Bering Strait bridge
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This article or section contains information about a planned or proposed future bridge. It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically as the construction and/or completion of the bridge approaches, and more information becomes available on it. |
The Bering Strait bridge is a proposed/envisioned bridge spanning the Bering Strait between Cape Dezhnev, Chukotka, Russia, and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, United States. The name The Intercontinental Peace Bridge has been used in some proposals. Such a bridge would provide an overland connection linking Asia, Africa and Europe with North America and South America.
The Bering Strait could be spanned by a series of three bridges via the Diomede Islands for a total distance of about 80 km (50 miles). The two long spans would be comparable in length to the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, the current longest bridge.
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[edit] History
The concept of an overland connection crossing the Bering Strait goes back at least a century. William Gilpin, first governor of the Colorado Territory, envisioned a vast "Cosmopolitan Railway" in 1890 linking the entire world via a series of railways. Two years later Joseph Strauss, who went on to design over 400 bridges, including the Golden Gate Bridge, put forward the first proposal for a Bering Strait railroad bridge in his senior thesis[citation needed].
Interest was renewed in 1943 with the completion of the Alaska Highway linking the remote territory of Alaska with the Continental United States. Ambitious Alaskans envisioned the highway continuing to link with Nome near the Bering Strait, but no serious proposals for a bridge were made.
In 1968 engineer T. Y. Lin made a feasibility study of a Bering Strait bridge and estimated a cost more than $4 billion. Like Gilpin, Lin envisioned the project as a symbol of international cooperation and unity. Lin also proposed, among other bridges, a second massive connection spanning the Strait of Gibraltar. During the Cold War, however, the concept met mostly with cool reception. Lin died in 2003.
Several others have advocated a Bering Strait bridge including Russian railway engineer Anatoly Cherkasov soon after the end of the Cold War, and Korean evangelist Sun Myung Moon as part of a proposed global highway and rail system.
[edit] Challenges
[edit] Technical challenges
The route would lie just south of the Arctic Circle, subject to long, dark winters and extreme weather (average winter lows −20°C with possible lows approaching −50°C.). Winter maintenance of any exposed roadway would be difficult and closures frequent. Even maintenance of enclosed roadways and pipelines could also be affected by winter weather. Ice breakup after each winter is violent and would destroy normal bridge piers. Specially shaped massive piers along the ocean floor would be needed to keep the bridge stable.
The bridge would require thousands of kilometers of new road and/or track over extremely harsh terrain through the wilderness of Alaska and Siberia. The nearest railheads are Fairbanks, Alaska or the Dease Lake branch of CN on the east and Yakutsk on the west. Russia is in the process of completing a rail connection from the Baikal Amur Mainline to Yakutsk.
America uses American standard gauge (4 feet, 8.5 inches wide) rails, while Russia uses Russian broad gauge (5 feet wide) tracks, and this will have to be addressed. A dual-gauge track network has been proposed, as those are used in some areas of Australia, whose rail network is split into different gauges.
[edit] Environmental opposition
Both the Alaskan and Siberian wilderness areas are the focus of major conservation efforts. Access roads would cross thousands of kilometers of these areas. The bridge itself would cross a major whale migration route.
Similar concerns have arisen over the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and oil and natural gas drilling on the Alaska North Slope, which remains highly controversial.
There have been long discussions about a highway for the benefit of residents in western Alaska, but environmental concerns and fears of undue cultural influence from a higher number of visitors to Eskimo villages have obstructed these plans[citation needed].
[edit] Economic costs and benefits
The Bering Strait area is extremely remote and sparsely populated. Air is the main mode of travel in the area, but there is currently no regular air connection across the Strait, apart from a few summer charter flights. There is no existing car or rail ferry service as there are no roads or railways for it to serve.
Based on the price per km of other long bridges, the cost for a road bridge itself can be estimated at $15-25 billion[citation needed]. Discovery Channel's Extreme Engineering estimates the cost of a highway, double track rail and pipelines, including continuations on land, at $105 billion. This excludes the cost of new roads and railways to reach the bridge.
International bridges and tunnels in Europe have been financed by loans and road fees only, since there is a political principle that international travel should not be paid by tax payers. Possible sources of these fees include container traffic between Russia/China and Canada/US, which could make the transit much more quickly by rail than by crossing the Pacific Ocean, and passenger traffic from as far away as the UK to Canada and the USA. A bridge which also carried pipelines would earn revenues from the use of those pipelines. Potential income from these sources is unknown.
[edit] Alternatives
Assuming that the necessary access routes are in place, alternatives to a Bering Strait bridge include:
- Car/rail ferry service in summer months.
- An immersed tube.
- A tunnel.
