Russia plans to build the world’s longest tunnel, a transport and pipeline link under the Bering Strait to Alaska, as part of a $65 billion project to supply the U.S. with oil, natural gas and electricity from Siberia.
A 6,000-kilometer (3,700-mile) transport corridor from Siberia into the U.S. will feed into the tunnel, which at 64 miles will be more than twice as long as the underwater section of the Channel Tunnel between the U.K. and France, according to the plan. The tunnel would run in three sections to link the two islands in the Bering Strait between Russia and the U.S.
The Bering Strait tunnel will cost $10 billion to $12 billion and the rest of the investment will be spent on the entire transport corridor, the plan projects. The tunnel would contain a high-speed railway, highway and pipelines, as well as power and fiber-optic cables.
Japan, China and Korea have expressed interest in the project, with Japanese companies offering to burrow the tunnel under the Bering Strait for $60 million a kilometer, half the price set down in the project.
Folks at Bloomberg seem to have beaten everyone to this story. Terrific potential, of course, for raw materials from Siberia and Sakha.
Thanks, Tom Moran
cool
I take it the train will be for freight. I cant imagine taking a rail trip at 100 MPH. I could see this happening as just a pipeline but a chunnel that long i dont know.
Isn’t that part of the world rather geologically active for a tunnel that long. You know … ring of fire and all.
Man, that sounds like an impossible project.
Now there is a project for the bold. Once you reach the mainland on the Alaska side, you have another 600 miles (roadless!) to Fairbanks, AK, where you can connect with the Alaska Highway to Canada and the 48 contiguous US states or to Anchorage or Valdez with established ports.
The economic payoff would be huge, but even the 600 straight line miles across frozen tundra would be tough. Nice boost for my town, though. I live in Fairbanks.
Jeez, what wimps. Why not build a REAL tunnel, say from L.A. to Hawaii? Now THAT would be a cool tunnel.
HONOLULU, 2350 Miles…
HONOLULU, 2325 Miles…
HONOLULU, 2300 Miles…
“Daddy I gotta go to the BATHROOM!!!”
2. Good Point. Kinda like a subway in L.A.?
OK ok i got, “Pipe dream” shoot me now.
Although the Bering Strait is not actually over an extensive nor active fault system, I yet would mistrust such a tunnel. Many years ago, mayhap in Popular Mechanics, was an article concerning a bridge, from Russia to the Diomedes, and thence to Alaska. Ice damage concerns were obviated by a design of ferro cement foundations, designed with a correct curve so that moving ice would be forced upward, thus cracking and disintegrating. With such a design, that particular bridge concept was allegedly safe.
Frankly, I’d feel a lot better riding atop a bridge than inside a 65 mile tunnel.
4. Exactamundo.
As a resident of Alaska, I’d like to see a road built to western Alaska first. But, maybe if this chunnel happens, the road will follow.
It’s ironic that they’ll be using the pipeline to move oil and natural gas into the state in the US with an enormous supply of its own oil and natural gas.
The next question is: why build it at all? I expect China would be quite happy to buy and use all the oil and natural gas that Russia is capable of supplying.
They keep saying the world is going to run out of oil. What they really mean is that North America will run out. The rest of the world will keep going. Just a little longer.
I’m confused as to why it would have to be a tunnel… unless they want to avoid the weather. There’s plenty of ice up their to build a cheap causeway on.
Power links, if of sufficient capacity, could create a world-wide grid, with all the benefits (load balancing) and hazards (Ohio) that go with it.
So far as seismic activity goes, it looks on the map:
http://www.iris.edu/seismon/
that the Ring of Fire goes well to the south. If I understand correctly, the link isn’t along the Aleutians, it’s hundreds of miles to the North of there.
Of course, the cost of this tunnel will not be counted in your price for gasoline or as part of the figure used to determine the efficiency of oil and gas versus wind and solar for power generation.
We’ll just keep lying to ourselves and saying oil and gas are the best!!
We’ll also continue to ignore the cost of defending the oil and gas supply via military might from the cost. And we’ll definitely forget about the cost of the government subsidies for oil and gas exploration, etc., etc., etc.
#6
I recall on the Discovery Channel (or similar channel) a program about building a bridge. The big challenge are the ice floes that would constantly grind against the support pylons. While Canada’s Confederation Bridge does provide a number of technological innovations to the bridge problem, all the problems are bigger, swifter, longer and colder in the Strait.
#1
I rode the Eurostar London to Paris a few years ago. The trip from London to the Chunnel and through to the other side was well below 60mph. It wasn’t until it got to the French side, they cranked up to 150mph. I would imagine that speed would be restricted for safety reasons while in a tunnel.
If Russia puts in the tunnel on their dime I’ll bet we pony up for a highway to meet it.
Great idea but I just don’t see it happening in the next 30 years.
Gawd, what a movie set that tunnel would make. Time for a Steven Seagal vs Vin Diesel actioner.
Nice concept, sort of like the ‘elevator into space’… queries and points:
1) Trucks and trains? Can’t we do this with freighters, right now? What’s more efficient?
2) Nice backdoor from a national defense (pick a nation on either side) perspective.
3) $10-12 billion? Umm, no, it will cost WAY WAY more than that… humankind and governments have repeatedly and consistently underestimated the costs of building and maintaining transportation routes for thousands of years.
4) Ice? WTF you talking about sea-borne ice for? Hint, hint: tunnels that go under the water will go under the ice, too. Duh. Plus, with all the neato global warming this would promote, there won’t be any ice (but we’re back to boats being a better idea).
5) Why a tunnel for vehicles? If it’s going to carry “oil, natural gas and electricity”, doesn’t oil and natural gas flow just fine through pipelines (smaller safer stronger tunnels), and electricity flows through copper wire (although you lose a LOT of power over that distance)?? What, are we now talking tourism to Siberia or northern Alaska? Try Fiji, Hawaii, the Canary Islands, Venice, Tokyo, etc….
Summarily, there isn’t a story here. At least we’re not talking about the friggin’ Virginia Tech loser rampage.
Russia’s new plan to invade the US?