Santa's South Pole Project

What if Santa decided to expand his operation?

NOTE: If you’re interested in construction in extreme conditions, explore the links at the end of these show notes.

00:40 - Intro
We are dressed to the 9s and ready to help the Big Guy. Today we’re discussing what Santa would need to do to build a second headquarters at the South Pole in order to cut down on delivery times.

As our template, we’re using the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station as our model. Here are some facts about that structure:
It sits on a sheet of ice that is 9,000 feet thick.The temperatures range from -117 degrees to +7.52 degrees Fahrenheit.The ice sheet on which it sits shifts roughly 33 feet per year.The project cost $175 million. In our Santa plans, we made some adjustments for inflation and settled on roughly $2,600 per square foot, which would put the total cost at roughly $3.14 billion.The center has 45 10,000-gallon fuel tanks for heating and vehicles.07:36 - Labor Costs and Complications
Eddie rails against the millennial elves–their lack of motivation, lack of skills. It’s shameful. This is complicated by the fact that construction workers at the South Pole are able to work outdoors for only 15 minutes at a time due to the extreme cold.

We discuss what infrastructure employee-relations efforts would be needed for the elves to work through the 110-day outdoor construction season.

14:20 - Materials and Transportation
Again using the Amundsen-Scott Research Center as a guide, we discuss what it would take to ship all of the construction materials needed. 25 million pounds of cargo was hauled to the build site at 26,000 pounds per trip over 12 seasons on an Air Force LC130 plane.

20:52 - Other Facts about Antarctica and Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station
We review some political facts about Antarctica as well as the research done there. This research includes glaciology, geophysics and seismology, ocean and climate systems, astrophysics, astronomy, and biology.

We discuss the complications of hiring people to work in an extreme environment like this.

The structure is mounted on 32 vertical columns that are each six feet into the snow and designed to be able to be added to as the snow pack increases. These columns are mounted on a floating footing made of 2x12 members boxed with ¾” plywood.

If you’re interested in learning more about real South Pole structures, explore these links:
The B1M video Eddie mentioned about construction in AntarcticaA video of Jerry Marty, NSF project manager, discussing the construction of the Amundsen-Scott Research Center.The official NSF siteA 3-part Tour of the Facility (Link is to part 1)NatGeo video about construction at the South PoleArticle about Antarctic buildings and basesCheck out the partners that make our show possible.

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