A Bridge to Somewhere

Architects conceptualize an audacious tunnel crossing the Bering Strait

By Susannah F. Locke Posted 08.12.2009 at 5:24 pm 6 Comments

Under the Sea Hey, why not incorporate some hotel suites? OFF

The goal of the The Bering Strait Project’s International Ideas Competition this summer was to design a bridge or tunnel to connect Alaska to Russia. The purpose of the whole experiment? To bring different cultures together and to increase access to natural resources (Drill, baby, drill?).

The results, despite the seemingly outdated detente-ish rationale, were pretty fantastic.

If you’ll recall, once upon a time a land bridge connected Asia to North America, which humans and other species used to cross over into the Americas. The Bering Strait is about 53 miles across, with a handful of islands dotting it. No small task for a bridge or tunnel, but it can’t stop an architect from dreaming.

OFF Architecture, based in Paris, designed a semi-transparent underwater tunnel for people with a bridge on the surface for cars and trains. The people who live and do environmental research in the tunnel/bridge/island would get power from turbines that capture ocean currents and keep warm with geothermal tech. The architects say that their design would help protect Arctic ice from melting because it would keep warm currents away, but I don’t know if that idea holds any water (ha!). There are probably some polar critters that need those warm currents.

PS: First prize ($55,000) went to these other dudes and their more practical enhanced archipelago.

Click here for more images of OFF's audacious tunnel.

[Via Inhabitat]

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6 Comments

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IanQuino

08/12/09 at 9:09 pm

really cool.

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extremechiton

08/13/09 at 1:06 am

i hope the bridge wont collapse during earthquakes or continental shifts.

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jsnickle

from Frisco, tx

08/13/09 at 11:30 am

The link to view the photo gallery and to see "OFF's audacious tunnel" lead to pages that say access denied. Can you pleae fix these?

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sabosman1985

08/13/09 at 4:52 pm

money, people! money! has anyone asked who the banker is here? yeah sure the idea is great but the finances behind this would have to be tremendous why naot spend that money on something more worthwhile?

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BobStuart

08/14/09 at 9:01 am

Does the Bering Strait even have a ferry service? This link would probably need thousands of miles of road upgrades, and is still too far from the market routes to compete with freighters.

Bob Stuart

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Silver_T_Rader

09/20/12 at 8:48 am

The big deal about this is to provide a near-superconductor electrical grid from North America to Russia.
Russia electrical generator systems are a huge ecologoical problem. There is no money to fix them all.
The US has the most advanced, cost-effective, green systems. The US systems are idle at night when Russia has peak demand.
The US can sell Russia about 1/3 Trillion USD of electricty with virtually 5% more cost. It actually cost to turn off turbines or allow wind power to go nowhere at nighttime.

The project could have a 27 month ROI once finished.
Not to mention, rail service, natural gas service and other services.