Russia proposes Massive Superhighway that will make it possible to drive from U.S. to Europe

Hello again, ATS,

Here is a rather interesting idea, and one apparently proposed by Russia's Vladimir Yakunin.

The idea is to build a super highway that would stretch from London, all the way over to New York City. It's called the Trans-Eurasian Belt Development (TEPR), and it was unveiled during a meeting at the Russian Academy of Science in Moscow.



Source Article

A road that would stretch roughly 8,064 miles (12,978km).

Could you imagine driving from NYC to London? Aside being on the road for a week, and spending several hundred dollars in Gas.. Would you drive it?

You would go through some interesting territory. Parts of Russia that rarely get seen by the rest of the world.

It would also open up the interesting possibility of being invaded, finally. Not from the Southern Border, mind you, but from the north.

Granted, that could easily be dealt with by blowing up the bridge, mind you, in the middle of the Bearing Sea...

This would be interesting to have a Maglev train run parallel to this road..

Perhaps we could put google's self-driving cars on it?

Would you drive it?

I'd love to, just once.. I've always wanted to go over and have a pint in a pub in London, as well as see Red Square in Moscow.

Hmm.. Wonder who is gonna pay for this all, especially since several of the involved countries are all not on the best terms.

a reply to: Cygnis

Wow. Thats awesome.

So how long till its done? 2215?

Why was Nome, Alaska mentioned? population of under 5k...

Maybe because thats the start of the bridge.

a reply to: frostie

I think its the closest part that could have the bridge with the least amount of engineering nature.

This idea is old but I always found it interesting. To answer the op's question -

If the political climate in Russia changed I would love to take a road trip like that.


As for invasion its one of the main reasons Taiwan turned down China's offer of building a tunnel from mainland China to Taiwan. They offered to finance the entire project to and for some reason never thought the Taiwanese would look at the invasion potential of it lol..

Here is a wikipedia page talking about a Bearing Straight Crossing - Russia to the USA

Long Bridge segments though -

With the two Diomede Islands between the peninsulas, the Bering Strait could be spanned by three bridges. Two long bridges, each almost 40 kilometres (25 mi) long, would connect the mainland on each side to one island, and a third much shorter one between the two islands. However, the construction of a Bering Strait crossing would face exceptional political, engineering, and financial hurdles.

According to the page Russia has approved 60billion pounds for its part of the construction. They estimate the price tag at over 100 billion. The deepest part of the bearing straight is only about 180 feet.

Here is a picture - Russia on the left, US on the right and the islands in the middle.


The longest water bridge in the US (and world I think) is the The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in the US state of Louisiana. It stretches about 25 miles linking New Orleans to Mandeville. Of course Louisiana and the Bearing Straight have different weather patterns lol.

a reply to: Cygnis

it would stay closed half the time due to weather conditions.
just look at the road closures in Canada and Alaska.

think about the bering straight, and the storms that come out of the Bering Sea.
then you got Siberia.

a reply to: Cygnis

thats so #ing sexy

a reply to: hounddoghowlie

tubed roadway anyone?

a reply to: Cygnis

That would explain that situation with crimea. During a meeting on this project putin was possibly told he needed a new crane to build this. Easy mistake made. He went and got a deposit on Ukraine. No not Ukraine....my crane.

Boon serious note I think this is a bit silly. The cost/maintenance on this kind of project would be huge. Much more financially achievable projects should be proposed instead. Such as a huge hair dryer to defrost the Antarctic.

originally posted by: hknudzkknexnt
a reply to: hounddoghowlie

tubed roadway anyone?

A tunnel instead of a bridge has been discussed and is apparently feasible as well.

a reply to: hknudzkknexnt

maybe short distances, but imparcticle for the area they would have to go through.
they just were able to build the Alaskan Hwy much of which is a dirt/gravel road, due to prema frost and such.




ETA:
i misspoke with the dirt and gravel, at one time it was that way. now it is mostly paved, but they are constantly having to tear up the asphalt and repave it due to the freezing and refreezing, and at times where there are miles and miles of dirt and gravel.

a reply to: Cygnis

anyone remeber the movie almost heros? cris farleys prophesy just may come true.

check the last scene and you will get it

As long as Russian police could pull me over I would not drive there.

I know it's only slight movement, but wouldn't a project like this be fraught with problems arising from tectonic shifts and varying sea levels? It's small movement, but some plates move 4 inches a year. Over several decades, isn't that going to cause structural issues over the entire length of the bridge that are very hard to rectify? Doesn't seem an easy project to maintain.

a reply to: Xcathdra

Bearing straight is only about 53 miles in diameter.

Seems doable.

Perfect for rolling tanks across into North America

Nahh, I think this is a great idea. Putin's brainchild is obviously that becoming a highway for trade it will have economic benefits for Russia all the way through. - It will take a LONG time to drive from London to say Seattle so lots of fuel and accommodation sales for private travellers and a way to tax road goods for him.

a reply to: Cygnis
Do they realise that the Channel Tunnel is a rail link, and not a road? The super-highway will have to begin at Calais, where a camp of people are waiting to use it.

Incidentally, a note for the people on this thread confused by the spelling of Bering Strait. It was named after the seaman who discovered it.

Oh no doubt the Bering strait / Bering sea would be the hardest part of the architecture to deal with there.

I'm not sure on the tectonic plate movement up in the part of the world. I believe it is the North American plate that is moving at 4cm a year over the Atlantic plate. Tho, I do not know if that includes the Bering sea area or not. I'll have to look it up on a map later.

Yes, Russia would make a decent few shiny coins on their route, between speeders, and what not, to gas an amenities offered along the way, from oil changes (for those using conventional engine oil, synthetic users can go a max of 12,000 miles I understand), to petrol/gasoline fill-ups to snacks and other treats, Motels and all sorts of things.. Perhaps even you might get to wrestle a bear like Putin at an off-road side attraction.

Yes, the tunnel to Taiwan, and other places China offered to do that were turned down, for fear of them being able to move large number of troops and other such things through the tunnel in short order for a hostile take-over of the country. I'm not sure how feasible it would be for Russia or China to pull that off coming at us from Alaska, over 50 miles of bride, or tunnel.. But anything is possible.

It would certainly be an exceptional road trip from where I live.

Schemes like this require massive investment and political stability.

Unfortunately Russia is not really the type of place that attracts investment, but that should not stop them from building the road across Russia.

However, corruption and nepotism as exemplified by the last big project (the Russian Winter Olympics) would threaten any progress, but make some Russians very rich and richer still.

A bridge across the Bering Strait would only work if there was loads of investment and Russia was not involved.

a reply to: Cygnis

Would you drive it? 

You dang Skippy I would.

Driving from coast to coast (which I've done) is one thing driving from continent to continent that's a bucket list to do list fur shure.

a reply to: Cygnis

In doing some recent computing about whether to drive or fly on a 11k mile trip, I found that the cost of traveling by car--not figuring in any wear-and-tear on the vehicle itself, but for travel time, gas, meals and motel, etc. was not a reasonable way to transit the distance.

I can only conclude that the Russian Academy of Science harbors a bunch of dimwits. I suspect these were the people that dreamed up the idiotic "space elevator" concept.

a reply to: Aliensun
I've just realised what this project reminds me of.
In late Victorian times, people like Cecil Rhodes envisaged a "Cape to Cairo railway", stretching the entire length of Africa.
The extent of British control in the region made it superficially plausible on a small-scale map, especially once the German territory in east Africa had become the British Tanganyika.