Proposed Russian Superhighway

[Tom Joad]

I haven't flown anywhere since 9/11 and after this Germanwings thing, I'm sure I never will again.

However, it looks like someday I might have an alternative.

One of Russia's most powerful tycoons and a close pal of President Vladimir Putin has proposed a long and winding road that theoretically could connect Great Britain to Alaska, via Mother Russia. And while a nearly 13,000-mile highway sounds like a stretch – a really long stretch – the major roadblock is likely money, not feasibility.

“This is an inter-state, inter-civilization, project,” Russian Railways boss Vladimir Yakunin told the Russian Academy of Science, where he presented his plan for the Trans-Eurasian belt Development, which he acknowledged would cost “trillions” of dollars.

The road would link thousands of miles of existing byways and bridges across Russia, a span of more than 6,000 miles. From the west, it could then connect to roads in Europe, including the Chunnel Tunnel, which connects Great Britain and France.

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[bobabode]

Road trip!

[donquixote99]

Article I saw sketched a somewhat different route concept, but of course, it's just a Big Idea at this stage, and the routing is whatever the news graphic guy wants to make it.



In any case, it would set-up a heck of a road race....

[Dondilion]

I guess the Chinese would build this.

[donquixote99]

It would get them past the West Coast ports.

I wonder how the logistics costs indeed work-out, if you take the container ships, and the transhipping at both ends of the voyage, out of the equation.

[Boreas]

The Berring Straits would be a bit of a bear. Apart from weather, it's 53 miles wide at its narrowest point. That's nearly twice as wide as the Chunnel.

John

[donquixote99]

Good practice for the transatlantic tunnel.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by Boreas

The Berring Straits would be a bit of a bear. Apart from weather, it's 53 miles wide at its narrowest point. That's nearly twice as wide as the Chunnel.

John

The weather there is indeed abysmal. I went to the Aleutians several times over a couple of years looking at Air Force construction projects It was 40ish degrees with high winds and dense fog in mid Summer. Pretty much all construction materials were barged in from Seattle.

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by Boreas

The Berring Straits would be a bit of a bear. Apart from weather, it's 53 miles wide at its narrowest point. That's nearly twice as wide as the Chunnel.

John

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bering_Strait_crossing

A Bering Strait crossing is a hypothetical bridge or tunnel spanning the relatively narrow and shallow Bering Strait between the Chukotka Peninsula in Russia and the Seward Peninsula in the U.S. state of Alaska. In principle, the bridge or tunnel would provide an overland connection linking Asia with North America, although there is little infrastructure in the nearby parts of Alaska and Russia.

With the two Diomede Islands between the peninsulas, the Bering Strait could be spanned by three bridges. Two long bridges, each almost 40 kilometres (25 mi) long, would connect the mainland on each side to one island, and a third much shorter one between the two islands. However, the construction of a Bering Strait crossing would face exceptional political, engineering, and financial hurdles.

There have been several proposals for a Bering Strait crossing made by various persons, TV channels, magazines, etc. The names used for them include The Intercontinental Peace Bridge and Eurasia-America Transport Link.[1] Tunnel names have included "TKM-World Link" and "AmerAsian Peace Tunnel". In April 2007, Russian government officials told the press that the Russian government will back a $65 billion plan by a consortium of companies to build a Bering Strait tunnel.[2] On 22 August 2011, the Daily Mail reported that the Russian government had approved a £60bn tunnel across the Bering Strait.[3][4] The £60bn comes from a rough Russian estimate of $100bn.[5]

[nailer]

Global warming begs a pontoon bridge.