Whatever happened to the Bering Strait bridge I saw on "Extreme Engineering?" Sixty-four miles is a long way to dig. I've been waiting very patiently, I believe, for the stuff I see on the Discovery Channel to actually come to fruition. posted by Terminal Verbosity at 8:22 AM on April 19, 2007
The Dead Sea is a unique and fascinating body of water. There is nothing quite like it anywhere else on the planet. I, for one, would be really mad if someone dug a canal into it. posted by Faint of Butt at 8:31 AM on April 19, 2007
blahblahblah.... as usual, your post is awesome. You are truly one of, if not the best poster on this site. posted by dios at 8:40 AM on April 19, 2007
just what we need, a tunnel linking one frozen waste to another. if russia wants to pay for it, fine and dandy, i can't afford it. posted by bruce at 9:06 AM on April 19, 2007
Now building a highway tunnel would be monumentally stupid. Building an entirely automated freight rail tunnel...that could work. And be fantastically cool to boot. posted by Skorgu at 9:14 AM on April 19, 2007
bruce hits a point. Connecting Upper Siberia and Alaska allows you to use an express train to get from Nowhere to Nowhere.
Really, this is going to be three massive projects -- crossing the straits, and then connecting the crossings to the ports that actually need the freight you'd ship over.
You thought the Channel Tunnel Rail Link was a problem? You'll need very high speed freight rail links between western Russia, the Ukraine, etc, to the tunnel, then very high speed links from the tunnel down to at least Vancouver, BC.
The Chunnel hasn't been profitable yet, and it connects London, Paris, and Brussels. posted by eriko at 9:15 AM on April 19, 2007
and I thought this project was massive enough already...
Faint Of Butt: I think the Dead Sea project is more an attempt to refill that body of water and thus safe it from drying up. What makes you mad about that? posted by kolophon at 9:22 AM on April 19, 2007
You must not refill the Dead Sea with life!!!! Don't you people see???? It will create..... ZOMBIES!!!
Nyarghhg... nyarghhhh... mmmmfffffmmmm... braaaaaaainnnns. posted by psmealey at 9:35 AM on April 19, 2007 [2 favorites]
bruce hits a point. Connecting Upper Siberia and Alaska allows you to use an express train to get from Nowhere to Nowhere.
Well, right, but it would connect all the worlds land masses, which is pretty damn cool in my book. posted by delmoi at 9:35 AM on April 19, 2007 [1 favorite]
What about Australia and Greenland? Zing! posted by Mister_A at 9:36 AM on April 19, 2007
Oof. kolophon is right; I didn't follow the links and jumped to the conclusion that somebody was trying to turn the Dead Sea into a drinking-water reservoir or something. Here's the truth of it, from the final link in the FPP:
And the reason is not hard to find: the once strongly flowing river Jordan which for so long kept the sea in equilibrium by discharging into it 1.3 billion cubic metres a year of fresh water to replenish what it lost in evaporation is now a pitiful, contaminated trickle, mustering at most 50 million to 100 million cubic metres, a volume itself steadily reducing by the year. And the cause is entirely man-made.
Mea culpa for the misdirected anger. Bring on the canals. posted by Faint of Butt at 9:50 AM on April 19, 2007
please don't anybody tell senator ted stevens about this. posted by bruce at 9:53 AM on April 19, 2007
...so we'd no longer have people saying "Better Dead than Red." Now you can have both! posted by Robert Angelo at 10:01 AM on April 19, 2007
just what we need, a tunnel linking one frozen waste to another...
posted by bruce
Didn't Al Gore, or somebody, mention that those frozen wastes are due for a warming trend? posted by taosbat at 11:01 AM on April 19, 2007
dios - thanks, that's really nice to hear!
Would favoriting your comment about me make me an egotist? posted by blahblahblah at 11:17 AM on April 19, 2007
I couldn't get financial backing for my Argentina-Antarctic booze tunnel, despite my financial projections that the researchers in Antarctica would consume 4 billion dollars a year worth of booze. posted by BrotherCaine at 12:45 PM on April 19, 2007
Personally, I think the reason this keeps popping up, along with the same Minister of Transport, is that there's some graft involved. I can't see Russia really making this investment when it's dying.
That is to say, it's all a scheme to funnel Western investment monies into the Ministry, where he can divvy them out to his factotums. posted by dhartung at 9:35 PM on April 19, 2007
then very high speed links from the tunnel down to at least Vancouver, BC.
Not so. There is oil and minerals and timber all up North. And rail is likely to be a significantly more efficient means of transportation of cargo.
Not so. There is oil and minerals and timber all up North. And rail is likely to be a significantly more efficient means of transportation of cargo.
fff, sure thing, but Siberia and Alaska both have those resources in spades and neither of them have much in the way of the industries that need them. Connecting two resource-rich nowheres doesn't seem like a good idea. posted by atrazine at 3:30 PM on April 20, 2007
Yes, they both have them: what they don't have is an abundance of people wanting to go live where the resources are. Hence the need to (a) ship the resources cheaply to the manufacturer (ie. China); (b) ship the product cheaply to the consumer (ie. USA).
Although OTOH, the North West Passage is about yay ' far from being significantly open to shipping, obviating the need to wend south through Panama. I doubt ships are more efficient than train, but they're probably efficient enough to do the trick (it being really damn expensive to lay & maintain track in high north post-melt muck.) posted by five fresh fish at 5:51 PM on April 20, 2007
Huh... MeFi collapses double single-quotes into a single single-quote...
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posted by Terminal Verbosity at 8:22 AM on April 19, 2007