We are in Sisimiut, north of the Arctic Circle on the west coast of Greenland. In front of us is the 650-metre ATV road, which is the beginning of a 180-kilometre ATV track that will connect Sisimiut and Kangerlussuaq. The track will be Greenland's first road between two settlements and will connect the country's current main airport in Kangerlussuaq with Sisimiut, which is Greenland's second largest city.
According to the plan, the track will open in 2025 and make it easier for locals, hunters, tourists, and researchers to get around in the impassable area on off-road vehicles such as ATVs and UTVs. Over time, the track is expected to be upgraded to an actual road—also called the Arctic Circle Road.
Elise Olsen is supervising the construction of ATV track stage 2 from Sisimiut to Kangerluarsuk Tulleq. She is the construction manager in Qeqqata Municipality and is responsible for coordinating construction tasks and consulting politicians on potential construction tasks, among other things. Elise Olsen comes from a family of hunters in Greenland and is one of the 185 Arctic engineers educated at DTU in Sisimiut and working in the country. This means that she is one of the 50 per cent of the graduates who land jobs in Greenland. The result is one of the most significant in the 25-year education partnership between DTU, the Government of Greenland, KTI (Tech College Greenland), Qeqqata Municipality, and others.
"Greenland has an urgent need for highly educated people in the natural sciences. So it's encouraging to see the positive progress that both KTI and DTU are facing. We look with great interest at the development of the Arctic Technology Centre (Arctic DTU Sisimiut, ed.) and will continue to support this work. Access to these study programmes is crucial for our young people and Greenland's future," says Nuka Kleemann, Head of the Government of Greenland's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Church.
