Something I never expected, worth sharing. I wonder if they’ll have an exit for Yamal?
From Slashdot, news that leads me to think that someday I’ll be able to put my car on the train in Alaska and drive it off in Russia like they do with the Eurotunnel.
In what could easily be one of the boldest infrastructure developments ever announced, the Russian Government has given the go-ahead to build a transcontinental railway linking Siberia with North America.
The massive undertaking would traverse the Bering Strait with the world’s longest tunnel – a project twice the length of the Chunnel between England and France. The project aims to feed North America with raw goods from the Siberian interior and beyond, but it could also provide a key link to developing a robust renewable energy transmission corridor that feeds wind and tidal power across vast distances while linking a railway network across 3/4 of the Northern Hemisphere.
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A “chunnel” built right on the Ring of Fire. What could possible go wrong?
DaveF says:
August 24, 2011 at 4:33 am
On the other hand, you could just tunnel through the centre of the Earth. Can’t see any problem with that 🙂
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Were you not listening? It’s way too hot.
Algore told you it’s millions of degrees in the middle.
What’s all this about coal? How many centuries worth of coal do we have in this country?
Or perhaps American coal, like American oil, will be put off-limits by regulatory action and we will need to import what we already have plenty of? With the gang now running the show, it’s a real possibility.
Ric Werme says:
August 24, 2011 at 4:42 am
Alternate thought 1) Is this a good idea so close to tectonic plate boundary?
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Surprisingly perhaps, the Bering Strait is many hundreds of kilometers from a plate boundary. The strait, both sides, and a significant chunk of NE Asia are on the North American Plate. The plate boundary between the North American and Pacific Plates runs down the Aleutian chain. The plate boundary between the North American and Eurasian plates looks to be about 1000 kilometers to the West. ( http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRsN4DvsKn80qWhBUUpVDw8-0LX-0-qeFd0QM404DSbTMJkBflalw ) Don’t know if that link will work. If not Google plate boundaries map and select the leftmost image.
Reminds me of the story I used to tell. My last duty station in the military was in Hawaii. When I made the decision to leave I had my car shipped to the continental U.S. I then drove it across country to Connecticut. I didn’t register it right away so I still had the Hawaii plates. People would ask “How did you get your car here from Hawaii?” I would always tell them I drove it through the tunnel. They would always ask “What tunnel?” I would reply “The one that goes from Hawaii to California”. “Oh, I didn’t know there was one” was always the answer. No one ever questioned if there really was a tunnel.
Nuke says:
August 24, 2011 at 6:09 am
What’s all this about coal? How many centuries worth of coal do we have in this country?
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About 2 and a half … give or take. At current consumption rates. But I imagine that if Hydrogen Fusion doesn’t pan out, we’ll burn through the coal a lot faster than anyone currently thinks to be possible. Planning and discipline have never been America’s forte.
too funny….
..did the greenies think we would really stop mining coal
We need expensive electricity, Russia and China need cheap electricity
Alexander Feht says:
August 24, 2011 at 3:16 am
Russia: 17,075,400 km²
Siberia: 13.1 million km²
Canada: 9,984,670 km²
United States: 9,826,675 km²
John,
This is an infrastructure project that IF it works will ultimately lower the price of shipping goods. Not because the tunnel will be cheap but the faster a good can reach point A from point B you create an increase in volume as well. Speed not only reduces time but speed increases volume. It also simplifies logistics which lets face it reduces manpower needed to manage transit, which again reduces cost. Now it may well be a payback of break even proportions of a couple decades but this would be one of the rare infrastructure projects that would currently be a ‘good’ investment… Unlike things like a high speed rail from L.A. To Las Vegas, which is a self serving project this one would benefit the entire United States and Russia.
Chuck Nolan 6:03 am:
“Algore told you it’s millions of degrees in the middle.”
Damn! I forgot that! Is the middle of the Earth made of CO2 then, since that’s the only thing that causes heat?
The difficult part of the project would be getting approval for building the connecting rail line on the US side.
Look at the difficulties in getting approval for a pipeline between the Canadian tar sands and the Gulf Coast oil refineries.
Arizona CJ (August 24, 2011 at 2:14 am)
Sorry, the ‘existing rail networks’ you mentioned could not cope with the Eurotunnel train speeds and had to be completely re-built – which took another 10-15 years on the UK side (the French were rather more efficient by virtue of not having an interminable planning process constantly being de-railed (sorry) by NIMBYs).
In this case, I think the “if you build it, they will come” mantra would apply – in fact you would have to build the connecting rail network first to get the equipment to the Bering Straits anyway. In itself, that would open up huge areas of currently inaccessible (and probably resource-rich) land. Could be just the kind of “moon-shot” technological acheievment to inspire a new generation.
I am beginning to get on board with this…..
The Alaska electric transmission system isn’t even connected to the Canadian one, why would they connect it to the Russian one?
Connecting two major population centers via the chunnel makes sense. Connecting two giant empty frozen wastelands is odd at best.
Don K says:
August 24, 2011 at 6:20 am
Note to self: New Englanders shouldn’t assume they remember Pacific coast geography well enough to skip checking the map. Following the Aleutian Islands doesn’t get you to the Bering strait….
Additional note to self: Make it to Alaska, and in multiple seasons.
Imbecilic. As others have pointed out, the closest rail line is a toy road that terminates in Fairbanks, which also terminates in Anchorage without ever tying into the rest of the North American rail net. There are no rail lines in the Yukon, no rail lines in that section of Siberia. Rail shipping in perfect conditions is twice as expensive as a container ship. The cost of moving containers from rail to container ship is less than impressive. The shipping industry is depressed. The US *exports* coal to East Asia, it’s one of the current bright spots in the US rail industry right now. Siberian resources are almost entirely tied up in supplying the East Asian industrial colossus, which could probably absorb any surplus the Russians could generate.
Why the hell aren’t they looking at expanding their rail links to China if they have available resource surpluses? That would at least approximate practicality, and keep them from trying to build and maintain rail lines in the most godforsaken wastelands on the planet outside of Antarctica.
Wouldn’t a bridge with rail and traffic lanes make more sense? If there were any sense to this at all.
If some deranged person wanted, there could be conduits for electrical cables or even overhead conductors attached.
I think I saw a Nat Geo episode about a bridge across the Bering proposed at one time.
Nobody in their right mind would build an undersea tunnel in a very seismically active area. The longer the tunnel the higher the risk. Then given the points (sic) from Arizona CJ on the distance to the nearest rail heads on both sides of the straights. Its got to be a hoax.
Just think of the barometric differential between the two ends of the tunnel. We could line the walls with pinwheels and generate electricity. Maybe enough to light the tunnel?
When it proves itself economically unfeasible, we would have a place to bury all the dead windmill carcasses as they die from lack of interest.
Just jumping on the Train here with the others, but you can’t build and maintain operations of a tunnet that crosses major techtonic plates. There have been numerous plans for tunnels and bridges and combinations of both over the years, but until we develop concrete or another building material that can withstand the grinding and movement of the continental plates, it ain’t gonna happen.
The second item on the bringing of siberias resourcs to the US and canada? PLEASE!!!!!! We have more than ample resources here and when enough people with common sense begin to push back the “No minig- No production Keep earth pristine” greenies enough to allow for responsible resource development and extraction, we will have access to it.
Cool!
That leaves Oz as the only significant land mass unconnected. Our own separate continent island….
Isn’t that route awfully close to N. Korea? Let’s maybe wait a few years to start this 🙂
We really ought to let the French have the first go at it. It’s tradition, you know?
If the Americans do not want to pay for the tunnel perhaps they could sell Alaska back to the Russians for the price that they originally paid for it and then let the Russians build and pay for the tunnel.
One possible side effect of this plan would be that Sarah Palin might end up as Putin’s successor!
You cannot travel to South America from North America by car. There is a gap in Panama that is impassable.
The Bunnel?