Posted on 03/28/2015 8:33:43 AM PDT by re_tail20
Plans for an ambitious 12,400-mile superhighway linking the Atlantic and the Pacific are reportedly being considered by Russian authorities.
The Trans-Eurasian Belt Development would see the construction of a vast motorway across Russia. It would connect with existing networks in Europe, making road trips to eastern Russia a far easier proposition. While roads do currently run across most of Russia, the quality tends to deteriorate the farther you travel from Moscow.
The proposal, outlined in the Siberian Times, would see the road follow a similar route to the Trans-Siberian railway, through cities including Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk, and Vladivostok. A new high-speed train line would also be constructed, along with pipelines for gas and oil. The rail network may also be extended to the Chukotka region of Russia and across the Bering Strait to Alaska — making overland trips from Britain to the US (via the Channel Tunnel) a possibility.
The idea, which developers hope will help boost tourism and make Russia a global transportation hub, was presented at a meeting of the Russian Academy of Science.
Vladimir Fortov, the head of the Russian Academy of Science, said the project was "very ambitious and expensive."...
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Someone wants to prop up the Russian economy by building a couple thousand miles of infrastructure.
Follow the money. Who will get the gas station, restaurant and hooker concessions?
Agreed, if the purpose was to drive from New York to London the back way around, it would make no sense. If the purpose was to run trucks between, say, Anchorage and Vladivostok, or open up the remotest regions of Siberia to development, then it starts to make sense. Maybe. Its still probably cheaper to truck something to Vladivostok and then put it on a ship, though.
Right now, there is the highway from Alaska down to Seattle. Maybe we could instead, with the Canadians, build a highway from New York to Alaska. Now that would be some trip. New York to London the other way.
A highway and new high speed rail line outside of our control? 0 and his buddies are not gonna like that!
I wonder if they will call it the Taggart Line?
I imagine the are planning to make it about 4 tanks wide.
“Quagmire in the rainy season”
If you want to know how truly horrible it is, just read some German accounts of Hitler’s 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union and how the Germans got hopelessly bogged down in the incredible Russian mud.
I’ve driven from Knoxville, TN to Davis,CA and flown the same trip. For a single person, flying first class is about $500 cheaper than driving the same trip.
“Red China is all for it.”
Yep. They are thinking long term. Its called a Silk Road. Reading that the project also includes oil & gas pipelines, and taking into account the maps in the articles below, it makes perfect sense. It also totally bypasses the Ukraine where many Russian gas pipelines traverse.
Russia wants to build a trade empire with China. And they want to sell cheap gas to Europe, without going thru Ukraine. Since China will get easy trade access to Europe through this, they are likely to finance a good bit of it.
China gets cheap O&G. Russia gets to sell it to them. The Chinese get to open their markets and flood Europe & Russia with inexpensive Chinese goods. Russia gets access to vast untapped resources in its far east. The two countries get to challenge the world economy. They would both be winners.
Moscow to Beijing in 48 hours by train:
http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-builds-moscow-to-beijing-high-speed-train-2014-12
Opening Chinese markets thru rail:
http://www.salon.com/2014/12/31/go_west_young_han_how_chinas_new_silk_road_threatens_american_imperialism_partner/
A bridge to America from Russia?
Hell no.
10 trillion
++++
Rubles???
Yeah : )
The roads will build themselves if the tunnel is built. I for one would drive accross it and spend a little money on the other side.
You mean other than the Alcan highway?
Russia is considering plans for a 12,400-mile superhighway from London to Alaska
AH!......... UTOPIA again...
WOuld be nice for a main though-fare for tanks and logistics..
to make it easier to overthrow ANY givernment and install pure socialism
to degrade and transfer ALL WEALTH to those in the Communist Party..
AND make all people serfs and slaves to the HIVE like the BORG..
The world becomeing the HUMAN HIVE... with drones and everything..
NEXT would be two main superhighways running north and south...
A high-speed, car-carrying train might make more sense.
I have. Pretty gruesome ....
Alaska’s highway network is poorly developed.
But I think we’ve been oversold on the benefits of cross-strait traffic.
I don’t see too many people driving to Moscow let alone London.
But for commercial truck traffic, it would be a game-changer.
I think there is Zero value connecting across the straight. It is a nowhere area on both sides.
Alaska would benefit far from a rail line to the lower 48 and break the Washington Port / Jones Act stranglehold for shipping.
It is too far for any significant truck freight, barges are cheaper for the distance.
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