Life Along Pakistan's Mountain Highway Where China Is Investing Billions Of Dollars
"Much is expected of Karakoram Highway, which curls through the tall mountain
ranges of northern Pakistan, reaching western China. Both countries are renovating it, seeing its potential as a trade route. Pakistan also views it as a way to consolidate control over territories contested with India."
"But some of the 500-mile route is barely a two-way road, carved out of the rock face that slopes sharply into valleys below. It is battered by rockfall, floods and earthquakes. A landslide in 2010 blocked a river and drowned about 14 miles of the road. In heavy snowfalls, the road all but shuts down."
"The riskiest part is the last stretch to China. 'We can actually call this part of the road as a museum of geohazards,' says Sarfraz Ali, a geologist who studies the impact of climate change on the highway at Pakistan's National University of Sciences and Technology."
"The Karakoram Highway, named for the spindly mountain range it traverses, was a major feat when it was built in the 1950s to 1970s. Now, the Chinese government has invested about $2 billion to rebuild a nearly 160-mile stretch of highway to replace the old Karakoram road between the Pakistani towns of Havelian and Raikot. The final stretch is expected to be completed in March."