ALCANEX 9



	*That Siberian Connection . . .*



	Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich forked out $160 million for the world’s largest drill fueling talks of a massive tunnel between Europe and America. The project would link Russia’s far eastern Chutoka region, which Abramovich governs, with America’s Alaska. The drill will be built by Germany's Herrenknecht AG and will the first drill capable of boring a four-lane tunnel.through the 55-mile wide Bering Strait. A leading British daily is speculating that Russian President Putin is already in talks with Washington for the tunnel. The tunnel would open up lucrative freight routes from Europe and allow Russian gas along with cheap Chinese goods to be easily exported. The cost of the (Pictured above is the Herrenknecht EPB Shield S-300 mega tunnel boring machine built to excavate a road tunnel in Madrid .

	Tunnel . . . or bridge ? The Bering Strait bridge or Bering Strait tunnel, if ever constructed, would be a bridge or tunnel 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. Another name suggested is Eurasia-America Transport. Whatever the name, the construction of such a bridge or tunnel would face unprecedented engineering, political, and financial challenges, and to date, no government has authorized the start of any planning or construction. A Bering Strait bridge or tunnel 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 each be comparable in length to the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, currently the second-longest bridge in the world. However, the current proposal calls for construction of a tunnel.

	I have no long-range plans to include either a tunnel or a bridge to represent the Alaska-Siberia rail transportation connection. Nevertheless, it may very well be the construction of either (most likely a tunnel) which would guarantee the extension of a railroad line from the continental United States into Alaska.


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