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Sat 21 Apr, 2007 02:11 pm
Hopes for Bering Strait tunnel linking Russia and Alaska revived
Date : April 19, 2007 - AP
An idea first mulled in the czarist era _ a tunnel under the Bering Strait _ is being revived as part of an ambitious project to build a 6,000-kilometer (3,700-mile) transport corridor linking Russia with Alaska.
Billed by backers as the key to developing Russia's Far East _ remote and sparsely populated but rich in energy and minerals _ the US$65 billion (48 billion) project will be the focus of a conference in Moscow on Tuesday, organizers said in a statement this week.
"The project would give Russia's East the chance to become a leading industrial region of the country and one of the most important transit hubs of the world economy," said the statement, which bore the logos of Russia's pipeline monopoly Transneft, electricity utility RAO United Energy Systems and the Trade Ministry, among others.
In addition to a rail and road link from Yakutsk in Siberia through Anadyr in extreme northeastern Russia and across the strait to the U.S. state of Alaska, the transport corridor would include oil-and-gas pipelines, power lines and fiberoptic cables. The tunnel, which would take 15-20 years to build, would be the longest in the world, it said.
The Bering Strait is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) wide at its narrowest; it was unclear where the tunnel might be located.
Awash with cash from its oil and gas exports, the Russian government is starting to pump money into projects aimed at overhauling the country's rusting and underdeveloped infrastructure, which is holding back further economic growth.
There is some sign that the link has a degree of traction with Russia's government: Due to speak at Tuesday's conference _ titled "Megaprojects of Russia's East" _ are presidential economic adviser Arkady Dvorkovich and the head of Russia's rail monopoly, Vladimir Yakunin, considered to be close to President Vladimir Putin. Former Alaska Governor Walter Hickel will also be participating.
The organizers plan to sign a letter to the heads of government in Russia, the U.S. and Canada calling for an intergovernmental agreement to implement the project.
"Russia needs a breakthrough national project capable of taking the country to the same level of geopolitical influence and might as the world leaders," the statement said.
I'm ignorant of the pros and cons of this.
I suppose a con is futzing with the strait at all, and another, what it would mean for general construction in the whole area.
And the pros, could be useful re extraction of this and that.
Would like to hear more.
Russia plans $65bn tunnel to America
April 20, 2007
London Times
Russia plans $65bn tunnel to America
by Tony Halpin in Moscow
Russia has unveiled an ambitious plan to build the world's longest tunnel under the Bering Strait as part of a transport corridor linking Europe and America via Siberia and Alaska.
The 64-mile (103km) tunnel would connect the far east of Russia with Alaska, opening up the prospect of the ultimate rail trip across three quarters of the globe from London to New York. The link would be twice as long as the Channel Tunnel connecting Britain and France.
The $65 billion (£33 billion) mega-project aims to transform trade links between Russia and its former Cold War enemies across some of the world's most desolate terrain. It would create a high-speed railway line, energy links and a fibreoptic cable network.
Proposals for a tunnel under the Bering Strait were first advanced a century ago under Tsar Nicholas II but foundered with the outbreak of the First World War and the Russian Revolution. The idea was revived after the collapse of the Soviet Union but was shelved once again in Russia's financial meltdown of 1998.
Russian officials insist that the tunnel is an economic idea whose time has now come and that it could be ready within ten years. They argue that it would repay construction costs by stimulating up to 100 million tons of freight traffic each year, as well as supplying oil, gas and electricity from Siberia to the US and Canada.
Maxim Bystrov, deputy head of Russia's agency for special economic zones, said: "This will be a business project, not a political one." The tunnel across the international date-line would be built in three sections through two islands in the Bering Strait and would link 6,000km (3,728 miles) of new railway lines. The tunnel alone would cost an estimated $10-12 billion to construct.
The scheme is being championed by Viktor Razbegin, deputy head of industrial research at Russia's Economic and Trade Development Ministry. He has long advocated a tunnel under the Bering Strait to provide a land route between Russia and the US, and published a feasibility study in the 1990s.
He told journalists that state and commercial companies would form a public-private partnership to fund and run the project. A conference in Moscow next week will propose an inter-governmental agreement with the US to underwrite construction of the transport link in return for a stake in the business.
Russian Railways is said to be examining the construction of a 3,500km route from Pravaya Lena, south of Yakutsk, to Uelen on the Bering Strait. The tunnel would connect this to a 2,000km line from Cape Prince of Wales, in West Alaska, to Fort Nelson, in Canada.
The project could save Siberia and the US $20 billion a year in electricity costs, according to Vasily Zubakin, deputy chief executive of Hydro, a subsidiary of Russia's main electricity producer, Unified Energy Systems. The company plans to build two giant tidal plants in the Far East to supply tengiga-watts of electricity by 2020.
However, some of those said to be involved in the project appeared sceptical. Sergei Grigoryev, vice-president of the state oil pipeline monopoly Transneft, said: "I've never heard of this plan. We need to first develop fields in East Siberia."
Others also questioned whether it made economic sense, pointing out that Alaska has large oil reserves of its own and that China's huge market was closer and more lucrative.
The tunnel on the Russian side would start in the Chukotka region, governed by Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea FC, who appears unlikely to plough his fortune into such a risky venture.
Russia-Alaska link - A Bering Strait tunnel
Russia-Alaska link - A Bering Strait tunnel
By SABRA AYRES Anchorage Daily News
Published: April 21, 2007
JUNEAU -- A proposal for another big construction project is gathering headlines across the world.
No, we're not talking about a $30 billion pipeline to send natural gas to the Lower 48.
This is bigger:
A $10 billion to $12 billion tunnel under the Bering Strait linking Alaska and Russia. And another $50 billion to lay railways to make the tunnel usable.
The proponents of the 64-mile tunnel are not working off an original idea.
Over the past 150 years, at least one Russian czar and several American entrepreneurs have devised plans for linking the continents.
The latest Russian concept is a tunnel tying Russia's Chukotka to Alaska's Cape Prince of Wales as part of a hoped-for continuous railway from London to New York. More than 6,000 miles of new rail lines -- about half laid in Siberia and the remainder in Alaska and Canada -- would connect the railheads on both sides. Siberian oil, gas, hydroelectric power and fiber optic cable could be exported through pipes built beside the high-speed rail service, they said.
But something is different about this current proposal, backers of the plan say, and it's not just modern technology.
Some say it's the tolerant nod of approval the Russian government has given to hosting a conference next week on the tunnel project.
Others say it's the momentum the idea has gained from media attention this week.
Maybe it's just timing: Russia's economy is booming, thanks to high world oil prices that have poured billions into the Russia treasury after 15 years of a difficult, post-Soviet transition.
In Alaska, a new governor promising to get the state a profitable natural gas pipeline has spurred some to think about fresh starts.
But it could just be kindred spirits finding common ground on dreaming big. Russia, the largest country in the world, once tried to reverse river flows to better irrigate crops.
Alaskans have seen their fair share of mega projects, too, including the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.
Former Gov. Wally Hickel has long been a champion of big, transforming projects.
Hickel is one of the Bering Strait tunnel project's most serious supporters. He said he plans to attend the conference next week in Moscow to watch a plan he has been behind for some 25 years finally find the support it deserves.
"You know how to build a gas line? Just build it," Hickel said. "Big projects are what civilizations need. Just to let the world know you can do it."
The tunnel idea resurfaced last week when a long-time advocate of the project, Viktor Razbegin, a deputy at the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, announced the Moscow conference and invited several American and Canadian enthusiasts.
Razbegin, Hickel and members of the aptly named Interhemispheric Bering Strait Tunnel & Railroad Group have been coordinating on the project since the late 1990s.
Enthusiasm aside, the current idea, like those in the past, is meeting skepticism.
Experts have said construction in the icy Bering Strait is possible, but finding funding will be difficult.
The Russians will need to complete a huge amount of rail lines to reach the remote Chukotka region, currently only accessible by plane or boat.
"I don't mean to diminish this, but a connection to Russia through Alaska any time soon is probably no more valid than the idea that we are going to send a manned mission to Mars," said Bruce Carr, the Alaska Railroad's strategic planning director.
The state-owned Alaska Railroad has been studying the possibility of connecting to Canada's rails for more than 60 years, Carr added.
The U.S. government has shown little interest in the project.
"It would be safe to say that no one here has ever heard of this thing," said Janelle Hironimus, a spokeswoman for the State Department.
Several of Russia's deputy ministers are scheduled to attend the conference, but Kremlin officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have been reluctant to throw their full weight behind it.
Still, the Russian side of the project has put on a remarkable un-Russian PR campaign ahead of the conference, said Joe Henri, an Anchorage developer and a member of the Interhemispheric Bering Strait Tunnel group
Russian organizers said the tunnel would help develop the remote Far East, where there are untapped stores of natural resources.
The state-owned electricity, railway and energy pipeline companies are listed as conference sponsors.
By late this week, stories from London to Ottawa popped up in the media and on the Internet.
Bloggers began having a field day. "Bering Strait Tunnel Project: OMG! Ultimate Road Trip!" one headlined.
Henri said the interest is a big change for a plan that has been called crazy.
But will attention and the Moscow conference move the project along?
"Biggest thing now is to form a corporation, get some Russian money, sell some stock and raise money for a feasibility study," he said.
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