Transcontinental Superhighway Linking New York & London Proposed By Russia

A transcontinental “superhighway” linking London to New York City by way of Russia and Alaska was recently proposed by Russian Railways executive Vladimir Yakunin, according to reports.

The proposed “superhighway” would at first begin as a highway bridge between Russia and Alaska (maybe Sarah Palin was right 🙂 ), and later be expanded to run all the way to London. Interestingly, the idea is for the highway to run alongside the already existing Trans-Siberian Railway — potentially cutting down on development costs, via the use of existing roads.

The proposal — known as the Trans-Eurasian Belt Development (TEPR) — would require, it should be realized, a 55 mile long (or longer) highway bridge. And the bridge would be traveling across some rather rough seas…

Certainly an interesting idea — but not one that’ll be easy to realize.

Motor Authority provides more:

About 520 miles separates the closet settlement to Russia—Nome—from the nearest major city, Fairbanks. From there, drivers could connect to an existing road network to Canada and the Lower 48 states.

CNN estimates that a driver from London to New York via the TEPR would encompass 12,910 miles. Hopefully the Russian authorities will build plenty of rest stops along the way. Aside from its grueling length, there’s also the question of how this huge project will be funded. The TEPR would reportedly cost “trillions of dollars,” but Yakunin is apparently a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and could potentially use that influence to get the project rolling.

With regard to rest stops, maybe these (proposed) rest stops could feature electric vehicle (EV) charging stations? 🙂

Worth noting here is that a high-speed rail line traveling a similar route has also been proposed. To my mind, that would probably be a far better idea than a highway — though if one ignores the issue of costs, they could certainly be supplementary.