The big thing here is permafrost. Buildable land without permafrost is scarce. A subdivision down the road with typical ranch style houses is looking kind of uninhabitable here and there while subdivisions in Fox (totally mined out and mostly gravel now) will be permanent. Simply excavating forty feet down and backfilling as they did on the 1994 road project clearly doesn’t get the job done. Got to mine it down to bedrock.
Is Joe Usibelli still mining coal in Alaska ? Its been a while since I worked in coal, moving to petroleum products in 87...