Bering Strait crossing
A Bering Strait crossing is a hypothetical bridge or tunnel that would span the relatively narrow and shallow Bering Strait between the Chukotka Peninsula in Russia and the Seward Peninsula in the U.S. state of Alaska. The crossing would provide a connection linking the Americas and Afro-Eurasia.
With the two Diomede Islands between the peninsulas, the Bering Strait could be spanned by a bridge or tunnel.
There have been several proposals for a Bering Strait crossing made by various individuals and media outlets. The names used for them include "The Intercontinental Peace Bridge" and "EurasiaAmerica Transport Link". Tunnel names have included "TKMWorld Link", "AmerAsian Peace Tunnel", and InterBering. In April 2007, Russian government officials told the press that the Russian government would back a US$65 billion plan by a consortium of companies to construct a Bering Strait tunnel.
History
19th century
The concept of an overland connection crossing the Bering Strait goes back to the 19th century. William Gilpin, first governor of the Colorado Territory, envisaged a vast "Cosmopolitan Railway" in 1890 that would connect the entire world through a series of railways.Two years later, Joseph Strauss, who went on to design over 400 bridges and then serve as the project engineer for the Golden Gate Bridge, put forward the first proposal for a Bering Strait rail bridge in his senior thesis. The project was presented to the government of the Russian Empire, but it was rejected.
20th century
In 1904, a syndicate of American railroad magnates proposed a SiberianAlaskan railroad from Cape Prince of Wales in Alaska through a tunnel under the Bering Strait and across northeastern Siberia to Irkutsk via Cape Dezhnyov, Verkhnekolymsk, and Yakutsk. The proposal was for a 90-year lease and exclusive mineral rights for on each side of the right-of-way. It was debated by officials and finally turned down on March 20, 1907.Czar Nicholas II approved the American proposal in 1905. Its cost was estimated at $65 million and $300 million, including all the railroads. These hopes were dashed with the outbreak of the Russian Revolution of 1905, followed by World War I.
There was a Nazi plan to create a wide-gauge railroad called the Breitspurbahn to connect the cities of Europe, India, China, and ultimately North America via the Bering Strait.
Interest was renewed during World War II with the completion in 19421943 of the Alaska Highway, linking the remote territory of Alaska with Canada and the continental United States. In 1942, the Foreign Policy Association envisioned the highway continuing to link with Nome near the Bering Strait, linked by highway to the railhead at Yakutsk, using an alternative sea-and-air ferry service across the Bering Strait. At the same time, the road on the Russian side was extended by building the Kolyma Highway.
In 1958, engineer Tung-Yen Lin suggested the construction of a bridge across the Bering Strait "to foster commerce and understanding between the people of the United States and the Soviet Union." Ten years later, he organized the Inter-Continental Peace Bridge, Inc., a nonprofit institution organized to further this proposal. At that time, he made a feasibility study of a Bering Strait bridge and estimated the cost to be $1 billion for the span. In 1994, he updated the cost to more than $4 billion. Like Gilpin, Lin envisioned the project as a symbol of international cooperation and unity, and dubbed the project the Intercontinental Peace Bridge.
21st century
According to a report in the Beijing Times in May 2014, Chinese transport experts had proposed building a roughly high-speed rail line from northeast China to the United States. The project would include a tunnel under the Bering Strait and connect to the contiguous United States via Wales, Alaska, along the river to Fairbanks, Alaska, and along the Alaska Highway to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.Several American entrepreneurs have also advanced private-sector proposals, such as an Alaska-based limited-liability company, InterBering, founded in 2010 to lobby for a cross-straits connection, and a 2018 cryptocurrency offering to fund the construction of a tunnel. In 2005, investor Neil Bush, younger brother of U.S. President George W. Bush and son of President George H. W. Bush, traveled abroad with Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church as he promoted a proposal to dig a transportation corridor beneath the Bering Strait. When questioned by Mother Jones during the Republican primary campaign of his brother Jeb Bush a decade later in 2015, he denied having supported the tunnel project and said that he had traveled with Moon because he supported "efforts by faith leaders to call their flock into service to others."
Strategic military concerns
Proposals to construct a strait crossing predate the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Russo-Ukrainian war, which began in February 2014. Russia's actions have raised serious scepticism about its possible realization in the near future, especially regarding the proposed crossing's impact on the national security of the United States and Canada, considering that such a bridge or a tunnel would effectively enable Russian armed forces, paramilitary troops, spies, and saboteurs to gain a land bridge directly to North America. Even before the beginning of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, commentators on the proposed link have flagged strategic military concerns as a factor in any decision to build the crossing.Technical concerns
Geologic faults
Several major geologic faults run through the Bering Strait region, although some are offshore, and their exact offshore extent is still debated. Key faults include the Kaltag and Bendeleben faults on land, and the Bering Fracture Zone offshore, which is the site of significant seismic activity and tectonic plate boundaries.Distance
The straight distance between Russia and Alaska is. If the two parts are connected by building a bridge, or, even more likely, a series of bridges, while using the Diomede Islands as intermediate points, the length of the three separate bridges, spanning across water from one island to another, would be at least, or in total.Depth of water
The depth of the water is a minor problem, as the strait is no deeper than, comparable to the English Channel. The tides and currents in the area are not severe.Weather-related challenges
Restrictions on construction work
The route is just south of the Arctic Circle, and the location has long, dark winters and extreme weather, including average winter lows of and temperatures approaching in cold snaps. This would mean that construction work would likely be restricted to five months of the year, around May to September, and centered during the summer.Exposed steel
The extreme arctic weather also poses a significant challenge to exposed steel and other construction materials. In Lin's design, concrete covers all structures to simplify maintenance and to offer additional stiffening.Ice floes
Although there are no icebergs in the Bering Strait, ice floes up to thick are in constant motion during certain seasons, which could produce forces on the order of on a pier.Tundra in the surrounding regions
Roads on either side of the strait would need to be constructed in a way that enables them to cross extensive areas of tundra unhindered, requiring either an unpaved road or another solution to avoid the obstructing effects of permafrost.Likely route and expenses
Bridge option
If the bridge is chosen over the tunnel as a type of fixed-link crossing, the most technically and economically feasible option would be to connect Wales, Alaska, to a location south of Uelen. In this case, predictions suggest that the link would likely not consist of a single, uninterrupted bridge but would rather be divided into several bridges that would be interconnected with each other by the Diomede Islands, located in the middle of the Bering Strait.In 1994, Lin estimated the cost of a bridge to be "a few billion" dollars. The roads and railways on each side were estimated to cost $50 billion. Lin contrasted this cost to petroleum resources "worth trillions". Discovery Channel's Extreme Engineering estimates the cost of a highway, electrified double-track high-speed rail, and pipelines at $105 billion, five times the original cost of the 1994 Channel Tunnel.
Connections to the rest of the world
This excludes the cost of new roads and railways to reach the bridge. Aside from the technical challenges of building two bridges or a more than tunnel across the strait, another major challenge is that, as of 2022, there is nothing on either side of the Bering Strait to connect the bridge to.The Russian side of the strait, in particular, is severely lacking in infrastructure. No railways exist for over in any direction from the strait. The nearest major connecting highway is the M56 Kolyma Highway, which is currently unpaved and around from the strait. However, by 2042, the Anadyr Highway is expected to be completed, connecting Ola and Anadyr, which is only about from the strait.
On the U.S. side, an estimated of highways or railroads would have to be built around Norton Sound, through a pass along the Unalakleet River, and along the Yukon River to connect to Manley Hot Springs Road - in other words, a route similar to that of the Iditarod Trail Race. A project to connect Nome, from the strait, to the rest of Alaska by a paved highway has been proposed by the Alaskan state government, although the very high cost has so far prevented construction.
In 2016, the Alaskan road network was extended westwards by to Tanana, from the strait, by building a relatively simple road. The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities project was supported by local indigenous groups such as the Tanana Tribal Council.