A Bering Strait crossing is a hypothetical
bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...
or
tunnel
A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...
that would span the relatively narrow and shallow
Bering Strait between the
Chukotka Peninsula
The Chukchi Peninsula (also Chukotka Peninsula or Chukotski Peninsula; russian: Чуко́тский полуо́стров, ''Chukotskiy poluostrov'', short form russian: Чуко́тка, ''Chukotka''), at about 66° N 172° W, is the eastern ...
in
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
and the
Seward Peninsula
The Seward Peninsula is a large peninsula on the western coast of the U.S. state of Alaska whose westernmost point is Cape Prince of Wales. The peninsula projects about into the Bering Sea between Norton Sound, the Bering Strait, the Chukchi ...
in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
of
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...
. The crossing would provide a connection linking the
Americas
The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World.
Along with th ...
and
Eurasia
Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago ...
.
With the two
Diomede Islands
The Diomede Islands (; russian: острова́ Диоми́да, translit=ostrová Diomída), also known in Russia as Gvozdev Islands (russian: острова́ Гво́здева, translit=ostrová Gvozdjeva), consist of two rocky, mesa-like i ...
between the peninsulas, the Bering Strait could be spanned by a bridge or tunnel.
There have been several proposals for a Bering Strait crossing made by various individuals and media outlets. The names used for them include "The Intercontinental Peace Bridge" and "EurasiaAmerica Transport Link". Tunnel names have included "TKMWorld Link" and "AmerAsian Peace Tunnel". In April 2007, Russian government officials told the press that the Russian government would back a
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
65 billion plan by a consortium of companies to build a Bering Strait tunnel.
History
19th century
The concept of an overland connection crossing the
Bering Strait goes back before the 20th century.
William Gilpin, first governor of the
Colorado Territory
The Territory of Colorado was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 28, 1861, until August 1, 1876, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Colorado.
The territory was organized in the ...
, envisaged a vast "
Cosmopolitan Railway" in 1890 linking the entire world through a series of railways.
Two years later,
Joseph Strauss, who went on to design over 400 bridges, and then serve as the project engineer for the
Golden Gate Bridge, put forward the first proposal for a Bering Strait rail bridge in his senior thesis. The project was presented to the government of the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
, but it was rejected.
20th century
In 1904, a syndicate of American railroad magnates proposed (through a French spokesman) a SiberianAlaskan railroad from
Cape Prince of Wales
Cape Prince of Wales (Russian: Мыс Принца Уэльского) () is the westernmost mainland point of the Americas. It was named in 1778 by Captain James Cook of the British Royal Navy, presumably for the Prince of Wales at the time, Geo ...
in Alaska through a tunnel under the Bering Strait and across northeastern Siberia to
Irkutsk via
Cape Dezhnev
Cape Dezhnyov or Cape Dezhnev (; ), formerly known as East Cape or Cape Vostochny, is a cape that forms the easternmost mainland point of Asia. It is located on the Chukchi Peninsula in the very sparsely populated Chukotka Autonomous Okrug o ...
,
Verkhnekolymsk, and
Yakutsk
Yakutsk (russian: Якутск, p=jɪˈkutsk; sah, Дьокуускай, translit=Djokuuskay, ) is the capital city of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located about south of the Arctic Circle. Fueled by the mining industry, Yakutsk has become one ...
(around of railroad to build, plus over in North America). The proposal was for a 90-year lease, and exclusive mineral rights for each side of the right-of-way. It was debated by officials and finally turned down on March 20, 1907.
Czar Nicholas II
Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Pola ...
approved the American proposal in 1905 (only as a permission, not much financing from the Czar).
Its cost was estimated at $65 million
and $300 million, including all the railroads.
[
These hopes were dashed with the outbreak of the 1905 Russian Revolution followed by ]World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
Interest was renewed during World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
with the completion in 194243 of the Alaska Highway, linking the remote territory of Alaska with Canada and the continental United States
The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the Federal District of the United States of America. The term excludes the only two non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii ...
. In 1942, the Foreign Policy Association
The Foreign Policy Association (formerly known as the League of Free Nations Association) is a non-profit organization founded in 1918 dedicated to inspiring the American public to learn more about the world. The Foreign Policy Association aims to ...
envisioned the highway continuing to link with Nome near the Bering Strait, linked by highway to the railhead at Irkutsk, using an alternative sea-and-air ferry service across the Bering Strait. At the same time the road on the Russian side was extended by building the 2000-kilometer (1250 mi) Kolyma Highway
The R504 Kolyma Highway (russian: Федеральная автомобильная дорога «Колыма», ''Federal'naya Avtomobil'naya Doroga «Kolyma»,'' "Federal Automobile Highway 'Kolyma'"), part of the M56 route, is a road throu ...
.
In 1958, engineer Tung-Yen Lin
Tung-Yen Lin (; November 14, 1912 – November 15, 2003) was a Chinese-American structural engineer who was the pioneer of standardizing the use of prestressed concrete.
Biography
Born in Fuzhou, Republic of China (ROC), as the fourth of elev ...
suggested the construction of a bridge across the Bering Strait "to foster commerce and understanding between the people of the United States and the Soviet Union". Ten years later he organized the Inter-Continental Peace Bridge, Inc., a non-profit institution organized to further this proposal. At that time he made a feasibility study of a Bering Strait bridge and estimated the cost to be $1 billion for the span. In 1994 he updated the cost to more than $4 billion. Like Gilpin, Lin envisioned the project as a symbol of international cooperation and unity, and dubbed the project the Intercontinental Peace Bridge.
21st century
According to a report in the '' Beijing Times'' in May 2014, Chinese transport experts had proposed building a roughly high-speed rail line from northeast China
Northeast China or Northeastern China () is a geographical region of China, which is often referred to as "Manchuria" or "Inner Manchuria" by surrounding countries and the West. It usually corresponds specifically to the three provinces east of ...
to the United States. The project would include a tunnel under the Bering Strait and connect to the contiguous United States via Wales, Alaska
Wales ( ik, Kiŋigin, ; russian: У́эйлс, Weyls) is a city
in the Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 145, down from 152 in 2000. It is the westernmost city on the North American mainland, altho ...
, along the river to Fairbanks, Alaska
Fairbanks is a home rule city and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska and the second largest in the state. The 2020 Census put the p ...
, and along the Alaska Highway to Edmonton
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
, Alberta, Canada.
Several American entrepreneurs have also advanced private-sector proposals, such as an Alaska-based limited-liability company founded in 2010 to lobby for a cross-straits connection, and a 2018 cryptocurrency offering to fund the construction of a tunnel. In 2005, investor Neil Bush
Neil Mallon Bush (born January 22, 1955) is an American businessman and investor. He is the fourth of six children of former President George H. W. Bush and Barbara Bush (née Pierce). His five siblings are George W. Bush, the 43rd President o ...
, younger brother of US President George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
and son of President George H. W. Bush, traveled abroad with Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church
The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, widely known as the Unification Church, is a new religious movement, whose members are called Unificationists, or " Moonies". It was officially founded on 1 May 1954 under the name Holy Sp ...
as he promoted a proposal to dig a transportation corridor beneath the Bering Strait. When questioned by ''Mother Jones'' during the Republican primary campaign of his brother Jeb Bush
John Ellis "Jeb" Bush (born February 11, 1953) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 43rd governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. Bush, who grew up in Houston, was the second son of former President George H. W. Bush ...
a decade later in 2015, he denied having supported the tunnel project and said that he had traveled with Moon because he supported “efforts by faith leaders to call their flock into service to others.”
Technical concerns
Distance
The straight distance between Russia and Alaska is . If building bridges and using the Diomede Islands
The Diomede Islands (; russian: острова́ Диоми́да, translit=ostrová Diomída), also known in Russia as Gvozdev Islands (russian: острова́ Гво́здева, translit=ostrová Gvozdjeva), consist of two rocky, mesa-like i ...
, the straight distance over water for the three parts would be , and , in total .
Depth of water
The depth of the water is a minor problem, as the strait is no deeper than , comparable to the English Channel
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
. The tides and currents in the area are not severe.
Weather-related challenges
Restrictions on construction work
The route is just south of the Arctic Circle, and the location has long, dark winters and extreme weather, including average winter lows of and temperatures approaching in cold snaps. This would mean that construction work would likely be restricted to five months of the year, around May to September, and centered during summer.
Exposed steel
The weather also poses challenges to exposed steel. In Lin's design, concrete covers all structures, to simplify maintenance and to offer additional stiffening.
Ice floes
Although there are no icebergs
An iceberg is a piece of freshwater ice more than 15 m long that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open (salt) water. Smaller chunks of floating glacially-derived ice are called "growlers" or "bergy bits". The ...
in the Bering Strait, ice floes
An ice floe () is a large pack of floating ice often defined as a flat piece at least 20 m across at its widest point, and up to more than 10 km across. Drift ice is a floating field of sea ice composed of several ice floes. They may cau ...
up to thick are in constant motion during certain seasons, which could produce forces on the order of on a pier.
Tundra in surrounding regions
Roads on either side of the strait would likely have to cross tundra
In physical geography, tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. The term ''tundra'' comes through Russian (') from the Kildin Sámi word (') meaning "uplands", "treeless mou ...
, requiring either an unpaved road or some way to avoid the effects of permafrost.
Likely route and expenses
Place for the bridge, showing the Siberian ghost town of Naukan as its western terminus.
Bridge option
If the crossing is chosen as a bridge, it would probably connect Wales, Alaska
Wales ( ik, Kiŋigin, ; russian: У́эйлс, Weyls) is a city
in the Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 145, down from 152 in 2000. It is the westernmost city on the North American mainland, altho ...
, to a location south of Uelen
Uelen (russian: Уэлéн; Chukchi: , ''Uvèlèn''; Siberian Yupik: Улыӄ, ''Ulyḳ''; Naukan Yupik: Олыӄ, ''Oleq''; also known as Whalen in older English-language sources and Ugelen on USCGS charts) is a rural locality (a '' selo'') ...
. The bridge would also likely be divided by the Diomede Islands, which are at the middle of the Bering Strait.
In 1994, Lin estimated the cost of a bridge to be "a few billion" dollars. The roads and railways on each side were estimated to cost $50 billion. Lin contrasted this cost to petroleum resources "worth trillions". Discovery Channel's ''Extreme Engineering
''Extreme Engineering'' is a documentary television series that aired on the Discovery Channel and the Science Channel. The program featured futuristic and ongoing engineering projects. After ending of season 3 it airs under the ''Build It Bi ...
'' estimates the cost of a highway, electrified double-track high-speed rail, and pipelines at $105 billion (in 2007 US dollars), five times the original cost of the 1994 Channel Tunnel.
Connections to the rest of the world
This excludes the cost of new roads and railways to reach the bridge. Aside from the technical challenges of building two bridges or a more than tunnel across the strait, another major challenge is that, , there is nothing on either side of the Bering Strait to connect the bridge to.
Russian side
The Russian side of the strait, in particular, is severely lacking in infrastructure. No railways exist for over in any direction from the strait.
The nearest major connecting highway is the M56 Kolyma Highway
The R504 Kolyma Highway (russian: Федеральная автомобильная дорога «Колыма», ''Federal'naya Avtomobil'naya Doroga «Kolyma»,'' "Federal Automobile Highway 'Kolyma'"), part of the M56 route, is a road throu ...
, which is currently unpaved and around from the strait. However, by 2042, the Anadyr Highway is expected to be completed connecting Ola and Anadyr Anadyr may refer to:
*Anadyr (town), a town and the administrative center of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia
*Anadyr District
*Anadyr Estuary
*Anadyr (river), a river in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia
*Anadyr Highlands
*Anadyr Lowlands
*Operati ...
, which is only about from the strait.
U.S. side
On the U.S. side, an estimated of highways or railroads would have to be built around Norton Sound
Norton Sound (russian: Нортон-Саунд) is an inlet of the Bering Sea on the western coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, south of the Seward Peninsula. It is about 240 km (150 mi) long and 200 km (125 mi) wide. The Yukon ...
, through a pass along the Unalakleet River
The Unalakleet River ( Iñupiaq: ''Uŋalaqłiit Kurgat'') in the U.S. state of Alaska flows southwest from the Kaltag Mountains to near the town of Unalakleet, on Norton Sound of the Bering Sea.
In 1980, the upper of the river was protected as ...
, and along the Yukon River
The Yukon River ( Gwich'in: ''Ųųg Han'' or ''Yuk Han'', Yup'ik: ''Kuigpak'', Inupiaq: ''Kuukpak'', Deg Xinag: ''Yeqin'', Hän: ''Tth'echù'' or ''Chuu k'onn'', Southern Tutchone: Chu Nìikwän, russian: Юкон, Yukon) is a major watercourse ...
to connect to Manley Hot Springs Road – in other words, a route similar to that of the Iditarod Trail Race. A project to connect Nome, from the strait, to the rest of Alaska by a paved highway (part of Alaska Route 2) has been proposed by the Alaskan state government, although the very high cost ($2.3 to $2.7 billion, about $5 million per mile, or $3 million per kilometer) has so far prevented construction.
In 2016, the Alaskan road network was extended westwards by to Tanana, from the strait, by building a fairly simple road. The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities
The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF) is a department within the government of Alaska. Its headquarters are in Alaska's capital city, Juneau. The mission of Alaska DOT&PF is to "''Keep Alaska Moving through service ...
project was supported by local indigenous groups such as the Tanana Tribal Council.
Track gauge
Another complicating factor is the different track gauge
In rail transport, track gauge (in American English, alternatively track gage) is the distance between the two rails of a railway track. All vehicles on a rail network must have wheelsets that are compatible with the track gauge. Since many ...
s in use. Mainline rail in the US, Canada, China, and the Koreas uses standard gauge of 1435 millimeters. Russia uses the slightly broader Russian gauge
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
* Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
* Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and p ...
of 1520 mm.
Solutions to this break of gauge
With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one track gauge (the distance between the rails, or between the wheels of trains designed to run on those rails) meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock generally cannot ...
include:
* To have all cargo in containers
A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping.
Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The term ...
, which are fairly easily reloaded from one train to another. This is used on the increasingly popular China–Europe rail freight route, which has two breaks of gauge. It is possible to transfer a 60 container train in one hour.
* Another solution is variable gauge axles
A variable gauge system allows railway vehicles in a train to travel across a break of gauge between two railway networks with different track gauges.
For through operation, a train must be equipped with special bogies holding variable gauge whe ...
for locomotives and rolling stock, such as those made by Talgo
Talgo (officially Patentes Talgo, SAU) is a Spanish manufacturer of intercity, standard, and high-speed passenger trains.
Corporate history
TALGO, an abbreviation of Tren Articulado Ligero Goicoechea Oriol (English: ''Lightweight articulated tr ...
. A gauge changer
A variable gauge system allows railway vehicles in a train to travel across a break of gauge between two railway networks with different track gauges.
For through operation, a train must be equipped with special bogies holding variable gauge wh ...
modifies the gauge of the wheels while the train traverses the GC equipment at a speed of , which is about 4 seconds per railcar. This is faster than is possible with the transfer of ISO container
An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different modes of transport – from ship ...
s.
The TKMWorld Link
The TKMWorld Link (Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
: ТрансКонтинентальная магистраль, English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
: Transcontinental Railway), also called ''ICL-World Link'' (Intercontinental link), was a planned 6,000-kilometer link between Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...
and Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...
to deliver oil, natural gas, electricity, and rail passengers to the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
from Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
. Proposed in 2007, the plan included provisions to build a tunnel under the Bering Strait, which, if built, would become the longest tunnel in the world, surpassing the Line 3 (Guangzhou Metro) tunnel. The tunnel would be part of a railway joining Yakutsk
Yakutsk (russian: Якутск, p=jɪˈkutsk; sah, Дьокуускай, translit=Djokuuskay, ) is the capital city of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located about south of the Arctic Circle. Fueled by the mining industry, Yakutsk has become one ...
, the capital of the Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
n republic of Yakutia
Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia),, is the largest republic of Russia, located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of roughly 1 million. Sakha comprises half of the area of its governing Far E ...
, and Komsomolsk-on-Amur, in the Russian Far East, with the western coast of Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...
. The Bering Strait tunnel was estimated to cost between $10 billion and $12 billion, while the entire project was estimated to cost $65 billion.
In 2008, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
approved the plan to build a railway to the Bering Strait area, as a part of the development plan to run until 2030. The more than tunnel would run under the Bering Strait between Chukotka, in the Russian far east, and Alaska. The cost was estimated as $66 billion.
In late August 2011, at a conference in Yakutsk in eastern Russia, the plan was backed by some of President Dmitry Medvedev's top officials, including Aleksandr Levinthal, the deputy federal representative for the Russian Far East. It would be a faster, safer, and cheaper way to move freight around the world than container ships, supporters of the idea believed. They estimated it could carry about 3% of global freight and make about $7 billion a year. Shortly after, the Russian government approved the construction of the $65 billion Siberia-Alaska rail and tunnel across the Bering Strait.
Other observers doubt that this will be cheaper than container ships, bearing in mind that the cost for transport from China to Europe by rail is higher than by container ship (except for expensive cargo where lead time is important).
In 2013, the Amur Yakutsk Mainline
The Amur (russian: река́ Аму́р, ), or Heilong Jiang (, "Black Dragon River", ), is the world's tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeastern China ( Inner Manchuria). The Amur proper is long, ...
connecting the Yakutsk
Yakutsk (russian: Якутск, p=jɪˈkutsk; sah, Дьокуускай, translit=Djokuuskay, ) is the capital city of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located about south of the Arctic Circle. Fueled by the mining industry, Yakutsk has become one ...
railway ( from the strait) with the Trans-Siberian Railway
The Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR; , , ) connects European Russia to the Russian Far East. Spanning a length of over , it is the longest railway line in the world. It runs from the city of Moscow in the west to the city of Vladivostok in the ea ...
was completed. However, this railway is meant for freight and is too curvy for high-speed passenger trains. Future projects include the and Kolyma–Anadyr highway. The Kolyma–Anadyr highway has started construction, but will be a narrow gravel road.
USCanadaRussiaChina railway
In 2014, reports emerged that China is considering construction of a US-Canada-Russia-China bullet train
Bullet train may refer to:
Rail
* Shinkansen high-speed trains of Japan, nicknamed for their appearance and speed
* Other high-speed trains of a similar appearance to Japanese trains
* An ongoing project to build high-speed rail in India.
Rail to ...
that would include a undersea tunnel
An underwater tunnel is a tunnel which is partly or wholly constructed under the sea or a river. They are often used where building a bridge or operating a ferry link is unviable, or to provide competition or relief for existing bridges or ferry li ...
crossing the Bering Strait and would allow passengers to travel between the United States and China in about two days.
Although the press remains skeptical of the project, China's state-run ''China Daily
''China Daily'' () is an English-language daily newspaper owned by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party.
Overview
''China Daily'' has the widest print circulation of any English-language newspaper in China. T ...
'' claims that China possesses the necessary technology. It is unknown who is expected to pay for the construction, although China has in other projects offered to build and finance them, and expects the money back in the end through fees or rents.
Trans-Eurasian Belt Development
In 2015, another possible collaboration between China and Russia was reported, part of the Trans-Eurasian Belt Development, a transportation corridor across Siberia that would also include a road bridge with gas and oil pipelines between the easternmost point of Siberia and the westernmost point of Alaska. It would link London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
and New York by rail and superhighway via Russia if it were to go ahead.
China's Belt and Road Initiative has similar plans, so the project would work in parallel for both countries.
See also
* Artificial island
An artificial island is an island that has been constructed by people rather than formed by natural means. Artificial islands may vary in size from small islets reclaimed solely to support a single pillar of a building or structure to those th ...
* A2A Rail
* Bering land bridge
Beringia is defined today as the land and maritime area bounded on the west by the Lena River in Russia; on the east by the Mackenzie River in Canada; on the north by 72 degrees north latitude in the Chukchi Sea; and on the south by the tip of ...
* Cosmopolitan Railway
* Eurasian Land Bridge
The Eurasian Land Bridge (), sometimes called the New Silk Road (, ), is the rail transport route for moving freight and passengers overland between Pacific seaports in the Russian Far East and China and seaports in Europe. The route, a transc ...
* Intercontinental and transoceanic fixed links
A fixed link or fixed crossing is a persistent, unbroken road or rail connection across water that uses some combination of bridges, tunnels, and causeways and does not involve intermittent connections such as drawbridges or ferries. A bridge–tu ...
* Land reclamation
* Pan-American Highway
The Pan-American Highway (french: (Auto)route panaméricaine/transaméricaine; pt, Rodovia/Auto-estrada Pan-americana; es, Autopista/Carretera/Ruta Panamericana) is a network of roads stretching across the Americas and measuring about in to ...
* Transportation in Alaska
* Transport in Russia
The transport network of the Russian Federation is one of the world's most extensive transport networks. The national web of roads, railways and airways stretches almost from Kaliningrad in the west to the Kamchatka Peninsula in the east, and ...
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
External links
Discovery Channel's ''Extreme Engineering''
World Peace King Tunnel
Trans-Global Highway
The Bering Strait Crossing
Alaska Canada Rail Link - Project Feasibility Study
A Superhighway Across the Bering Strait, The Atlantic
BART's Underwater Tunnel Withstands Test
InterBering.com An alaskan company promoting a tunnel under Bering Strait and a railroad between North America and Asia : InterBering LLC
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bering Strait Crossing
Crossing
Exploratory engineering
International bridges
Proposed bridges in Russia
Proposed bridges in the United States
Proposed railway bridges
Proposed railway lines in Alaska
Proposed railway tunnels in Asia
Proposed railway tunnels in North America
Proposed roads in the United States
Proposed transcontinental crossings
Proposed transport infrastructure in Russia
Proposed transportation infrastructure in the United States
Proposed tunnels in Russia
Proposed tunnels in the United States
Proposed undersea tunnels in Asia
Proposed undersea tunnels in North America
Railroad bridges in Alaska
Railroad tunnels in Alaska
Railway bridges in Russia
Railway tunnels in Russia
Transport in the Russian Far East
Transportation in Unorganized Borough, Alaska
Proposals in the Soviet Union