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back to article Kremlin touts plan for Siberia-Alaska tunnel

Russian civil servants are touting a colossal infrastructure project in which Alaska and Siberia would be linked by the world's longest undersea tunnel. A widely-reported "pre-feasibility" study by the Russian Academy of Sciences is to be considered by Kremlin, US, and Canadian bigwigs at a conference next week. The centrepiece …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not possible

    Nice to see not all fantasies fly high above the ground, some crawl deep beneath it.

    Apparently, whoever dreamt up this scheme conveniently forgot the faultline under the Bering Sea.

    Now in itself, a faultline isn't much of a problem, agreed - but the challenge here is how to compensate for the 2.5cm that the Alaska and Siberia move towards each other every year.

    (On the other side of the world, the Atlantic (and Iceland) are getting wider by the same amount BTW)

    Fascinating plan, though.

    It would almost make a great "true-story" movie in Hollywood.

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Almost there......

    .....just reading this article, for some reason put the board game of RISK in my head.

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    My Comment

    The US has some of the world's most inadequate railways so they could certainly use some development assistance from Russia. The Baltic does well with ferries and cruise ships and trains on ferries. Does Russia really want a flood of gay televangelists pouring over?

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  4. Morely Dotes

    Autonomous problem-solving

    "Now in itself, a faultline isn't much of a problem, agreed - but the challenge here is how to compensate for the 2.5cm that the Alaska and Siberia move towards each other every year."

    Not a problem. By the time the three National governments can agree on funding, design, and contractors, the tunnel will only need to be a meter or so long. At that point, the nearest Eskimo can simply throw a snowshoe over the Bering Creek and call it a bridge.

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  5. Anthony Bathgate

    Continental drift

    not a problem - the Russians will build the tunnel so strongly that it will solidly hold the tectonic plates static in relation to each other.

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  6. Paul

    Not as silly as it sounds...

    IF you consider the potential impact of global warming and/or the eventual depletion of oil reserves on the cost of air transport.

    Russia already provides busy rail links between Europe and Asia; connecting North America and Asia would make Russian rail a global transport player for cargo and possibly even passengers.

    The fault line is unlikely to be a major problem for modern engineering; the Japanese have been building railways across fault lines for a century or so.

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  7. Chad H.

    Can anyone see how this ends?

    Poor suckers get conned into investing

    Tunnel company has problems with making money

    Tunnel company goes bankrupt

    People call it a white elephant.

    Perhaps one of the stations can be named "Waterloo" or "St Pancras?".

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  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Continental Drift?

    [quote]Now in itself, a faultline isn't much of a problem, agreed - but the challenge here is how to compensate for the 2.5cm that the Alaska and Siberia move towards each other every year.[/quote]

    Siberia and Alaska do not change distance each year, they are both on the same plate (the North American Plate).

    It's a shame when people think they know better than Government scientists, even though they don't spend 5 minutes checking the facts.

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