Bering Strait Crossing - Economic Costs

Economic Costs

In 1994, Lin estimated the cost of a bridge to be "a few billion" dollars. The roads and railways on each side were estimated to cost $50 billion. Lin contrasted this cost to petroleum resources "worth trillions". Discovery Channel's Extreme Engineering estimates the cost of a highway, electrified double track high-speed rail and pipelines, at $105 billion, five times the cost of the 50-kilometre (31 mi) Channel Tunnel.

This excludes the cost of new roads and railways to reach the bridge. Aside from the obvious technical challenges of building two 40-kilometre (25 mi) bridges or a more than 80-kilometre (50 mi) tunnel across the strait, another major challenge is that, as of 2011, there is nothing on either side of the Bering Strait to connect the bridge to.

The Russian side, in particular, is severely lacking in infrastructure, without any highways for almost 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) and no railroads or paved highways for over 3,200 kilometres (2,000 mi) in any direction from the strait.

On the American side, at least 800 kilometres (500 mi) of highways or railways would have to be constructed in order to connect to the American transport network. A project to connect Nome (just 100 miles (160 km) from the strait) to the rest of the continent by a paved highway has been proposed by the Alaskan state government, although the very high cost ($2.3 to $2.7 billion, or approximately $5 million per mile) has so far prevented construction.