More than a century of work: this tunnel to somewhere is idealistic, but possible.

• Author: Pielli, Brooke
• Position: BUILDING ALASKA

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It is tantalizing, that small stretch of water between Uelen, Siberia, and Wales, Alaska, with the two Diomede Islands between them, all seemingly just waiting to be connected.

The idea of connection is more than 150 years old, considered in the mid-1800s by President Abraham Lincoln and Henry C. Carey, his economic advisor, both of whom believed in the creation of a rail network crossing the Bering Strait. They were later joined in this vision by William Gilpin, first governor of the Colorado Territories, who proposed such a railroad line to be constructed linking North America and Russia across the Bering Strait. This was part of a general idea at the time to link all great cities by rail.

The idea waxed and waned over the succeeding decades, but got nowhere.

At the end of World War II, Russia's Joseph Stalin expressed an interest to President Truman in re-opening talks concerning connecting U.S. and Russian rail networks with a tunnel under the Bering Strait, but Truman wasn't interested in pursuing the project.

The idea persisted over the ensuing years with money raised for initial feasibility studies, but the problem of an insufficient technology base prevented further action. That, coupled with two world wars, political instability, and hostility between Russia and the United States, prevented the idea from gaining momentum.

TECHNOLOGY KEY

The technology now exists, and the concept of a Bering Strait rail tunnel is back with the Inter-Hemispheric Bering Strait Tunnel and Railroad Group officially registered in Washington, D.C. in 1991.

In July 2006, George Koumal, president and CEO of ETI Inc., spoke with President Bush about the Bering Strait project, and a few months later, at a meeting at the Federal Agency for Railroad Transport, a decision was made to build the Yakutsk-Magadan track with its extension to the Bering Strait.

"The tunnel would extend for 68 miles, 180 feet under the water, for a cost of $65 billion," explained Anchorage Attorney Joseph Henri, member of the IBSTRG board of directors. "It will transport 3 percent of the world's total cargo." It could take up to 15 years to construct.

The tunnel would utilize Little Diomede Island and Big Diomede Island with shafts to be sunk into each island. These would connect to service tunnels below in order to provide for vehicles to get around, a place for escape in an emergency, and to accommodate drainage.

The average speed for a freight train could be...