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i recently watched a fascinating program on the discovery channel debating the feasability of building a bridge across the bering straight -
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http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/engineering/beringstrait/interactive/interactive.html
there is also a great article on wikipedia about the plan:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bering_Strait_Bridge
i suppose the main obstacle to this plan is not actually the bridge itself, (or tunnel) but actually the huge distance of rail/road connections that would also have to be built to accompany it?
as far as i know the nearest connection on the american side is Fairbanks, AK although, the rail connection would not serve high speed trains. Likewise, i suspect the alaska highway perhaps would not be large enough to sustain the huge amounts of transport such a project might involve?
on the russian side, the road link finishes in the city of Magadan, on the sea of okhotsk. Which is several thousand miles from the strait. Once again, perhaps the road is not big enough to sustain such a large volume of transport.
as the article says, it could be financially viable, if it carried a gas/oil pipeline with it, enabling the Americas to take advantage of the huge siberian oil and gas reserves. It would also mean much quicker transit between asia and america, than having to send a ship across the pacific.
lets assume the distance between the two nearest cities of any size (magadan and fairbanks/anchorage) is 2000 miles:
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a high speed rail link could feasibly reach these two cities in 10 hours (although 20 is perhaps more realistic, average speed of 100mph)
two such isolated places as magadan and fairbanks could suddenly become huge centres of commerce, and tourism.
however, a lorry (truck), lets say averages 40mph including stops etc, would take 50 hours.
still much quicker than a trans-pacific ocean liner. Although, i cant really see much trade between magadan and fairbanks. Realistically we should look at the distance between the two nearest large scale metropolitain areas - Los Angeles and Beijing, which is 6500 miles approx. Plus, the states has no high speed rail connection, so perhaps that would have to stop at Vancouver BC?
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so we are talking about passengers being able to travel from beijing to Vancouver BC which is around 5800 miles, in lets say, 58 hours average speed 100mph.
Three days on a train versus 10 hours on an aeroplane? i cant see many takers, so perhaps the train route would be best served as essential an industrial one, with the odd through touristic passenger train, stopping in magadan, perhaps Anadyr (a small town near the straight), Fairbanks, and finally Vancouver BC. I assume that would take upto 6 days to complete the journey?
Truck/lorry transportation we are talking about at least a week?, Beijing - LA.
anyway, sounds like a fascinating plan - would love to hear what you guys think, or any updated information that i've miscalculate about distances, or local areas of population would be great -
additionally, there is talk of a land/rail tunnel connecting Japan to the russian far east island of Sakhalin, know as the Hokkaidō Sakhalin Asia Tunnel, involving a tunnel or bridge between sakhalin and the japanese northern island of hokkaido, and then a short 3 km tunnel to join sakhalin to the russian mainland.
- If this was done, it would clearly make the bering option much more attractive - Connecting Japan to the Americas, with a spur somewhere in the russian far east above Vladivostock.
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perhaps Korea could also be connected?
again, any information on current rail/road links in this area would be great.
i suppose at the end of the day, this link is really still fantasy, but the more you look into it, the more realistic it actually becomes!
the only thing the documentary did not discuss, was the possibility of a bridge spanning the aleutian islands. Perhaps this route is not possible? although the ocean is very shallow all the way across to Kamchatka, and there is less risk of the dangers of ice. The drawback with this, is clearly the length of bridges needed, and that it only arrives to kamchatka, perhaps a bridge to magadan would still be needed to span the sea of okhotsk, which is ice bound alot of the year as far as i know. So perhaps that is a non-starter. Interesting though.
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kev
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/engineering/beringstrait/interactive/interactive.html
there is also a great article on wikipedia about the plan:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bering_Strait_Bridge
i suppose the main obstacle to this plan is not actually the bridge itself, (or tunnel) but actually the huge distance of rail/road connections that would also have to be built to accompany it?
as far as i know the nearest connection on the american side is Fairbanks, AK although, the rail connection would not serve high speed trains. Likewise, i suspect the alaska highway perhaps would not be large enough to sustain the huge amounts of transport such a project might involve?
on the russian side, the road link finishes in the city of Magadan, on the sea of okhotsk. Which is several thousand miles from the strait. Once again, perhaps the road is not big enough to sustain such a large volume of transport.
as the article says, it could be financially viable, if it carried a gas/oil pipeline with it, enabling the Americas to take advantage of the huge siberian oil and gas reserves. It would also mean much quicker transit between asia and america, than having to send a ship across the pacific.
lets assume the distance between the two nearest cities of any size (magadan and fairbanks/anchorage) is 2000 miles:
a high speed rail link could feasibly reach these two cities in 10 hours (although 20 is perhaps more realistic, average speed of 100mph)
two such isolated places as magadan and fairbanks could suddenly become huge centres of commerce, and tourism.
however, a lorry (truck), lets say averages 40mph including stops etc, would take 50 hours.
still much quicker than a trans-pacific ocean liner. Although, i cant really see much trade between magadan and fairbanks. Realistically we should look at the distance between the two nearest large scale metropolitain areas - Los Angeles and Beijing, which is 6500 miles approx. Plus, the states has no high speed rail connection, so perhaps that would have to stop at Vancouver BC?
so we are talking about passengers being able to travel from beijing to Vancouver BC which is around 5800 miles, in lets say, 58 hours average speed 100mph.
Three days on a train versus 10 hours on an aeroplane? i cant see many takers, so perhaps the train route would be best served as essential an industrial one, with the odd through touristic passenger train, stopping in magadan, perhaps Anadyr (a small town near the straight), Fairbanks, and finally Vancouver BC. I assume that would take upto 6 days to complete the journey?
Truck/lorry transportation we are talking about at least a week?, Beijing - LA.
anyway, sounds like a fascinating plan - would love to hear what you guys think, or any updated information that i've miscalculate about distances, or local areas of population would be great -
additionally, there is talk of a land/rail tunnel connecting Japan to the russian far east island of Sakhalin, know as the Hokkaidō Sakhalin Asia Tunnel, involving a tunnel or bridge between sakhalin and the japanese northern island of hokkaido, and then a short 3 km tunnel to join sakhalin to the russian mainland.
- If this was done, it would clearly make the bering option much more attractive - Connecting Japan to the Americas, with a spur somewhere in the russian far east above Vladivostock.
perhaps Korea could also be connected?
again, any information on current rail/road links in this area would be great.
i suppose at the end of the day, this link is really still fantasy, but the more you look into it, the more realistic it actually becomes!
the only thing the documentary did not discuss, was the possibility of a bridge spanning the aleutian islands. Perhaps this route is not possible? although the ocean is very shallow all the way across to Kamchatka, and there is less risk of the dangers of ice. The drawback with this, is clearly the length of bridges needed, and that it only arrives to kamchatka, perhaps a bridge to magadan would still be needed to span the sea of okhotsk, which is ice bound alot of the year as far as i know. So perhaps that is a non-starter. Interesting though.
kev
