#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The depth to which the builders descended was almost equal to the height of the house. The foundations were deepened by 10, 15, or even 18 meters.
But when in 1951 the question arose of building a large five-story house with a built-in department store on Gvardeiskaya square, it turned out that there the permafrost layer above the rock fluctuates at a depth of 6 to 32 meters.
In order not to dig such a deep pit, the builders had to believe the permafrost specialists, who claimed that permafrost, subject to the necessary conditions, can be a reliable foundation.
So the department store Talnah became the first multi-storey building in Norilsk, whose foundation – not yet piled, but columnar – rests on permafrost. It is only six meters deep.
In the History Spot’s previous publication, we told that Norilsk women were not supposed to cook at home: they were offered to buy dinner in cookeries and snack bars.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Nornickel Polar Branch archive
