因为底土仅由岩石山地组成，岩石山地必须首先炸开，然后被压碎才能用作道路的基础。

“我们使用了35吨炸药来爆炸70,000平方米。”解释了拉斯莫tzfeldt Jensen, who is one of the two owners of Qaqortoq Entreprenørforretning.

Harsh winter climate

Qaqortoq Entreprenørforretning already had a Leica iCON excavate 2D solution installed on its machines. The company recently decided, though, to upgrade to a莉卡图标excavate 3D solutionand buy a second one for its new Hitachi 350 excavator.

Leica Geosystems的解决方案具有worked faultlessly即使在北极冬季的恶劣气候条件下，黑暗后温度为-25°C。

但是，格陵兰岛有一定的挑战，根据Leica Geosystems的Eriksen解释：“500 metres away from the centre of Qaqortoq, we lose the telephone connection. This makes calibration and service of the solutions very difficult. We used radio repeater stations in order to transmit the correction signals from the reference station to the GNSS antennae on the machines.”

According to Jensen, the 3D solutions havesaved a lot of time and cost.

建造一条道路现在更有趣

“如果我们知道我们会节省这么多的时间和成本，那么我们肯定也会为我们的演习器购买3D解决方案，”詹森说。

使用机器控制的积极副作用是机器运营商的工作满意度提高。

“当我们使用3D设备时，建造道路的乐趣非常有趣，” says Nikki Davidsen who works as machine excavator operator for Qaqortoq Entreprenørforretning.

准备建造机场

When the new airport is approved for construction and starts, Qaqortoq Entreprenørforretning is ready for the job. Jensen explains the project would benefit from using Leica Geosystems 3D solutions.

“我们是格陵兰岛配备最佳的建筑公司，如果格陵兰议会决定建造机场，我们绝对准备完成这项任务，”Jensen concluded.