Bering Strait tunnel: pipe dream or game-changer for US-Russia-China ties?

Now that a US-Canada rail line has been approved, there are fresh hopes that a link can finally be built across the icy 85km strait

Detractors point to its huge potential cost, but backers see potential for a global shipping nexus and a new era of international cooperation

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Icebergs in the open waters of Norton Sound, an inlet of the The Bering Sea in Alaska. Photo: AP

Published: 3:00pm, 4 Oct 2020Updated: 3:58pm, 4 Oct 2020

When US President Donald Trump bestowed his approval on a new US$22 billion, 2,400km railway between the United States and Canada last month, it brought a glimmer of hope to an even bigger and bolder infrastructure project.

The idea of joining up the far east of Russia with the far north of the US – either by tunnel or bridge – has been tantalising engineers, entrepreneurs and downright dreamers since the end of the 19th century.

More recently, in the 1960s, Chinese-American structural engineer Tung Yen Lin drew up detailed plans for an “Intercontinental Peace Bridge” across the Bering Strait, which he envisioned as a symbol of international cooperation as well as an important trade route.

The Trump-approved Alaska to Alberta, or A2A, rail project is being hailed as an important link in the chain across the apex of the Pacific Rim, one that could eventually spawn a vast transport network connecting Asia directly with the Americas, through the strait.

Fyodor Soloview, founder of Anchorage-based InterBering, a private company dedicated to lobbying for the link, said there was a “significant body of interest, both Russian and American, in building a Bering Strait link”, before adding that he thought the “the main beneficiary would be China – the main global shipper of products – and its vast railway network”.

While the link would augment China’s Belt and Road global infrastructure initiative, prompting concerns from the US – which is involved in a trade battle with China and views the Belt and Road Initiative as a leveraged power play – its potential long-term benefits would most likely be seen by all concerned parties as an eventual boon for trade relations. Russia, especially, is intent on building its trade with China.

“The project’s a long way from breaking ground, but the announcement about A2A is a great step forward,” Soloview said.

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