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Topic: From Russia to Alaska (Read 365 times)

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From Russia to Alaska
« on: Apr 21^st, 2007, 8:20am »

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http://www.adn.com/front/story/8811960p-8712739c.html

Russia-Alaska link l A Bering Strait tunnel

By SABRA AYRES Anchorage Daily News

Published: April 21, 2007
Last Modified: April 21, 2007 at 02:46 AM

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.

Daily News reporter Sabra Ayres can be reached at [email protected] or 1-907-586-1531.

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