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Communist China Planning Direct Rail Connection to AK-Canada-Lower 48 via Bering Strait Tunnel (!)
Reaganite Republican ^
| 13 May 2014
| Reaganite Republican
Posted on 05/13/2014 3:03:13 AM PDT by Reaganite Republican
Maybe you 2x Obama voters didn't expect hopenchange to include being sold into economic slavery, yet here we are... thanks, idiots!
A Bering Strait tunnel and/or bridge has been actually been proposed at various times, going back to 1892, and most often by the Russians. Moscow says they are still currently planning a bridge project for $65B, yet experts doubt that their conventional rail approach -if ever actualized- would be able to compete with ships on cost.
The (currently 51-mile) waterway has separated North America from Asia since the end of the last Ice Age, over 7000 years ago, and is only 180ft at its deepest- so that's a plus. Yet weather is obviously a problem, making maintenance and construction of any project only practical in the summer months.
Now it's the Chinese who stand most to gain, and they know that: the government-controlled Chinese Daily says the technology is already sorted for their version: a radical and hyper-ambitous rail line project that would be the largest and most costly in world history (talking 100's of billions of dollars).
It includes special trains and rail enabling 200mph+ runs that would reduce the time for a nonstop run from China-California less than two days. Pipelines/electricity would also run below rail lines, and perhaps a roadway above.
They also expect benefits deriving from the subsequent economic development of hinterland Siberia and interior Alaska, which offer vast natural resources... much as the railroads opened-up the American west in the late 19th century.
But it's hard not to feel like the walls are closing-in: our trade relationship with China is laughably lopsided by any measure -we owe them tons of money- and they're snapping up US real estate like it's going out of style. And these days, they pretty much own our government, too...
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TOPICS: Conspiracy; History; Politics; Travel
KEYWORDS: alaska; bering; beringstrait; canada; china; pipelines; rail; russia; siberia
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To: HamiltonJay
Vacuumed maglev is sometime in the future.
Nonvacuumed maglev would cost, at the absolute lowest price $20mm per km just for rail - or $225B, not including the price of terraforming, building a tunnel, an accompanying grid, or any of the rolling stock.
If it cost as much as the proposed Japanese projects, instead of the pie-in-the-sky low number that Chinese engineers are predicted, it would cost $3T.
To: Reaganite Republican
“They’ll be Spandex Jackets, one for everyone...”
22
posted on
05/13/2014 12:46:49 PM PDT
by
dfwgator
To: wideawake
Yes, you are spot on. But if the line is in place for several years prior to hostilities, a lot of supplies, local knowledge and people could already be in place. Chinese tend to think in longer cycles then westerners.
23
posted on
05/13/2014 1:30:10 PM PDT
by
2001convSVT
(Going Galt as fast as I can.)
To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
Thanks Reaganite Republican, but it’s ludicrous, and not just due to the massive costs that would never be recouped, even if it were all done with Chinese labor.
https://www.google.com/search?q=chinese+buildings+tipped+over&tbm=isch
I just now tried to find a copy of that old (late 1960s? early 1970s?) documentary “It Couldn’t Be Done”; there was a segment in that regarding a proposal (by a Chinese guy) to bridge the strait. Also has segments about the Crazy Horse monument (still unfinished) and a few other things.
24
posted on
05/14/2014 4:44:37 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
25
posted on
07/04/2014 2:47:57 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
To: wideawake
Comment on 15
To maritime transit times we need to add the number of days the ships lie anchored off-shore waiting their turn to be unloaded at the port facilities. There is often an oceanic parking lot off of Houston and Galveston for example.
This rail proposal is cool but ain’t very likely to happen.
26
posted on
08/13/2014 8:21:57 PM PDT
by
Rockpile
To: Rockpile
I should not reply to old threads, dang it.
27
posted on
08/13/2014 8:35:52 PM PDT
by
Rockpile
To: Rockpile
Why not reply to old threads?
There are queues to port, but there is also significant unloading time for trains as well.
It takes time for multiple trains to move their containers from railcar to truck, just as it takes time for vessels to move their containers from shipboard to truck.
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