>Last week I was groggily making breakfast and checking UT messages and watching TV... I turned around to see the end of a story, last frame showed what appeared to be a highway from Russia (Siberia) through Alaska to Price Ruper British Columbia (Canada). What?!?!

1) Did I see this correctly, someone is planning to make a tunnel and highway? This could disrupt international shipping. This would be a boon for Northern Canada.

2) Are there any international highways in the Bering Straight part of Siberia that this highway could connect into?

3) Could this be a feasible transport route from Asia/Europe to North America.

Evan;

Somehow reminds me of an incident at NASA in the early 1970’s. A manager had two eager engineers and did not know how to keep them busy. So, he devised a “joke” and called the two men into his office. His instructions were: “Design a tunnel to the Moon, and devise a plan to build it”! Six months later, the two engineers appeared back at the managers office with an actual plan, including budget and time line. This may seem like a joke but it was not. That is what I get from having worked in Aerospace as an engineer – we thought we could do anything and the hell with social consequences or cost. In those days NASA projects paid cost plus 10% profit – so the more you spent the more you made as a profit. Great system and we put men on the moon – but we did not use a tunnel.

Contracts were assigned to “the lowest bidder”. We would say: “Would you want to go to the Moon in a vehicle built by the lowest bidder”?

One of the standard procedures to assure receiving a contract was to under bid and get into the project and "cry" for more funds.

If a highway was built from Russia (Siberia) through Alaska, who would collect the toll? A bit of that 190 proof Siberian Vodka would help the toll taker.

Tom