InterBering, LLC

https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/rivers-oceans/building-a-massive-dam-between-alaska-and-russia-could-prevent-amoc-collapse-scientists-say

Building a massive dam between Alaska and Russia could prevent AMOC collapse, scientists say Building a dam in the Bering Strait might preserve the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, but experts warn it could also threaten wildlife, Indigenous people and shipping — and could actually speed up its demise.

China's deepest undersea high-speed railway tunnel has reached a record excavation depth of 113 meters beneath the seabed, marking a major milestone in the construction of the Shenzhen-Jiangmen High-Speed Railway.

Located at the Pearl River Estuary in south China, the 13.69-km tunnel is a key project of the 116-km rail line, which is expected to cut the travel time between the two cities to within one hour.

During construction of the Jintang subsea tunnel on the Ningbo-Zhoushan Railway, China deployed its self-developed saturation pressurized tunnel boring machine (TBM) system, known as the "deep-sea space station."

On February 6, the system completed its first 75-meter-deep high-pressure TBM intervention on the Ningbo side. It operated continuously for 22 days and replaced 46 cutters, surpassing the traditional 60-meter safe depth limit for pressurized intervention.

The Jintang subsea tunnel is 16.18 kilometers long, including an 11.21 km subsea TBM section. Construction involves 24 transitions between soft and hard strata, with problematic ground accounting for nearly 70 percent.

Maximum rock strength reaches 191 MPa, more than six times that of ordinary concrete. Maximum burial depth is 78 meters, with peak water-soil pressure of 8.5 bar. The Yongzhou TBM is equipped with 308 cutters, including 30 percent more rock-breaking disc cutters than standard configurations. More than 2,900 cutters have been replaced so far.

Conventional compressed-air TBM intervention is typically limited to depths under 60 meters. Under high pressure, effective working time is about 40 minutes per day, while decompression requires more than four hours. Workers also face increased risks of nitrogen narcosis, oxygen toxicity and decompression sickness, making frequent deep-sea cutter replacement impractical.

Developed over three years, the system integrates saturation diving technology with TBM construction. Workers reach gas saturation after a single compression and can remain and work continuously at the same depth, with fixed decompression time. The system includes living, transfer and control modules, allowing personnel to stay long-term under seabed-equivalent pressure and travel to the TBM face for maintenance and cutter replacement.

Core subsystems, including pressure control, gas management and emergency support, are domestically produced. Maximum saturation operation depth can reach 100 meters. The Yongzhou TBM has advanced more than 3,000 meters, completing over 60 percent of tunneling work, with seabed breakthrough expected within the year.

China's 'deep-sea space station' debuts after 3-year R&D During construction of the Jintang subsea tunnel on the Ningbo-Zhoushan Railway, China deployed its self-developed saturation pressurized tunnel boring machine (TBM) system, known as the "deep-sea space station."On February 6, the system completed its

🚆 Yakutia Begins Route Planning for New Railway to Magadan
📅 May 13, 2025

Specialists from Yakutia have begun refining the route for the first stage of a long-planned railway to Magadan — a massive infrastructure project now gaining traction.

According to the state-owned company Railways of Yakutia, construction is planned in three phases:
1️⃣ From Nizhny Bestyakh to Khandyga, including a combined rail and road bridge over the Aldan River
2️⃣ From Khandyga to Susuman
3️⃣ Finally, a segment from Susuman to Magadan, the capital of the Kolyma region

The total planned length of the railway is over 1,600 kilometers.

📍 The Aldan bridge will be the largest engineering structure on this new route — estimated to stretch around 3 km.

This ambitious plan has drawn the attention of major players — most notably, the national infrastructure group Naцпроектстрой (National Project Construction Group). Company representatives have expressed strong interest and agreed to collaborate on promoting the project.

🔧 Background:
Naцпроектстрой is one of Russia’s largest full-cycle infrastructure holdings. The group brings together leading companies specializing in the development of road, rail, port, and energy infrastructure.

Their track record includes:
✔️ Modernizing the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) and Trans-Siberian Railway
✔️ Expanding the Moscow Transport Hub
✔️ Building high-speed highways M-11 (Moscow–St. Petersburg) and M-12 Vostok
✔️ And many more landmark projects

📰 Source: MagadanMedia https://magadanmedia.ru/news/2076988/

Трассу для первого этапа железной дороги в Магадан уточняют якутские специалисты - MagadanMedia.ru Железные дороги Якутии приступили к определению более точной трассы первого этапа ж/д линии в Магадан. Строительство объекта поделили на три стадии: от Нижнего Бес...

In Yakutia, Construction Prepares to Enter Active Phase on the Lena River Bridge
Author: Maria Kuznetsova, Russian Gazette Internet Portal, April 8, 2025

By the end of 2028, a major automobile bridge is expected to connect the banks of the mighty Siberian Lena River. A project of this magnitude has never before been attempted under such complex geological, hydrological, and seismic conditions anywhere in the world. Construction began a few years ago, and this summer, work will extend into the river channel itself. Much needs to be accomplished within Yakutia’s extremely short construction season — only about four months long.

A Vital Lifeline

The importance of the Lena River Bridge cannot be overstated. The river splits the region into western and eastern parts. The city of Yakutsk and its airport are located on the left bank, while the Nizhny Bestyakh railway station lies on the right. In summer, ferries connect the two; in winter, a temporary ice road forms. For five to six months each year, many residents are left without stable land access to "mainland" Russia.

“People often have to wait up to four hours for a ferry just to travel from Yakutsk to the railway station,” said Gadzhimagomed Guseynov, First Deputy Minister for the Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic, at the press conference “Russia’s New Transport Corridor: Building the Lena Bridge.”
“The bridge will not only improve daily life but also unlock new economic opportunities by facilitating mining and exploration projects that were previously deemed economically unfeasible due to lack of infrastructure,” he added.

The bridge will connect federal highways "Lena" and "Kolyma" with "Vilyuy," ensuring year-round road access from Novosibirsk to Magadan and cutting travel distance by 905 kilometers (about 562 miles). Current freight delivery methods require a complex multimodal system, which drives up the cost of supplies to the remote North.

According to Guseynov, building the bridge could reduce annual freight costs by more than 5 billion rubles (over $50 million), with consumer goods prices in many settlements dropping by up to 10%.

On a global scale, the Lena Bridge will link the Trans-Siberian and Baikal-Amur Mainline railways to the Northern Sea Route, creating a major transportation and logistics hub combining rail, river, aviation, and regional highways. It will also open access to the broader Asia-Pacific market.

Massive Undertaking

The project has been included in all major federal and regional development strategies. In 2020, a concession agreement was signed that led to project design and construction launch. The concessionaire is VIS Group, and the financial partner providing loans is Sberbank. The project's expected socio-economic return is projected to exceed the initial investment by 1.6 times.

The first bored pile foundation for the Lena Bridge was completed with concrete in October 2024 near the village of Tabaga, Yakutsk District. Piling work continues on both banks and was only paused during severe cold snaps (below -37°C / -34°F). Foundations for the first three bridge supports on the left bank have already been completed, using a total of 71 piles. On the right bank, the first four piles have been set. Today, 216 workers are active on site, one-third of them local Yakutians, supported by concrete plants built on both sides of the river.

In 2025 alone, more than 300 additional piles will be installed, with a total of 920 piles planned. Assembly and installation of the first cofferdam — a watertight structure allowing construction inside the river despite strong currents, ice, and floods — will also take place. Three floating cofferdams weighing between 1,700 and 2,800 tons and over 17 meters tall have already been fabricated in Tyumen and delivered to the site.

Ready for the Challenge

Construction will intensify in mid-May or early June, depending on river conditions. Key works in the river must be completed by early September to avoid seasonal flooding. Plans for 2025 include laying foundations for the first four bridge piers, starting embankments for the right-bank highway approach, and completing the rerouting of the Tamma River and East Khatagaya Channel.

Plans to bridge the Lena near Yakutsk date back to the early 1980s, during the development of the Amur-Yakutsk Railway. However, the immense cost and extreme environmental challenges — permafrost, seismic risks up to magnitude 7, and severe ice movement — led to repeated postponements.

Today, the Lena Bridge is viewed as an irreplaceable element of Russia’s Far Eastern development. Modern technologies and experience gained from projects like the Crimean Bridge and Russky Island Bridge in Vladivostok have made what was once a dream possible.

Officials call it the most challenging infrastructure project ever undertaken in the Russian Far East. The Lena River ranks among the ten largest rivers in the world and matches the Amazon in terms of discharge. With swift currents and shifting channels, it poses significant engineering challenges.

To minimize ice jams and flooding, the bridge’s design uses a cable-stayed structure with exceptionally long spans — 840 meters (about 2,756 feet) between piers — one of the longest in the world for a river of this size.

The site near Tabaga was selected because it offers the narrowest and most stable section of the riverbed.

Russia’s Ministry of Transport describes the Lena Bridge as "unique." While similar cable-stayed bridges have been built across the Bosphorus East Strait and Golden Horn Bay in Vladivostok, none have been constructed under Arctic-like conditions.

The bridge will be a two-lane highway with a capacity of 5,300 vehicles per day. Including access roads, its total length will be 14.5 kilometers (about 9 miles). The river span itself will be 2.5 kilometers long (1.5 miles), and the width of the bridge deck will be 16.6 meters (about 54 feet). The central pylon will rise to 285 meters (935 feet), nearly the height of the Eiffel Tower (excluding its antenna). Piles under the bridge supports will be up to 40 meters deep.

The bridge will be toll-free for passenger vehicles but tolled for trucks. Officials hope it will also attract tourism: a landmark like the "Eiffel Tower on the Lena" could bring a major boost to Yakutia’s tourism industry, made easier by the first-ever direct highway connection between Yakutsk’s airport and the railway station.

Dreams can indeed come true, even if they require a wait of 26 years!

As I perused the latest edition of the Anchorage Daily News (https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2024/03/22/major-projects-would-reconnect-the-seward-and-glenn-highways-but-a-smaller-idea-has-traction/), a surge of joy swept over me. It was an exhilarating moment to learn that a proposal I advocated for 26 years ago, aiming to merge the New Seward Hwy and Glenn Hwy into a unified freeway passing through Merrill Field Airport and Sitka Park in Anchorage, had finally been reviewed and chosen as a leading solution to address our city's transportation challenges.

This development holds immense significance, particularly for Downtown Anchorage, which will be shielded from the burden of increased traffic flow, thereby preserving the livelihoods of its residents.

Funding for this crucial project will be sourced from federal government allocations, in line with a national initiative aimed at improving the nation's major highway network.

In Alaska, only two federal highways exist: the Glenn Hwy and the New Seward Hwy, collectively known as Alaska Route 1 (AK-1). Despite their significance, they have remained disconnected by uninterrupted traffic. Over the years, the critical question of where and how to link these highways within the city has undergone extensive scrutiny. Typically, such decisions are made following thorough public discourse in Anchorage and consultation with the state's transportation department. However, a final decision is yet to be made.

Looking back at the 1990s, Anchorage struggled with escalating traffic congestion amid a growing population and the aftermath of the late 1980s financial crisis. However, the city's budget limitations restricted its ability to build new roads. Undeterred, Mayor Mark Begich sought to address at least one transportation bottleneck using city funds—namely, the expansion of the Lake Otis and Tudor Road intersection. While a solution akin to tunneling under Tudor Road, as could be done in larger cities like New York City, was financially unfeasible for Anchorage, Mayor Begich managed to expand Tudor Road, albeit through a harsh method involving the eviction of residents from a building housing the laundromat of an elderly African American man.

The ensuing debates surrounding this proposal ignited fervent discussions across the city, with numerous residents voicing their opinions through letters to the Anchorage Daily News editorial office. Inspired by this discourse, I too ventured to envisage our city's future through a more progressive lens. It became evident to me that for a holistic resolution to the traffic congestion issue at hand, a direct connection between the two city highways—the New Seward Hwy and the Glenn Hwy—was imperative. This alignment would redirect a significant portion of traffic, easing congestion on Tudor Road.

While similar ideas had surfaced, they predominantly revolved around a single project—a plan that, in my view, was fundamentally flawed. This proposal entailed excavating an extensive tunnel beneath Downtown along Fifth Avenue to link the Glenn Hwy with Ingra Street, stretching from Merrill Field Airport. Such a scheme, from its inception, appeared inadequate as it failed to introduce new road infrastructure to the city. Given the availability of substantial government funds, I advocated for the creation of entirely new expressways, thereby enriching the city's transportation network, instead of repurposing established streets in residential areas into makeshift highways.

Any proposal to link highways through Downtown, which continues to be under consideration, poses a significant challenge. Such a plan would inundate Downtown with heavy traffic, isolating homes and impeding pedestrian access, thereby undermining its status as a premier tourist destination. Residents of the Downtown area, known as Fairview, have vehemently opposed this plan from its inception and continue to resist it. Despite their objections, planners seem to have disregarded alternative solutions explored in past decades.

Furthermore, it appears that Anchorage authorities sought, with federal assistance, to address a host of urban development issues in the surrounding Downtown area. The construction of such a massive infrastructure project would undoubtedly bring about a transformation of the entire vicinity surrounding the interchange.

Hence, since the 1990s, only one option has been consistently proposed—to connect these two highways in Downtown at an almost 90-degree angle—a questionable project that contradicts the essence of any highway, as it hampers vehicle travel at maximum speeds of 65 miles per hour.

Therefore, as someone who grew up in the world's largest city (I arrived in Anchorage at the age of 29), I scrutinized the city map, already familiar to me from countless walks, and envisioned a glaringly obvious alternative to a Downtown tunnel. I couldn't contain my revelation and promptly penned a letter to this newspaper. Titled "Joining Highways is the Answer," it was swiftly published on January 8, 1998.

In my letter, I advocated for the construction of a diagonal freeway—a brand-new expressway—traversing undeveloped areas of the city. It would commence with an interchange near Northway Mall, seamlessly connecting with Glenn Hwy. The freeway would then traverse the outskirts of Merrill Field, the small municipal airport, before gracefully merging, at a slight angle, with the New Seward Hwy.

Regrettably, over the past two decades, despite ongoing appeals and debates, including the establishment of the city's research project H2H, no progress has been made. Anchorage's traffic congestion continues to worsen. Nevertheless, there have been strides in other projects—a diagonal bridge linking Dowling Road to Raspberry Road over Arctic Blvd, a robust two-tier interchange at the intersection of New Seward Hwy and 76th Ave, widening of sections of the New Seward Hwy, and the creation of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, running parallel to Tudor Road.

And now, we must hold onto hope that after final public discussions, a historic decision will be reached regarding the project to unite the two city highways into a single high-speed freeway. These projects are currently open for public discussion, and residents are encouraged to review and express their opinions on the website https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/5d1f194bea75497a8e31ea6f1c53e8ff?cover=false, where details of all options can be found on the page https://sewardglennconnection.com/documents/Alternative%20Report_020624.pdf.

The project I proposed in the newspaper 26 years ago, to construct a new freeway through Merrill Field Airport and a viaduct over Sitka Park, is now presented for the first time under the name "Alternative Number D."

Additionally, there is a "simplified" version, although not the most favorable one—to forego the viaduct and route a portion of the freeway along 15th Avenue, referred to as "Alternative C." It's hardly worthy of serious consideration.

Among the descriptions of the four main projects, there is still an option to create a tunnel connection through Downtown, involving a 90-degree turn from 5th Avenue onto the narrow Hyder Street (between Gambell and Ingra).

The mere idea of Fifth Avenue being closed for tunnel construction underneath it for several years fills me with dread.

"My" option—number "D"—represents the optimal solution for connecting the highways. I urge you to vote for it, and all the pertinent details can be found on the designated websites.

I envision those individuals who read my note 26 years ago—perhaps they were still students, studying construction disciplines at universities, or just embarking on careers within the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF). For decades, they, too, have contemplated a similar option. Our thoughts were aligned! Now, as the time has come to make a final decision, many of them have likely ascended to prominent positions within the DOT. It is thanks to them that this project has been added to the list of potential alternatives, and undoubtedly, they are advocating for its adoption! I feel a sense of connection with you, my friends!

One intriguing aspect of creating a new freeway through Merrill Field Airport is that this airport was established on the site of a city landfill. To lay the road surface for the freeway, excavation of this landfill will be necessary, with some of the waste needing to be removed. This presents a fascinating endeavor, as this landfill is not merely rubbish but a repository of the city's artifacts—everything discarded from the founding of Anchorage in 1914 until the landfill's closure in 1930. In essence, the waste has been resting here for over 100 years! Surely, the builders will stumble upon unexpected discoveries.

https://www.trains.com/trn/railroads/history/five-mind-blowing-facts-alaska-railroad/

Five mind-blowing facts — Alaska Railroad - Trains U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward must have thought he was making the real estate deal of a lifetime — 600,000 square miles for a cost of less than two cents an acre. That is the price Seward negotiated with Edouard de Stoecki, Russian minister to the U.S., for the purchase of what would b...

https://tunnelingonline.com/whats-new-in-tunnel-boring-machine-technology/

What's New in Tunnel Boring Machine Technology? Tunnel boring machinery has undergone rapid innovation over the past few years. Needs for affordability, reliability, precision and more are rising, and technology holds the answers.