Russia just unveiled plans for a super highway connecting Europe, Asia and North America

By Ryan Kilpatrick, March 27, 2015

Russian Railways president Vladimir Yakunin recently unveiled an ambitious new scheme at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The Trans-Eurasian Belt Development (TEPR) would run across the entire length of Russia, connecting road systems in western Europe and North America via the Bering Strait.

However, it was not explained just how exactly the narrow stretch of ocean separating Russia from the US state of Alaska would be traversed.

At 85 kilometers wide, building a bridge or tunnel across the Bering Strait would be a huge engineering feat. Presently, the longest sea bridge in the world, China's Jiaozhou Bay Bridge, is just 26.7 kilometers long; the Seikan Tunnel in Japan, the longest undersea tunnel in the world, is 53.85 kilometers long.

Although it's wider that the Tsugaru Strait between Honshu and Hokkaido, however, the Bering Strait is at least shallower: just 90 meters at its deepest, compared to the Tsungaru's 140 meters.

The proposed super highway would run alongside the Trans-Siberian Express, which Russia is already planning on upgrading to highspeed level with Chinese help. The TEPR would reportedly cost "trillions of dollars."

It might all sound a bit pie-in-the-sky, but some sources have speculated that Yakunin, described as a close fiend of Russian president Vladimir Putin, could even succeed Putin at the helm of the country.

In May last year, Wang Mengshu, a tunnel and railway expert at the China Academy of Engineering, announced that China was planning to build 13,000-kilometer railway line would go from China's northeast all the way to the US via Russia and Canada. Like the Russian-proposed highway, trains would also make the leap from Asia to North America via the Bering Strait.

With best buds Russia and China both apparently gung-ho about the same idea, it could just come to fruition. The ultimate roadtrip may become a reality in the not-so-distant future (pending US and Canadian support).

[Image via CNN]