Bering Strait Tunnel

[ChrisZwolle]

Originally Posted by Verso

Isn't there a road between Yakutsk and Magadan?

as far as i know: no.

There might be some tracks, but i have maps where even tracks are highlighted as roads, and there is not one from Yakutsk to Magadan (and further). Cities like Petropavlovsk-Kamtchatksij aren't even accesible by road...

There are some roads around Magadan though, but they are not connected to the rest of the Russian road system. (as far if you can speak from any in huge Eastern Siberia).

There is said to be the Kolyma Highway to Jakutsk, but this "road" is inaccesible during much of the year, and driving kills you in the winter, since temperatures reach -80 Celcius in the mountains.

[ChrisZwolle]

The bridge would require thousands of kilometers of new road and/or track over extremely harsh terrain through the wilderness of Alaska and Siberia. The nearest railheads are Fairbanks, Alaska or the Dease Lake branch of CN on the east and Yakutsk on the west. Russia is in the process of completing a rail connection from the Baikal Amur Mainline to Yakutsk.

The costs are said to be about 105 billion dollars.

[alesmarv]

This project will hapen, the only question is if its going to be sooner or later. Also when this project final hapens it wont include a highway and it wont include highspeed rail, this i can gurantee. This project will be most likely a two rail tunnel for freight, with a pricy train or two a day for pasengers(tourists)...and obviously it will include pipelines etc.

I did a quick map to show how useful a link via the bering sea would be. Just imagine the transport of goods from asia to north america and even south america and vice vesa at 10 times the speed and a fraction of the cost? The Bering strait actualy would have almost the most direct conection between China-Asia and North Amrican-South America.


One more adition, i just noticed that the straight line right through directly links the midle east and the east coast of america, some might think this is bad and sure it would be a even biger undertaking building up pipeline capacity along the coridor through various countries, but just imagine the profits that this tunnel would generate. I real think its a no brainer, the only thing holding it back is politics and the complexity of it. Also think of the enviromental benefits of taking thousands of ships of the ocean.

***I posted this on the othe skyscraper page also.

[Trainman Dave]

The straight line actually runs to the "Gulf Coast"

[Aokromes]

A (near) global railroad:



More: http://www.didik.com/highway

[ChrisZwolle]

nice dreaming, but what about earthquake zones? They said there were problems to build a bridge or tunnel near Messina, Italy and near Gibraltar.

[Huhu]

Shipping by sea is cheaper than rail, and cheaper than trucks by far. A rail connection doesn't make any economic sense, a highway makes even less sense. There's zero demand for passenger traffic along the route, and as I've stated, freight costs are lower by sea, so a rail link is out also.

[Xelebes]

Originally Posted by Aokromes

A (near) global railroad:



More: http://www.didik.com/highway

Following the Pan-Am and Trans Can? Psh, that's hell on the trains.

[hkth]

I think this is really unlikely to be built for at least 30 years.

[aussiescraperman]

looks like australia will not be part of the world in the next 100 years, and we will wither by ourselves on our big island, by not being connected to the rest of earth. :P

[gladisimo]

What about issues with different gauges?

Anti-globalization people are going to have a fit...

[aussiescraperman]

those people are just stupid.

ey, have u ever thought that in like 100 years, there prolly will only be one race of people. one race of human. prolly be olive kinda skinned or something. just becuz of globalization. look at it now only just over 150 years.

cheers

[gladisimo]

haha yea, to me globalization just slows down the progress of mankind, and reduces the efficiency of things in general.

I don't think we'll all be an olive race in a hundred years. I know some people prefer a certain type of people. We'll certainly have a lot more hybrids (excuse the term) though.

[alesmarv]

Originally Posted by Huhu

Shipping by sea is cheaper than rail, and cheaper than trucks by far. A rail connection doesn't make any economic sense, a highway makes even less sense. There's zero demand for passenger traffic along the route, and as I've stated, freight costs are lower by sea, so a rail link is out also.

Your actualy wrong as freight costs are lower by rail and when you factor in the considerably reduced time it takes to get the freight from point a to point b there is realy no comparison. The only benefit of shipping by sea is avoiding passing through multiple countries. This however doesnt have to be a problem if the proper treaties are put in place and money is loaned/given to poorer countries to expand/modernize their rail infrastructure.

By the way I work in the freight forwarding business and I know a decent amount about shipping and costs.

[Neutral!]

Very interesting news, that's a lot of money.

BTW, has anyone heard of a Russian company named “Zarubezhvstroy”?

[krull]

Tunnel dream: Undersea project would link Alaska, Russia

• $65 billion project would go under Bering Strait
• Proposed tunnel would be 68 miles long, in waters up to 180 feet deep
• Chunnel, linking Britain and France is only 30 miles long
• Project would take 20 years to build

April 25, 2007

MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- For more than a century, entrepreneurs and engineers have dreamed of building a tunnel connecting the eastern and western hemispheres under the Bering Strait -- only to be brought up short by war, revolution and politics.

Now die-hard supporters are renewing their push for the audacious plan -- a $65 billion highway project that would link two of the world's most inhospitable regions by burrowing under a stretch of water connecting the Pacific with the Arctic Ocean.

Russians and Americans alike made their pitch for the project at a conference titled "Megaprojects of Russia's East," held Tuesday in Moscow.

"It's time to the rewrite the old slogan 'Workers of the world unite!"' said Walter Hickel, a former Alaska governor and interior secretary under President Richard Nixon. "It's time to proclaim, 'Workers -- Unite the world!"'

A Russian Economics Ministry official tossed cold water on the idea, saying he wanted to know who planned to pay the mammoth bill for the project before seriously discussing it. But Hickel was unfazed in his speech, saying the route would unlock hitherto untapped natural resources -- and bolster the economies of both Alaska and Russia's Far East.

The proposed 68-mile tunnel would be the longest in the world. It would also be the linchpin for a 3,700-mile railroad line stretching from Yakutsk -- the capital of a gold- and mineral-rich Siberian region roughly the size of India -- through extreme northeastern Russia, in waters up to 180 feet deep and into the western coast of Alaska. Winter temperatures there routinely hit minus 94 F.

By comparison, the undersea tunnel that is now the world's longest -- the Chunnel, linking Britain and France -- is only 30 miles long.

That raises the prospect of some tantalizingly exotic routes -- train riders could catch the London-Moscow-Washington express, conference organizers suggested.

Lobbyists claimed the project is guaranteed to turn a profit after 30 years. As crews construct the road and rail link, they said, the workers would also build oil and gas pipelines and lay electricity and fiber-optic cables. Trains would whisk cargos at up to 60 mph 260 feet beneath the seabed.

Eventually, 3 percent of the world's cargo could move along the route, organizers hope.


Private investment called for


Maxim Bystrov, deputy head of the federal agency for managing Special Economic Zones, injected a note of sobriety to the heady talk of linking East and West by road and rail. He said his ministry would invest in the project only when private investors said they were committed to building it.

"As a ministry employee I am used to working with figures and used to working with projects that have an economic and financial base," Bystrov said. "The word 'prozhekt' has a negative meaning in Russian. I want this 'prozhekt' to turn into a 'project."'

The idea has a long history. Russia's last czar, Nicholas II, twice approved the implementation of a similar plan, perhaps eying the gold- and oil-rich territory that the Russian Imperial government had sold to the United States just before the turn of the 20th century.

The First World War and the Bolshevik Revolution doomed both attempts.

Despite the allure, there were signs Tuesday that there is no light at the end of this particular tunnel. A top economic adviser to President Vladimir Putin, as well as the Russian railway minister, who had been billed to speak, pulled out at the last minute.


$120 million in study costs alone


The feasibility study alone would cost $120 million and would take two years to complete, organizers said. Actual construction of the road-rail-pipeline-cable effort could take up to 20 years.

Still, Vladimir Brezhnev, president of Russian construction conglomerate Transstroi, said that the technology to tackle the construction work existed.

"Perhaps not all of us will be involved in this," he told conference participants. "But as an engineer I wish I could be."

A statement adopted at the conference Tuesday called on the governments of Russia, the United States, Japan, China and the European Union to endorse the tunnel as part of their economic development strategies. It urged government officials to raise the issue at the G-8 summit in Germany in June.

George Koumal, president of the Interhemispheric Bering Strait Tunnel and Railroad Group -- the noncommercial organization pushing for the project -- said that while many have seen England from France and vice versa across the Channel, there is little communication between the people living on either side of the Bering Strait.

"There are very few people who have stood on the beach in Alaska," he said. "Seemingly you can stretch out your hand and touch Mother Russia."



© 2007 Cable News Network

[rincon]

Wow what an interesting idea. I hope it happens!

[ChrisZwolle]

I heard that tunnel would go via those islands.

[Neutral!]

One could drive from Argentina to south africa if a ferry is established to from Alaksa to Sibera. Although 63 miles might be a bit too long a distance especially if the seas are frozen.

[pwalker]

Originally Posted by Huhu

Just a pipeline would make more sense than a road/rail connection if it's just for oil and gas. A tunnel serves no purpose except to attract publicity. In terms of freight, it's cheaper and more efficient to ship goods by sea than by rail across thousands of miles of empty frozen tundra.

Yes, this is the best post on this yet! A roadway connection makes no sense. You have to understand the geography and the climate. However, I understand the appeal of this romantic idea. I doubt very few would ever attempt to drive this route though.