Alaska Beat

Russian official revives talk of Bering Strait-linked global superhighway

The idea of a highway linking Alaska and Russia across the Bering Strait is being resurrected again -- this time by Russian Railways head Vladimir Yakunin, according to a report from CNN.

Yakunin described the road to Siberian Times as part of a larger rail project connecting the existing Trans-Siberian Railway to points further north and east in Russia, and eventually, by way of the Bering Strait, to Alaska -- though no details were provided about a potential tunnel system to cross the strait.

This isn't the first time the idea's been floated.

An Anchorage businessman touted a $30 billion scheme (and that was just in the cost of the tunnel) in 2012.

A year earlier, the idea had even more traction after the Kremlin gave its blessing to a $99 billion project that included a Bering Strait crossing.

Further back, the idea was among the many megaprojects advocated by Alaska Governor and U.S. Interior Secretary Wally Hickel -- and even originated, according to many accounts, more than a century ago, with Nicholas II, the last Russian emperor.

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