Arctic engineering surveyors: the pioneers have gone, but the romantics have remain. What do they engage in?

Abstract: While some engineering surveyors wait for winter to get to the Arctic sites, which cannot be reached through the marshes in summer, others, on the contrary, rush to do everything in a short short northern summer. Sergey Lan’ko, an associate professor of the Geotechnics Department at St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, narrated about field studies in the Arctic zone on his Telegram channel. The editorial staff of the “Geoinfo” journal asked him to share details about the tests of steel and composite piles with various coatings in Novy Urengoy, and also asked other experts about how engineering surveys in the Arctic differs from ones in other regions and why people take up projects on permafrost.

Keywords: Arctic: construction development; permafrost; bearing capacity; global warming; engineering surveys; field studies; temperature monitoring; shift camps