Portal:U.S. roads/Selected article/April 1 2011

And you thought your commute was bad.

The South Pole Traverse, also called the McMurdo – South Pole Highway, is an approximately 900-mile (1450 km) compacted snow road in Antarctica that links the United States' McMurdo Station on the coast to the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station. Completed during the 2007–2008 austral summer season, it was constructed by leveling snow and filling in crevasses, but is not paved; flags mark its route.

The project was funded by the United States National Science Foundation to provide a lower cost, potentially more reliable method of supplying the South Pole Station. The traverse saves an estimated 40 flights and lowers the carbon footprint over the use of aircraft. A NSF press release from February 7, 2006, stated that 110 tons (99,790 kg) of cargo had been successfully delivered overland to the South Pole Station in a "proof of concept" of the highway.

Recently selected: Interstate 70 in West Virginia • U.S. Route 199 • U.S. Route 40 Alternate (Keysers Ridge – Cumberland, Maryland)