Proposed Bering Straight Chunnel

[Overmind One]

both sponsor nations are socialist -lite economies..no needs for bids.


ok, so instead of spending this amount lets just keeps spending trillions on defense budgets and wars (iraq price tag, mentioned in one of the linked articles)?

because those are so much better uses of money?

No, those are horrible drains on us too. How about not throwing good money after bad, and then even going back and trying to recover some of that wasted money? We start the wars mostly. Its a business.

it seems like most of the funds are coming from the EEU with some backing from the EU and then pvt russian and chinese companies (well, private russian companies..no such thing as private in china)

the chinese have owned the panama canal and alot of north american and other areas port facilities for some time now. if these ppl want to spend money that is mainly theirs own this thing then why stop them?

In order for this thing to even exist, the eastern end of the tunnel will have to be on US territory and will thus ultimately be US property. It will require TREMENDOUS development of infrastructure and housing and logistics lines just to make sure the US interests are protected. To say nothing of the potential military and security issues.

But what it comes down to is that it is just not needed.

 

[YJ02]

but hey, if something is too hard or maybe too expensive, lets just not bother then, right? status quo forever


do you know how much rail line and paved highway, china and its partner nations have put down on the new silk road and its spurs in central asia?

it goes from , being modest ,Xinjiang, though arguable deeper into china with existing connections, across the -Stans with a spur down into pakistan all the way to port of Karachi.

connects existing lines north and south of the Caspian sea and then all the way through to Eastern Europe with a connection to Germany and western Europe-and therefore England, over existing rail lines.

the total of these new rail lines and pavement far far exceeds the amount of new line that would be needed to tie in on both shores of a chunnel

the 'recycled materials' are things like the stone to be excavated from under the sea is the ideal stone already used to crush for rail beds. as for steel? the chinese have been buying up nearly every scrap of waste metal from the rest of the world for years. and they and russia make their own steel as well.

the push back against this from Americans is at best xenophobic and the old belief that 'only america can build big' (hello.. Great Wall anyone ?)

it has been said on these forums that china and the east are the future of mankind's development and new ways of thinking in many arenas from largest floating solar array, to space exploration and near earth habitation, to robotics, to manufacturing and engineering/construction

americans still have a very narrow view of the east and what they have accomplished already-many do not even realise what they have done to date like a manned space station and its replacement to go up next year. Or that they have been scanning/ geological mapping the moon-no doubt to lay the ground work for mining there.

we are so far behind them we want to criticize them and believe everything they do is still worthy of the once lowly "made in china" label of cheap clothes and plastic junk. we can't fathom that they have leaped so far ahead of us.


thy may not get this chunnel done anytime soon, but the chinese people are a persistent and generational patient group, tie that to russian tenacity and hard headedness...it will get done eventually

 

[YJ02]

damned skippy its optimistic!! at least as optimistic as universal income..and probably as costly

 

[Overmind One]

damned skippy its optimistic!! at least as optimistic as universal income..and probably as costly

Universal income directly benefits EVERY individual receiving it. In that perfect system, nobody would be without, and nobody would have too much. Ideally, the cost would be so high that it would take everything and leave no excess or have any deficits. The keyword being "universal". Try giving a very short list, say three items, listing who benefits from a tunnel built from Siberia to Alaska?

 

[PussyGalore]

In order for this thing to even exist, the eastern end of the tunnel will have to be on US territory and will thus ultimately be US property. It will require TREMENDOUS development of infrastructure and housing and logistics lines just to make sure the US interests are protected. To say nothing of the potential military and security issues.

But what it comes down to is that it is just not needed.

Did you see the schematics for this thing? They show lanes for passenger traffic. In order for passengers to use it they would have to get to distant Alaska. And even if they boarded a high-speed train why would they take it to Bumfreak, Russia? There's nothing over there that anyone would want to see or visit. Nothing.

The logistics simply don't work for someone wanting to go from say Los Angeles to Hong Kong. In order to accomplish that you would have to take a succession of trains and planes just to get to the Alaska departure point. And once over in Russia you'd have to transfer to other trains and/or planes to complete the trip to Hong Kong. It's ridiculously complicated and unnecessary. Taking a plane would be cheaper and quicker. (If they're serious about finding other methods of travel across the Pacific they should put all those billions into developing high-speed water craft capable of carrying large payloads and passengers.)

Here's the best pic I could find to show the enormity of land travel via this method. The lines make it look fairly simplistic but we're talking about a huge amount of the globe here. Like I said, once you debark on either side of this "time tunnel" your journey will be nowhere near complete. You will have to climb on another train which will take you to another train which will take you to a plane which will take you to your destination -- finally. And even if they build airports on either side of this thing that still defeats the purpose. Why would I want to debark this train over in Russia only to go to the airport and climb onto a plane? I could just climb on a plane over here in America and fly directly to my global destination.

 

[Rac80]

Ok my first thought was someone had found a use for the country/Russian group Bering Strait
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bering_Strait_(band)

 

[Lord Ba'al]

Maybe the Russians secretly already have a tunnel all the way to the strait and are just looking for some help in finalizing the trajectory before they can launch their invasion force.

Tinfoil!

 

[Overmind One]

Maybe the Russians secretly already have a tunnel all the way to the strait and are just looking for some help in finalizing the trajectory before they can launch their invasion force.

Tinfoil!

I have actually heard similar stories!

 

[YJ02]

isting who benefits from a tunnel built from Siberia to Alaska?

1- ALL of eurasia-manufacturers and workers
2-north american consumers who will no longer have to pay american port fees assessed on every container via ship
3-north american consumers again. they could order items straight from china and instead of waiting the current long time, could have it within a week of it being on the train*. this would also cut out destination middle men and their fees

*The average travel time for a container vessel from Asia to the U.S. is between two weeks and a month. Documentation, customs clearance, handling and inland shipping can add 17 to 33 days to the total shipping time from most emerging market regions, and another 6 days once goods reach the United States.

https://acetool.commerce.gov/shipping

 

[Overmind One]

1- ALL of eurasia-manufacturers and workers
2-north american consumers who will no longer have to pay american port fees assessed on every container via ship
3-north american consumers again. they could order items straight from china and instead of waiting the current long time, could have it within a week of it being on the train*. this would also cut out destination middle men and their fees

*The average travel time for a container vessel from Asia to the U.S. is between two weeks and a month. Documentation, customs clearance, handling and inland shipping can add 17 to 33 days to the total shipping time from most emerging market regions, and another 6 days once goods reach the United States.

https://acetool.commerce.gov/shipping

Come again? Let's go into your list more in detail:

1- ALL of eurasia-manufacturers and workers

Please qualify this. How is a tunnel going from Siberia to Alaska going to benefit ANY worker in the lower 49?

2-north american consumers who will no longer have to pay american port fees assessed on every container via ship

This will not be passed on to the consumer. It will be treated as a wider profit margin. Show me where this has not been the case. People using the tunnel will be paying fees to use it.

3-north american consumers again. they could order items straight from china and instead of waiting the current long time, could have it within a week of it being on the train*. this would also cut out destination middle men and their fees

Please qualify this too. The items from China will not take any less time to get here than by plane, and probably not as fast. There is no such thing as a train which can beat a flight from Hong Kong to say...Moscow. Let alone Hong Kong to Los Angeles.

You are advocating for this tunnel and you do not know much about it. Why? How will it benefit you directly?

 

[PussyGalore]

When I ordered a phone protector I got it in a couple days. It came from China.

When I order prescription eyeglasses I get them in exactly 1 week. They come from China.

No, these things were not warehoused here in the US. They literally came across the ocean from China. I don't know if it was by container ship or by air (I suspect air) but regardless, I didn't have to wait longer than a week for my merchandise.

Again, the logical answer to improving the speed of merchandise distribution would be to create high-speed container and passenger ships. Remember the dictum: the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. The ocean is perfect for going in straight lines.

I think Joelist would be the best one to opine on the feasibility of such things as "high-speed container shipping" because he clearly has a working knowledge of ships.

 

[Overmind One]

When I ordered a phone protector I got it in a couple days. It came from China.

When I order prescription eyeglasses I get them in exactly 1 week. They come from China.

No, these things were not warehoused here in the US. They literally came across the ocean from China. I don't know if it was by container ship or by air (I suspect air) but regardless, I didn't have to wait longer than a week for my merchandise.

Again, the logical answer to improving the speed of merchandise distribution would be to create high-speed container and passenger ships. Remember the dictum: the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. The ocean is perfect for going in straight lines.

I think Joelist would be the best one to opine on the feasibility of such things as "high-speed container shipping" because he clearly has a working knowledge of ships.

My ENTIRE vape collection was ordered from Fasttech which is in China. I got my merch in a week, like you did. I also ordered a sheepskin rug from China, and got that in a week. I even drop shipped a vape kit to former GateFans member GateFan76 in Australia, and he got it in LESS than a week. Sometimes, even Amazon can't send me my shit that fast. How is some bazillion-dollar tunnel gonna benefit me? Build a free tunnel from California to Hawaii, and then we can talk!