Skip to main content
  • Share to or
like it or not

Russia's highway to nowhere

Source: Meduza

If there’s one thing you can count on in Russia, it’s the country’s seemingly endless supply of obscenely narrated amateur videos depicting basic failures in public services and road construction. This month, one man in Russia’s Amur region supplied the latest humorous footage, revealing a section of the “Lena” federal highway that dead ends abruptly into a forest.

“Just look at this magnificent road! I was tearing down it on a motorcycle, just zooming along. It was awesome. I was doing 80 MPH, and then the road just ends. No more asphalt. The only thing standing before you, gentlemen, is a big forest. And if you come a little closer, you can see that the end of the road is basically a launching pad. Even the construction crew got worried here, and cut down a few extra trees, so that you land between the trees, instead of crashing into them, when you fly off the road.” 

In the video, there’s no warning at the end of the road that indicates a sudden dead end; there’s just a sign showing the distance to the nearest cities. 

ASN24 Amur News Service / YouTube

The video’s author says this unmarked and very sudden dead end has been the site of several car accidents, and his video shows pavement scars made by breaking vehicles and the remnants of wrecked cars.

“A road to nowhere”
ASN24 Amur News Service

Local traffic officials have confirmed that this section of the highway contains no warning signs or safety barriers.

After the video began circulating online, the organization responsible for managing this section of the Lena highway announced that it will install warning signs ahead of the dead end, and place water-filled barriers at the end of the road, “in order to prevent the reemergence of compromising videos.” Officials say the dead end is only temporary, with more road work planned for the future.

  • Share to or