Lena Highway
| Lena Highway | |
 |
|
| Route information | |
|---|---|
| Length: | 1,235 km (767 mi) |
| Major junctions | |
| North end: | Yakutsk |
| South end: | Skovorodino |
| Highway system | |
| Russian Federal Highways | |
A360 Lena Highway or The Amur-Yakutsk Highway (Russian: Амуро-Якутская автомобильная дорога or Russian: Амуро-Якутская автомагистраль) – a federal highway (road) in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Russia, connecting Yakutsk with the Trans-Siberian Railway corridor near Skovorodino. The road was built in stages between 1925 and 1964.
It runs parallel to the Amur–Yakutsk Mainline railway. It takes its name from the Lena River, which runs more or less north-south in this part of Siberia. The road's southern terminus is at the village of Never near Skovorodino, where it intersects the M58 highway at a cloverleaf junction. Actually, with Yakutsk situated entirely on the west bank of Lena, and the road running on the east bank, the highway terminates in Nizhny Bestyakh (Нижний Бестях), a settlement of 4,000 people opposite Yakutsk on the east bank of Lena. When river conditions permit, one may drive right over the frozen river to Yakutsk, or take the ferry, but much of the year the river is impassable due to flooding or ice floes or semi-thawed ice not supporting the weight of vehicles.
At Nizhny Bestyakh, Lena Highway connects to Kolyma Highway (The Road of Bones), also designated M56, linking Yakutsk with Magadan to the east, on the Pacific Ocean seacoast.
Although it is a federal highway, it was just a dirt road until 2014. When frozen in the winter, this made for an excellent surface, and the posted speed limit was 70 kilometres per hour (43 mph). However, in the summer, with any significant rain, the road turned to impassable mud that often swallowed whole smaller vehicles.
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