hell, I'd drive it - they'd have to put about 30,000 more Loves Truck Stops around Siberia though.

Quite a long ways around.

HOV?

That would be some bridge they would need to get across the Bering Strait.

Bill Quimby

open May thru September

I wonder if there will be a Golden Dragon initiation?

built by mesicans

NO!

History Channel would just make a really boring, drama queen show about it - with Russian accents, no less.

if russia wants to take over the world....they can use their navy and airforce.....

Back when Wally Hickel was Governor of Alaska, he tried to get a railroad built from Fairbanks to Nome. The cost at that time was going to be over $5 million per mile for a single track. That's a shade over 400 miles, going the most direct route.

Between the Alaska Natives yelling "NIMBY!", the unions demanding that they control the job, and the enviro whack-jobs, it went nowhere.

This will go just as far.

Ed

I want the Pizza Hut franchise.

think it would take 11 million of 'em?

Bering Strait tunnel, no bridge.

Too many Ruskies here now.

Who's going to plow all that snow above the 45th parallel? I be the north sea bridge will be exciting too.

You got that right, Ed.

If you look at the history of building the Al-Can Highway you quickly realize that the only way that it got done was that all of North America was still thinking/acting like they'd done through the WW2 years... personal sacrifice, setting aside of minor differences to get the job done, and damn the expense (in both money and human lives). It'd never be possible in today's politico-economic environment.

Doc-
The Alcan was built at the beginning of WWII and was completer in 1942.

FWIW and reference.

Well, Putin might fix those problems for us...

I'm putting in a bid to salt the offramps.

Except that completion didn't include actual pavement until much much later.

This road/rail/ bridge chit has been around for years ,their are TV documentary's ,surveys, all kinds of info at the university and in our capital.... about this stuff (up here at least) ...funny how old news is news to the new media kids!

Much, MUCH later! I've traveled the AlCan seven times now, three times as a driver. The first two times in the 60's, the ONLY pavement was about a one mile stretch at Whitehorse, YT.

The last time I drove it, July '06, the only gravel sections were two road construction zones in BC, one for about five miles, the other about ten miles long.

At times, that old gravel road, treated with Calcium Chloride, was smoother and more pleasant to drive on than some of the pavement and a whole lot easier to maintain. Of course, the "shot rock" they used on most places was sharp as razors and would wear out tires at a crazy rate.

BTW, the AlCan (now called the Alaska Highway) was built primarily by the U.S. Army with assistance from the Canadian army in BC. It was built by two Engineer Battalions, one all white which started at Dawson Creek, BC, and an all-black Battalion which started from Tok, AK. Much like the trans-continental railway, they met in the middle.
You have to go up and see the terrain for yourself to appreciate what a monumental task those men (and women in support roles) did in just a few months.

Ed

i will need the extra large piss jug for that trip

I have traveled on Russian roads. Just like everything else in that schithole they suck.

mike r

I guess there are different concepts of "complete". I haven't driven it in a few years, though I've been over it a bunch.

In some parts they should stay with chip-seal and avoid pavement. Gravel is even easier to run a grader blade over.

My uncle was a combat engineer. He spent the 1st half of the war building that road. They shipped him to Europe just in time for the Battle of the Bulge.
It was built because of the Japs keeping house in the Aleutians. We needed some way to get equipment and men to AK in case they started making a push north.

Don't think that they haven't considered it. There are ice roads built and maintained every winter across Siberia, It's no big stretch for them to consider coming across.

Ed

Just the thing for an invasion force.

Dibs on two SUBWAY's on both sides of the Bering Strait bridge.

What, maybe 3 of them?

That's why the MiG is so tough. It was designed knowing the Russians produce inferior concrete.

The Idea been around for a long time, its a straight forward engineering job, it could be done all you need is three things the Will to do so a boat load of money and time, it would take a good thirty years to do, maybe longer! Not just a road for Cars and trucks but also for Rail, ( the Russians use a different gauge) and an oil and gas pipe line! Winter travel thru most of it would be how should I say interesting! And then besides the construction costs, the costs of keeping the whole thing in good repair! And all the other things you would need to make it work, fuel stations, places to eat, hotels and motels- repair garages, and finally for us English speakers- there is Russian one of the hardest languages in the world to learn, then there is institutional paranoia of the Russians, the Idea of freedom of movement is fairly new to them! It would be a job creator thou! As it is the traffic on the Alaska Highway even in Season if pretty light considering and long distances between fuel stops in some places, just think you are in your car, just fueled up and the next fuel stop is 200 miles away, its 65 deg below zero and other than you on the road not a soul around-makes for a boring dash cam video, never mind about keeping a car running and yourself warm enough! It would end up a seasonal road, like some of the roads in the Yukon, and in the end it would be to expensive to construct for that very reason! In other words not in our or children or grandchildren's life times!