Russia has unveiled an ambitious plan to build the world’s longest tunnel under the Bering Strait as part of a transport corridor linking Europe and America via Siberia and Alaska.

The 64-mile (103km) tunnel would connect the far east of Russia with Alaska, opening up the prospect of the ultimate rail trip across three quarters of the globe from London to New York. The link would be twice as long as the Channel Tunnel connecting Britain and France.

The $65 billion (£33 billion) mega-project aims to transform trade links between Russia and its former Cold War enemies across some of the world’s most desolate terrain. It would create a high-speed railway line, energy links and a fibreoptic cable network.

Proposals for a tunnel under the Bering Strait were first advanced a century ago under Tsar Nicholas II but foundered with the outbreak of the First World War and the Russian Revolution. The idea was revived after the collapse of the Soviet Union but was shelved once again in Russia’s financial meltdown of 1998.

Russian officials insist that the tunnel is an economic idea whose time has now come and that it could be ready within ten years. They argue that it would repay construction costs by stimulating up to 100 million tons of freight traffic each year, as well as supplying oil, gas and electricity from Siberia to the US and Canada.

Maxim Bystrov, deputy head of Russia’s agency for special economic zones, said: “This will be a business project, not a political one.” The tunnel across the international date-line would be built in three sections through two islands in the Bering Strait and would link 6,000km (3,728 miles) of new railway lines. The tunnel alone would cost an estimated $10-12 billion to construct.

The scheme is being championed by Viktor Razbegin, deputy head of industrial research at Russia’s Economic and Trade Development Ministry. He has long advocated a tunnel under the Bering Strait to provide a land route between Russia and the US, and published a feasibility study in the 1990s.

He told journalists that state and commercial companies would form a public-private partnership to fund and run the project. A conference in Moscow next week will propose an inter-governmental agreement with the US to underwrite construction of the transport link in return for a stake in the business.

Russian Railways is said to be examining the construction of a 3,500km route from Pravaya Lena, south of Yakutsk, to Uelen on the Bering Strait. The tunnel would connect this to a 2,000km line from Cape Prince of Wales, in West Alaska, to Fort Nelson, in Canada.

The project could save Siberia and the US $20 billion a year in electricity costs, according to Vasily Zubakin, deputy chief executive of Hydro, a subsidiary of Russia’s main electricity producer, Unified Energy Systems. The company plans to build two giant tidal plants in the Far East to supply tengiga-watts of electricity by 2020.

However, some of those said to be involved in the project appeared sceptical. Sergei Grigoryev, vice-president of the state oil pipeline monopoly Transneft, said: “I’ve never heard of this plan. We need to first develop fields in East Siberia.”

Others also questioned whether it made economic sense, pointing out that Alaska has large oil reserves of its own and that China’s huge market was closer and more lucrative.

The tunnel on the Russian side would start in the Chukotka region, governed by Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea FC, who appears unlikely to plough his fortune into such a risky venture.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1680121.ece

Great now we'll have messican and ruskie truckers on our roads.

Quoted: Great now we'll have messican and ruskie truckers on our roads.

But on the upside, much hotter russian hookers.

Quoted: Quoted: Great now we'll have messican and ruskie truckers on our roads. But on the upside, much hotter russian hookers.

and cheaper shipping on hot russian mail-order brides.

I thnk it's my God given right to drive my Jeep to Moscow,if I should so desire.

Thanks anyway, I'm not riding through a tunnel that effing long!

Quoted: Talk about a terrorists wet dream!

That was my first thought.  "Damn, some asshole is probably gonna try and blow it up"

Seeing as the Tunnel under the English Channel is called the Chunnel, will this be called the Bunnel?

Isnt that how the russians got here in Red Dawn............ Just sayin..........

I'd rather deal with ruskies any day of the week then a mexican.

A 64 mile tunnel thought of by the Russians???

No friggen way I would go in that

Sounds like a great idea!

I'm all for it.  With India and China these days hogging all the worlds resources and no end in site, I vote we and the ruskies strengthen our economic ties.


I'm no economist and I don't know what security issues might need to be addressed, but it sounds like a pretty damn good idea to me.

That area is very geologically active with volcanoes and earthquakes.  Sounds pretty risky to me.

Quoted: That area is very geologically active with volcanoes and earthquakes.  Sounds pretty risky to me.

Sounds like a challenge to me!!!

Nifty.  I'm always intrigued by engineering masterpieces.  Chunnel under the Bering Strait, sounds awesome, lets do it.

x156

You see this kind of stuff all the time in Popular Mechanics/Science ,at one time it was a bridge......along with flying cars,submarines used as cargo boats......

You could drive from the bottom of South America all the way to the farthest reaches of Africa and Europe.

Quoted: Quoted: That area is very geologically active with volcanoes and earthquakes.  Sounds pretty risky to me. Sounds like a challenge to me!!!

Go for it then, but don't count on me driving through it!  I have been through several 6+ earthquakes, and the thoughts of doing one underground with water overhead doesn't appeal to me at all.

Quoted: You see this kind of stuff all the time in Popular Mechanics/Science ,at one time it was a bridge......along with flying cars,submarines used as cargo boats......

you do rrealize they said things like that about bridges, planes, and other things that now exist...right?

Russians are well known for engineers

It's an insane idea, but I think we should at least try it. If it worked everyone would benefit.

Would you trust the Russians to build something so incredibly complex?

Well we know the Soviets stand on this but what is the U.S. opinion? one sided articles grab attention and for that matter Russia is a Third World Shit Hole(yes it still is), so why bother with building a fence down South? Hell will just give the Russkies a Carte Blanche entry into America and let'em pour in meaning some other problem to contend with.


As for the posts about Russian Bimbo's being Imported,,,,,you might to do a little more Homework and start thinking with your anatomicaly thinking mass and not the one between your legs.
Just Opinion

Quoted: Would you trust the Russians to build something so incredibly complex?

Of course not - and they probably don't either! Russia is like that inept cousin we all have that muddles through life, not doing anything right, with everyone he knows doing it for them.

Not to make a huge blanket statement or anything. I mean, this is the nation that was using Speak & Spell chips in their military hardware!

where are they going to get the money for it?

I like it.

Hoe much American tax dollars will go to this? Sounds like a wet dream to me

Yea sure...I'm going to drive in a tunnel with a bunch of Rooskies...NOT!

Russian Tunnel Bumper Cars!

All your tunnel are belong to us, Comrade!!!




WOLVERINES!!!!!!!

Quoted: Yea sure...I'm going to drive in a tunnel with a bunch of Rooskies...NOT! Russian Tunnel Bumper Cars!

People speeding, not staying in their lane. Simple.

Quoted: Seeing as the Tunnel under the English Channel is called the Chunnel, will this be called the Bunnel?

Bunnel sounds like some kind of obscure slang for genitals, though I'm not sure which genitals precisely...

More than just earthquakes and volcanoes, it would straddle three tectonic plates, each doing its own thing, moving at its own rate in its own direction.  Better be a flexible tunnel.

Russia & the U.S.A. being connected/allied, would be a great step forward in securing our future as a world power.

Until the blue helmets start flowing through the tunnel to help our gov't bring it's population into compliance with the UN's ideas to uphold peace in the modern world.

Quoted: Quoted: Talk about a terrorists wet dream! That was my first thought.  "Damn, some asshole is probably gonna try and blow it up"

Worse thought is "Damn, stolen/missing nukes just got a pipeline."

Quoted: Yea sure...I'm going to drive in a tunnel with a bunch of Rooskies...NOT! Russian Tunnel Bumper Cars!

How would you like to have been riding in the back of that tandem bus?  WHAT A RIDE!

Quoted: Russia & the U.S.A. being connected/allied, would be a great step forward in securing our future as a world power. Until the blue helmets start flowing through the tunnel to help our gov't bring it's population into compliance with the UN's ideas to uphold peace in the modern world. i192.photobucket.com/albums/z96/M4builder/Sparta.jpg

Considering how much of the UN's forces are our own, they would have had to have gone out the tunnel in the first place.

Quoted: That area is very geologically active with volcanoes and earthquakes.  Sounds pretty risky to me.

Not to mention crossing over a tectonic plate..."But Sergei, the Russian side of the tunnel keeps getting lower and shorter!"

So soon you could drive a car from the bottom of Argentina all the way to the top of Scotland!

I think it sounds cool. That would be a HELL of a roadtrip!

Wouldn't the distances, and the bad weather on both sides, make shipping a cheaper option even if the tunnel does get built? It seems like it would be around a week  long drive from Seattle to anywhere worth being in Russia.

Quoted: Quoted: That area is very geologically active with volcanoes and earthquakes.  Sounds pretty risky to me. Sounds like a challenge to me!!!

Sounds like a wager to me.

Quoted: Seeing as the Tunnel under the English Channel is called the Chunnel, will this be called the Bunnel?

it goes under a Strait, so it would be a Strunnel.

How many seasons of "Ice Road Trucker" will they get out of this?

They oughta just hire illegals to do the work for them. They're pretty good at tunneling into the US.

In a world getting smaller and smaller via technology and the internet,  I hope this never happens.  I like a healthy bit of isolationism.

Quoted: In a world getting smaller and smaller via technology and the internet,  I hope this never happens.  I like a healthy bit of isolationism.

I especially like geographic isolation from the Russians.

They're thieving bastards.

Hmm, I could drive my evo out to Germany to cruise on the autobahn!

More Russian POON!!!!!!!!!

I would much rather illegal russians than illegal messicans.