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Epic Mega Bridge To Connect America With Russia Gets Closer To Reality
Sepa Blackforesta writes: A plan for an epic bridge connecting Russia's easternmost border with Alaska's westernmost border could soon be a reality, as Russia seeks to partner with China. Sijutech reports: "If this mega bridge come to reality, it would be Planet Earth’s most epic mega-road trip ever. The plans have not been officially accepted since specific details of the highway still need to be discussed, including the large budget. Allegedly the plan will cost upwards in the trillions of dollars range."
You don't think that Russia will stop with the Ukraine, do you? Poland is training to repel Russian invaders already.
It won't cost anything. All we have to do is wait for the next great ice age.
--
Did I make "Frost post"???
Why build one... when you can build two for twice the price!?
What economic benefit is there? I suppose if it's cheaper to ship goods from China that way, it might make sense. But that seems like a stretch given the effective shipping to ports on the west coast. It doesn't make sense for shipping oil because that's already done well through pipelines and tankers. Additionally, the Alaskan oil supply has already passed its peak production, so it's unlikely to be a factor by the time a bridge like this would be built. It's a cool project, no doubt, but I'm struggling to see why the United States would want to pay any part of this. I'm just not seeing any real economic benefits to this.
but this is nuts
if the cost is {Y}
and the profit per year is {X}
then 500 years * {X} = {Y} roughly
the cost, including building the roads/ rails to get to the bridge, greatly dwarfs, by many orders of magnitude, the quantity of commerce that would flow
finally, compare the cost to your average container ship fees and where you want to ship it
waiting for a many century payoff is not wise
someday, in only a few decades maybe the way technology and world populations are going, then the scheme would realize a profit in maybe 50 years
but we're not there yet
file this story under "will happen when i am a very, very old man or after"
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
So the committee's invade north America on a budget??
This is the project which is be done. But the problem is the littleness of current thinking.
Not only from London to New York, but from London to Hanoi. It is doable, it will create millions of sustainable jobs.
What are you going to move over that bridge that cannot be moved cheaper by a boat and faster by a plane?
Put a train on that maybe? What happens when a multi megaton train filled with oil (what else)? Goes off the rail there? There has to be an economic reason for anything like this, not a political one, because if it is all politics, it will be the most epic bridge to nowhere.
Come up with an economically sound reason first, before coming up with a solution like that.
You can't handle the truth.
It is alright to build such a bridge. But make sure you are on the good book of Chris Christie. Else, there will be... some.. eh... traffic problems for you.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
you want to make it even easier for the Russians to attack the US? What the fuck are you thinking Obongo?
A plan for an epic bridge connecting Russia's easternmost border with Alaska's westernmost border could soon be a reality,
When asked to explain what is meant by, "soon", the Sijutech spokesman clarified, soon, for very large values of soon.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Let's call it the Vladimir Putin/Sarah Palin Friendship Community Bridge.
This project just isn't going to happen anytime soon. The United States and Russia both appreciate the security of the Bering Straight and a few thousand miles of wilderness separating their main population centers, first of all. Second, the cost of connecting the thousands of miles of roads or rail needed, plus the cost of the bridge, plus the cost of the upkeep of said roads and bridges, will never be recouped by the savings of not shipping via air/ship at current fuel prices. Third, it still isn't even clear they can actually BUILD the bridge.
obviously they're just trying to save money. -Legal.Troll (evading his -1 Karma)
Hasn't anyone seen 'Red Dawn' ?
Russia is NOT our friend and ally, they're an extremely corrupt country run by an extremely corrupt individual, who by the way to all appearances would like to bring back the Cold War-era Soviet Union (and before anyone bitches at me for saying that, I'm not the first person who's said it, and notable people in the news are among those who have also said it). Also, 'partnering with China'? Why don't we throw Kim Jong Un and North Korea into that little business deal while we're at it? For fuck's sake.. I wake up on a Sunday morning to this?
Why would the west give Russia leverage? We saw them try to exploit the pathetic hold they had on us with the international space station. A diplomatic project we put in place mostly to make the russians feel good... and they tried to fuck us with the olive branch.
We have an existing and quite inexpensive container ship network. Is this rail project going to be cheaper than that? Doubtful and less flexible... and most problematic going through Russian territory which means Russia gets leverage.
I'd be surprised if they got the funding for this... the Chinese might pay for it but who is going to build the US/Canadian leg of it? Because we're not letting Russian or Chinese labor in to do it and that means paying an American/Canadian construction firm... and who is going to do that.
Look, if the politics weren't so shitty, I'd say "fine"... it might make some sense. But the politics are not only shitty but getting shittier all the time.
The US State Department has already effectively admitted that we're in the a second cold war with the Russians. Blood is getting pumped back into old Cold War organs, programs, and operations. In the article cited it points out that Russia is dealing with sanctions from the "West"... aka the US. And they think building a rail road to the US is going to give them independence from US sanctions? How?
The only way I can see that happening is if the US gets addicted to the train network and finds it impractical to maintain sanctions given that the train goes through Russia. Which is basically just another reason for the US to quietly slit this idea's throat and move on.
Look Russia... If you want to do business with the US, you need to make people like me happy. I know... you don't like that... but that's reality.
And here's what I'm going to need:
1. Surrender all claims to the Eastern European countries that don't want to join your club.
2. Embrace and accept the missile shield concept. We'll cut you in so you can have the same tech and maintain parity with us for missile defense. What we want is to make the ICBM obsolete. Help us do that and we'll see that you gain the same advantage.
3. Stop doing your best to troll US foreign policy by giving nuclear tech to the Iranians and similar nonsense. Its very obvious what you're doing and it is not appreciated.
4. Stop trying to use anyone's dependence on something you provide to get leverage in politics. Its a serious problem when the Germans trust you for fuel and then you threaten to cut them off if NATO doesn't play ball. You've done the same thing with various eastern european countries as well. And the whole thing with jacking up the launch costs or saying you might not take US astronauts to the space station was a test... and you fucking failed. We gave you an opportunity to stab us in the back of the thigh with a butter knife just to see what you'd do... and you fucking did it. How can we trust you with anything that could potentially give you leverage over us if you'll exploit even the most f'ing meaningless pressure points to gain laughable advantages?
Russia does this and relations between the US and Russia can be very good. Investment, cooperation, access to markets, access to technology... fucking milk and honey. We'll help them develop their resources and find them a market for it. We'll make them rich.
But that's all contingent on them not being assholes. And that's never happening.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
But the czar needed bucks to finance the marxist revolution to ensure the death of his family and so sold it to the napolean who sold it to the americans along with louisiana at the turn of the century.
How hard can it be? I hear you can see Russia from Ms. Palin's front porch.
This bridge would cross a plate boundary... It is an earth quake prone area. How long would it survive?
You are connecting a very, very remote area of Russia with a very, very remote area of the US. Take a look at a population density map, there's no cities whatsoever nearby. And long distance shipping will either go by sea (cheaper) or plane (faster), just the maintenance on thousands of miles of rail would kill it. This is as likely as the head of NASA suggesting a manned mission to Mars, it's his idea to make lofty ideas but the people with the money will never fund it.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
As the world heats up, Siberia and Alaska are going to look very different.
One can't drive from London to (continental) Europe that I know off. Ferry or train. through the chunnel, can bring a car over, but by that definition one can already "drive" from London to NYC.
It sounds like a great plan to 'lead technologies', but then you should no longer be thinking of traditional railroad. Might as well go all the way and build a MagLev line, while we are at it.
Humans will be looking back and wondering why such an expensive bridge was built for vehicles that are no longer used.
Hopefully they put at least two rail lines on said bridge too. Then we'd have solid rail connections to Europe and Asia.
Just Google "Baikalâ"Amur Mainline". The project would make sense if Russia and USA were on visa-free travel level good terms, with vibrant urban or industrial centers on both sides of Bering Strait. Think of something like Channel tunnel. But, even in the best political climate, why connect remote areas requiring days of additional road travel to deliver people or goods? Air or sea shipping is the best option until huge changes in demographics of both countries and mutual political ties.
So they're going to build a bridge from Nowhere, Russia to Nowhere, Alaska. So the 50 people on each end can visit each other, I guess. Because there's in infrastructure in place to get anything of significance to or from either end point of the bridge.
From an old CNN article: "Relatively isolated even by Alaska standards, no road connects Nome with the rest of the state's road system. About 836 road-less kilometers (520 miles) across desolate terrain separates Nome from the closest major city and road network in Fairbanks, the unofficial northern terminus of the Alaska Highway.
Can we PLEASE have some quality fucking journalism here?
What the fuck happened to slashdot?
"Yo guys, here's an epic mega thread about epic mega dank bitcoins and epic mega weed bong rips! News for nerds! Mega epic!"
We really should do mega-projects as this instead of wars. Imagine where we could be if stuff like that happened since WWII instead of... the stuff that happened.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Allegedly the plan will cost upwards in the trillions of dollars range.
It's ok, no need to worry. We'll get government support and we can print the money.
Liberty.
What an utterly ridiculous idea! It's not just the cost of this bridge, it's the cost of building a road system to feed it though the harsh conditions and low population densities of both Alaska and Siberia.
And to ship what? No road system can compete the the low -costs of cargo ships.
But before they do it, I'd like to see them fix the potholes on Elston Avenue.
You are welcome on my lawn.
You do realize that Ms. Palin never said this, that this was Tina Fey's line from Saturday Night Live?
It always amuses me to see low-information voters like you mindlessly regurgitate the drivel they've been spoon-fed by the lamestream media, in this manner, without even realizing that they're exposing their own lack of capacity for independent thought.
This is about as practical as building a space plane to take me from my kitchen to my livingroom. Slow and inefficient rubber tired transit for more than 1/2 around the planet is the biggest waste of a slashdot article let alone the massive physical resources. Modern cargo containers ships are faster, travel more direct, are more all weather, cheaper and gentler on the environment than running trucks on iced over roads. Other than a civil engineer's board imaginations, I can only assume that this is the ultimate attempt of the Serbian chamber of commerce to get a global scale pork barrel project in their backyard. For transportation comparison: .
Mode - Miles/Gallon/ton - [Hydrocarbons, CO, NO lbs/ton mile].
Ship - 514 miles/gallon - [0.0009, 0.0020, 0.0053]
Rail - 202 miles/gallon - [0.0046, 0.0064, 0.0183]
Truck - 59 miles/gallon - [0.0063, 0.0190, 0.1017]
Keep in mind that the above does not include the materials, cost or environmental damage to build this road to no where. If you really want a wild road trip drive from Cape Town to Cape Chelyuskin.
What, somebody can't refer to a pop-culture depiction without specifically noting that, or an AC like you will get all hot and bothered about it?
You'd have more of a point if you were talking about Jon Kyl, Donald Trump, or even Tom Latham, but no, you're talking about a random comment on a Slashdot article and acting as if it was meant to be serious anyway.
Nope.
Now care to speak up about any of the REAL low-information candidates who mindlessly regurgitate drivel that they believe in its truth, without even realizing that they're only showing their own lack of capacity for a reasoned discussion?
Whatever point you were trying to make there, especially that Russians need to stop being assholes, doesn't work when everything you've based it on involves the US being even bigger assholes.
Actually, that's not true. International relations works by allowing everyone to be assholes while pretending that they're awesome. The idea is countries make agreements that say one thing (usually a compromise of some kind) while claiming to their politically important classes that the agreement is good because it's another thing. The classic example I think of is the Security Council's authorization for the second Iraq war, which was designed to legally allow the US go to war with Iraq while still letting France claim that they had never meant it to authorize the war with Iraq. It's really about marketing, spin, and convincingly lying in a way which will appease (or in which you can leverage the perceived need to appease) your hard-liners.
You'll probably get most of the value out of electronics exports from China to the US that currently go by sea when air transport would be too expensive. How much is that worth and how much more would it be worth if you could get it to consumers how much faster?
If you can get a 10% increase in price because you have all of China's exports on store shelves a month earlier it could be big bucks. Unlikely to pay off a trillion dollars but anyway.
Three giant boring machines just like the Channel Tunnels. It would be a lot longer, but would be immune to weather and a lot cheaper than a bridge.
The Russian official allegedly proposing all this is, Vladimir Yakunin, is under US Sanctions for the Ukraine/Crimea mess. Moreover it would cost Trillion$, during a time when they don't have $10 Billion to upgrade their air force to their latest fighter: the PAK-FA.
I will not be surprised to find out this is somebody at the Siberian Times idea of a practical joke.
1) I think America would have to agree with the bridge entering their territorial waters first.
2) Neither China or Russia's finances are in a state where they can support the cost of this project.
I ask.
alcohol fueled nightmare. This is the worst engineering idea ever. cant even imagine anyone not a vodka pickled russian nationalist thinking this would be of any use. They may have gone completely mad there.
In case of another Finance Event lots of people will become unemployed. For some irrational, out of control reasons. This would be a wonder full project to re-inspire confidence into essentially all of mankind. Folks would be talking "about the massive new bridge, have you seen it on TV" "engineering challenge in fending off the 220K weather" "bears need to be fended off construction workers". Instead of "have you heard about the mass layoff at Gappple computers ?" "should I buy Gold in coins or silver ?" Call me a cynic, but I would call myself a realist. We need this kind of projects in order to "repair" the psychological damage done by finance implosions. So there won't be a benefit to the beancounters, but a benefit to humanity.
Apparently, SOME people are learning from history...and not in a good way.
There is a pair of islands halfway between Alaska and Russia, and the tunnel from those islands to Alaska and to Russia would each be shorter than the Chunnel. So it's not really so crazy that they would want to dig an undersea tunnel. An exposed bridge in that kind of climate sounds less smart. They would still need to connect the railroad networks, pipelines and (maybe) roads, and that would be the harder project, but the passage through the sea would not be so much more crazy than other stuff we have done. The oil pipeline alone might make it worth it. China is investing a lot in Canadian tar sand development.
Exactly right. The wilderness on either side of the bridge is vast. It is vast because it is really hard to build roads over permafrost, particularly if the permafrost starts to melt whenever you build a road on it. Roads on permafrost pretty much need to be rebuilt every year. The bridge is a big effort, but the roads to reach it might be a bigger project. It would be the bridge to nowhere, from nowhere.
Why?? Nothing has really changed in Russia since the Cold War was supposedly over. Power-hungry murderers.
This project is foolish. how many remote gas stations will be needed to fuel vehicles using such a bridge. who will man and supply these stations and where will their waste go? Driving along and need a toilet? It may be quite a few hours between rest stops. Need a tow truck? I guess that might generate quite a towing bill. Frankly this project will do little if any good for anybody and would be a target for every natural hazard and the terror lunatics would probably enjoy monkey wrenching such a bridge as well.
CNN, Foxjews, and MSN called. They said thanks for the good reporting!
The article title says bridge. The picture at the top of the article shows a bridge. The actual article text says 55 mile long tunnel. Is there an actual bridge in these plans or not?
Palins house from it?
I have family in Fairbanks that run an industrial business that would inevitably be significantly involved in and enormously impacted by such a project, and I can tell you that there is no talk of or preparation of even the slightest increase in the infrastructure that would be required before this project even began.
The first phase of an initial inquiry into increasing railroad infrastructure from Alaska to the lower 48, about 10 years ago, rung up an estimate of about a dozen billion dollars; everyone involved did the "let me laugh even harder" dance, and a second phase of the inquiry never happened.
That short little hop between Nome and Fairbanks is 500 miles of wilderness. There are no roads in the entire western half of Alaska and nobody is talking about building any.
I live in AK now and have been to Nome where gas is $6 a gallon
Why? Because there's no ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE to Nome
You not only have to build a bridge to one of the most remote parts of the Seward Peninsula - You have to then build an entire road for hundreds of miles down the Seward Peninsula to Fairbanks over land that is varying between Permafrost and regular road - (and you can build for one or the other but the permafrost is changing) - Sure, you could build an "Ice Road" but same situation -
I'm not saying it's the WORST idea in the world - Anchorage has the 2nd busiest Air Cargo terminal in the US - (Nashville is 1st I think) and we're ideally situated for Air over the North Pole, and maybe Naval thru the Northwest passage, - but there's no Rail line - and no Road from the Seward Peninsula to the Lower 48 - Hell, half the villages out there are still on the honey bucket system. The Bridge would probably come ashore at Wales, and you can drive to Nome - but from there you're back to Cargoship - so will the US create that kind of Infrastructure in AK? We can't even get the broken stuff fixed so I don't foresee new stuff.
FYI - the Road to Nome has been tossed back and forth but there's no palate in AK right now for new Infrastructure since the budget deficit caused by dropping oil prices.
RB
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ah honey, we're all resplendent - Bill Mallonee
She will want a kickback. I'm sure she deserves it.
The USSR was invited, by the legitimate government of Afghanistan, to help them stamp out some radical religious nuts. The USA, mostly via the CIA, thought that the mujahedeen were 'freedom fighters' and deserved all the support we could give them.
Worked out real well, that did.
AC
Cannot wait for the epic dashcam crash videos as INSANE Russian and Chinese drivers hit Canadian and American roads. It's going to be teeth, hair, and eyeballs ALL over the road.
All that fear about Mexican truck drivers is nothing compared to what's gonna happen with this.
Sig for hire.
"Why build one... when you can build two for three times the price!?"
Looks like none of you knows the working inside governments
"Why build one... when you can build two for thirty four times the price!?"
Lets send a few dozen well stocked 1 way colonization trips to Mars/elsewhere Instead.
Transportation price of large amounts of stuff over long distances, cheapest to more expensive:
1) Sea (ships)
2) Railway
3) Trucks
4) Air
How can you write an article like that and not even mention how long the bridge would be??
Maintenance on such a bridge will be kinda madness. Financially, as well.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
This bridge would make a great target and the setting of a great disaster movie. No way I am ever crossing this bridge.
Because Putin will rip off his shirt and build it himself.
Are people this stupid? Russia is not our friend nor have they ever been our friends. & right now we are heading to the 2nd Cold War because of This administration Obama! So wake up younger people! That's unless you are a communist.
Economic and Environmental studies will kill this pretty quick. Even if they did get past all of this, they'll find some endangered species X that will be negatively impacted by the project so it'll come to a grinding halt.
If the Western ports are overloaded, we need to seriously look at what we're importing and prioritize or just say "no thanks" Do we need all that crap that lines shelves of Dollar Stores and is advertised on TV for $20/a can? We don't need anymore George Foreman grills either.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Epic? I'd think it to be boring as fuck. A flight over the ocean is boring. And driving across the bridge to PEI in Canada was also damn boring. This would be like that road trip times a thousand once you factor in the distance and all of the accidents holding up traffic. I think I'll just wait for it to come out on YouTube so I can fast-forward and speed up the video footage of the trip and experience it that way.
Sarah Palin said, "I can see Russia from her house," so what's the big deal?! Should be as easy as shooting moose in Alaska.
Sarah Palin said, "I can see Russia from my house," so what's the big deal?! Should be as easy as shooting moose in Alaska.