It is not only possible, but also necessary to be proud of the glory of your ancestors; don't respect her
shameful indifference.
A.S. Pushkin
THIS IS HOW BAM STARTED.
From Tsarist Russia, the USSR got Railway from Moscow to Vladivostok. The highway was built with funds from the treasury. In the USSR, its name became firmly established as the “Trans-Siberian Railway” (Transsib). IN Russian Empire it had another name "Great Siberian Way". Its length is 9288.2 kilometers - it is the longest railway in the world.
In 1930, Far Eastern regional organizations developed and sent to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR a proposal for the design and construction of Eastern Siberia and in the Far East the second railway line with access to the Pacific Ocean. It was proposed to lay the route from one of the stations, west of Baikal, through the northern tip of the lake towards Sovetskaya Gavan. In this document, which took into account the preliminary developments of both Irkutsk and Khabarovsk designers, the future railway was for the first time called the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM).
In 1932, the BAM was considered to be the route from the Urusha railway station to the Trans-Baikal railway. d. - winter quarters Tynda - village. Perm (12/10/32 transformed into the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur) with a length of about 2000 kilometers. There was no final version of the railway route. Therefore, the length of the road was determined differently in different sources: from 1725 to 4000 km.
Design and survey work began at an accelerated pace.
Expeditions led by P.K. Tatarintsev, D.I. Dzhusem, A.P. Smirnov, began research on this 1000-kilometer section.
In 1933, at the BAM station (a small siding near the settlement of Skovorodino, built in 1932), the first meters of rails were laid in a northern direction towards the village of Tyndinsky.
In 1937, a decision was made to build a highway from Taishet to Sovetskaya Gavan. Laying of the track on the meridional lines began, which were supposed to connect the BAM with the Trans-Siberian Railway.
In 1940, train traffic was opened on the Izvestkovaya – Urgal section.
In 1941, with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War the already laid tracks were dismantled and used for the construction of the railway along the Volga.
In 1943 - 1945, the Komsomolsk-on-Amur – Sovetskaya Gavan railway was built.
In 1950 - 1959, the Taishet – Lena (Ust-Kut) road was built, which stimulated the intensive development of the area’s natural resources (energy, timber, iron ore, etc.). By the early 1960s, more than 1,150 of the 4,000 kilometers of the BAM route had been put into operation. The second meridional connection of the BAM with the Trans-Siberian Railway - the Izvestkovaya - Urgal highway - has come into operation. In 1973, the Vostochny port began operating in Wrangel Bay (Vanino), which became the “sea gate” of the BAM.
BAMA PIONEERS.
1974 is considered the year of the second birth of BAM: active construction of the highway began in many directions at once by Komsomol construction “landing forces” and units of the USSR Railway Troops. In 1972 - 1977, the BAM-Tynda road, dismantled in 1941, was restored - the third meridional connection of the BAM with the Trans-Siberian Railway. In 1976, the development of coking coals in southern Yakutia began; the first high-speed shipping line to Lake Baikal was opened, which connected the Trans-Siberian Railway with the city of Severobaikalsk, which was being built on the BAM. In 1979, construction of the eastern section of the BAM from Urgal to Komsomolsk-on-Amur was completed. In 1980 - 1981, the most important object of the BAM was built - a bridge across the river Vitim, one of the most difficult on the route. By January 1, 1983, more than 400 million had been completed on the construction of the BAM. cubic meters earthworks. 3,400 highway roads, 1,400 bridges and 1,800 culverts were built, and 2,260 km of main railway tracks were laid.
In January 1984, the first train formed in Tynda arrived in Moscow at the Yaroslavl station exactly on schedule.
On October 27, 1984, the so-called "golden link" connecting the route all the way from Taishet to Vanino.
BAM DAN. FIRST TRAINS.
In 1988, permanent traffic began at BAM (commissioning).
The construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline is on a par with such large-scale projects - (“constructions of socialism”), such as the construction of the Turkestan-Siberian Mainline (abbreviated Turksib, and the White Sea-Baltic Canal, the development of virgin lands in the 50s, the construction of the Sayano-Shushenskaya and Bratsk hydroelectric power station in the 60s, etc.
The Baikal-Amur Mainline passes through the territory of Eastern Siberia and Far East, connecting Novokuznetsk with the Pacific Ocean. It crosses the Irkutsk and Amur regions, Buryatia, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the Trans-Baikal Territory and the Khabarovsk Territory
BAM is the last of the “great construction projects of socialism.” This was one of the most controversial and paradoxical projects implemented in Soviet times. The railway, approximately 4,500 km long, was laid in one of the most difficult regions of the world to build, geologically and climatically. The route crosses eleven deep rivers and seven mountain ranges. More than 1000 km of the route were laid in areas of permafrost and high seismicity. Ten tunnels were made along the route, including the Severomuysky tunnel, 2,230 bridges were built, more than 200 railway stations and traveling.
BAM became the most expensive infrastructure project in the history of the USSR: its final cost was 17.7 billion rubles in 1991 prices, which was four times higher than the original estimate, and not all sections were put into operation. The construction of branches and modernization of the main course of the highway continues to this day.
Active construction of the BAM lasted about 15 years. Hundreds of thousands of builders from the USSR and other countries of the socialist camp (Poland, Bulgaria, East Germany) took part in it. The construction process subsequently received just as mixed reviews as its design.
A landmark event during construction was the “golden” docking at the Balbukhta crossing in the Kalarsky district of the Chita region (currently the Trans-Baikal Territory), which took place on September 29, 1984 at 10:05 Moscow time. The “golden” junction marked the meeting of the eastern and western segments of the highway, the meeting of two groups of builders who had been moving towards each other for 10 years. Later, a monument of glory dedicated to the builders of BAM was opened at this station.
By 1990, BAM reached its peak capacity.
By the early 1960s, more than 1,150 of the 4,000 kilometers of the BAM route had been put into operation. The second meridional connection of the BAM with the Trans-Siberian Railway has come into operation - the Izvestkovaya – Urgal route
In 1973, the Vostochny port began operating in Wrangel Bay (Vanino), which became the “sea gate” of the BAM.
Over the entire history of the construction of BAM, about 2 million people took part in it.
Between 1978 and 1990, 279 million tons of cargo were transported along the BAM, including 112.7 million tons of coal, 65.4 million tons of timber; 33 million passengers.
Since the late 80s, workers began to leave BAM. In the 90s, the exodus became widespread, everyone who had somewhere to go left. At BAM there are problems with the supply of consumer goods, prices and unemployment are rising. In 1997, BAM's freight capacity was limited to several trains per day. Since 1990, the population in the “BAM region” has decreased by approximately 30%.
Severomuysky tunnel
The Severomuysky tunnel on the Baikal-Amur Mainline is the longest tunnel in Russia and the fifth longest in the world. Its length is 15 km 343 m. According to the construction conditions, the tunnel has no analogues: permafrost, abundance of groundwater, scree, landslides, tectonic faults.
April 27, 2009 marked 35 years since the day when the first All-Union Komsomol shock detachment, a detachment named after the XVII Congress of the Komsomol, set off to build the Baikal-Amur Mainline. This day became the second birth of BAM - it marked the beginning of active construction of the highway in several directions at once.
Construction Features
Complex methods were used: along with the laying of railway lines, residential settlements were built, cultural centers, consumer service institutions, industrial enterprises were created.
Brigades from all the union republics worked on the construction, as well as detachments from Bulgaria, Hungary, Mongolia, etc. The eastern section was built by railroad soldiers.
During the construction of the roadbed, crushed stone for the first layer of ballast was delivered to areas located near the quarries by dump trucks before laying the track.
Ballasting was carried out immediately after laying the rail and sleeper grid, which made it possible to preserve the roadbed, increase train speeds and ensure the safe passage of heavy cranes and platforms with construction materials.
BAM tunnels were excavated in difficult engineering and geological conditions. The lack of a correct forecast of geological conditions required advanced exploration drilling.
Difficulties in tunneling, which delayed the construction of the route, necessitated the construction of bypasses, which ensured traffic while the tunnels were being dug.
The builders of BAM found a way to preserve permafrost soils using thermal piles (liquid cooling systems). Their action is based on the natural convection of a coolant solution that conducts heat well. Many road structures stand on thermal piles - multi-storey buildings, bridges, locomotive depots.
One of the difficulties during the construction of the BAM was associated with significant seismic activity in the regions where the route passes. Thus, on June 27, 1957, in the area of the northern spurs of the Udokan ridge, the Muya earthquake with a magnitude of 10–11 occurred, during which a system of cracks and faults with a total length of about 300 kilometers formed on the earth’s surface. Here river beds were shifted, new lakes appeared, and mountain slopes collapsed in places. This is the largest earthquake recorded in the former USSR.
Trunk meaning
Normalizing the operation of the highway along its entire length creates the basis for:
1. Large-scale economic development of the Far East and North of Russia;
2.Creating strong ties with the countries of the East (Japan, China, Korea);
3. Economic development of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.
BAM today
Currently, 8 trains pass along the BAM every day; transportation volumes amount to 8 million tons of cargo per year.
On December 4, 2003, the largest in Russia and the fifth longest on the planet, the North-Muysky railway tunnel with a length of 15 kilometers 343 meters was opened at BAM.
By 2015, it is planned to build 8 sidings, 2 low-power slides and 18 additional tracks at BAM; reconstruction of the Korshunovsky tunnel is also planned.
By 2015, freight traffic along BAMU is expected to increase by 2-2.5 times.
In April 1974, BAM was declared an all-Union shock Komsomol construction site, and masses of young people were sent here for internships.
During the ten years of construction of the BAM highway, a colossal amount of work was done; almost every year became a new milestone, a new frontier in mastering the difficulties of the northern road.
In January 1981 A new, then 32nd, railway began to operate - the Baikal-Amur. It included three operational departments - Tyndinsky, Urgalsky and Severobaikalsky, as well as the Directorate for the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline. At that time, 17.5 thousand railway workers of various professions worked on the road.
Over the years of construction of the highway, the words “The Baikal-Amur Mainline is being built by the whole country” have become familiar. Behind these words there are facts, the heroic work of the Soviet people.
Hundreds of industrial enterprises located in all regions of the country supplied various machines, structures, and materials to BAM. The workers of the cities of Ivanovo, Kalinin, Voronezh, Donetsk, Kostroma sent excavators, Chelyabinsk - bulldozers, Moscow, Kremenchug, Minsk - trucks, Leningrad - powerful Kirovets tractors, Kamyshin, Odessa, Kaliningrad, Kirov, Balashikha - load-lifting cranes; structures for artificial structures arrived from Voronezh and Ulan-Ude, rails - from the Kuznetsk Metallurgical Plant.
Stations and villages on the BAM route were built by representatives of all union republics, many regions and cities of Russia.
Such a large-scale construction was only possible for a great power, with its colossal economic power and resources. 60 industries participated in providing the construction with everything necessary. National economy, hundreds of supplier companies, design and scientific organizations in Leningrad and Chelyabinsk, Novosibirsk and Rostov, Nikopol and Blagoveshchensk. BAM is rightly called the route of friendship and brotherhood. It was built by representatives of 70 nationalities of the USSR. A General Scheme for the regional planning of the BAM zone of influence was developed, taking into account the regional characteristics of the route, specific factors of the economic development of the adjacent territories, as well as the multinational features of architectural and planning solutions, the construction art of all the republics participating in the development of the highway. Tynda, Neryungri, Severobaikalsk - Largest cities along the highway - they were built exactly according to the master plans.
As a result, each had its own appearance, its own special architectural “accents”. However, like any new business, the Baikal-Amur Mainline aroused interest in environmental problems. Virgin nature demanded careful treatment. After all, a delicate natural organism, balanced over thousands of years, is especially fragile in conditions of permafrost, high seismicity and low temperatures.
Here, for the first time in world practice, a fundamentally new design of bridge support foundations was created, a number of new ideas were implemented in tunnel construction, technologies for backfilling the roadbed and drilling and blasting operations in permafrost conditions were developed, and modern methods of combating ice deposits appeared.
The highway passed through the region in northern areas rich in natural resources. The Baikal-Amur Mainline serves the purpose of developing all natural resources. Where previously only a nomadic Evenk hunter could reach on his reindeer, where geologists only occasionally flew in by helicopter, the taiga was awakened by the whistle of a diesel locomotive, and residential settlements sprang up. Previously, the southern regions of the Amur region were connected with the North highway AYAM (Amur-Yakutsk Mainline), running from Big Nevers on the Trans-Siberian Railway to Chulman. And this thin transport stream was replaced by a “full-flowing river” called BAM
The Baikal-Amur Mainline is one of the largest railway lines in the world. Construction of the main part of the railway, which took place in complex geological and climatic conditions, took more than 12 years, and one of the most difficult sections - the North Muisky tunnel - was put into permanent operation only in 2003.
The Severomuysky ridge was one of the most difficult sections of the BAM. Before the opening of the Severomuysky tunnel, trains followed a bypass railway line laid through the ridge. The first version of the bypass, 24.6 km long, was built in 1982 - 1983; during its construction, slopes of up to 40 thousandths were allowed (that is, up to 40 meters of rise per kilometer of distance). Because of this, only freight trains of several cars could travel through this line; the movement of passenger trains was prohibited (people were transported across the pass by buses)
In 1985 - 1989, a new bypass line, 54 km long, was built, consisting of numerous steep serpentines, high viaducts and two loop tunnels (the old bypass was subsequently dismantled). The “Devil's Bridge” became famous - a viaduct in a sharp turn on a slope across the valley of the Itykyt River, standing on two-tier supports. The train was forced to maneuver between the hills, moving at a maximum speed of 20 km/h and risking getting caught in an avalanche. On ascents there was a need to push the trains with auxiliary locomotives. The section required large expenses for maintaining the track and ensuring traffic safety. Pictured is the Devil's Bridge
The construction of the tunnel through the ridge took more than 25 years. The first train passed through the tunnel on December 21, 2001, but the tunnel was accepted into permanent operation only on December 5, 2003. total length tunnel mine workings - 45 km; Along the entire length of the tunnel there is a working of a smaller diameter, used for pumping out water, placing engineering systems and delivering technical personnel. Ventilation is provided by three vertical shafts. The safety of trains passing through the tunnel is ensured, among other things, by seismic and radiation monitoring systems. To maintain the microclimate in the tunnel, special gates are installed on both of its portals, which are opened only for the passage of trains. The tunnel's engineering systems are controlled by a special automated system developed at the Design and Technology Institute of Computer Science, Siberian Branch Russian Academy Sci.
During the construction of the highway and highway roads, builders completed more than 570 million m3 over ten years. earthworks, laid about 4,200 bridges and pipes across rivers and watercourses, laid 5 thousand km of main and station tracks, built dozens of railway stations, erected residential buildings with a total area of over 570 thousand m2, opened new schools, hospitals, kindergartens and nursery
Workers from 60 sectors of the national economy, as well as 40 patronage organizations from all Union republics, took a direct part in this enormous work. Representatives of 70 nationalities and nationalities worked on the track.
The unique bridge crossings across the Amur River and across the Zeya Reservoir on the BAM were a significant event in the history of Soviet bridge construction. However, everything underwent thorough preliminary testing and full-scale testing.
Unfortunately, many well-founded warnings and advice from scientists and specialists were not taken into account during the construction and operation of the BAM, which later, in the conditions of the collapse of entire parts of the state economy in the 1990s. led to such a disastrous situation on the route on the eve of its disbandment.
Today, the Baikal-Amur Mainline is going through difficult times associated with structural restructuring in the Russian railway industry. The road was built to develop the productive forces of the Irkutsk region, Buryatia, Transbaikalia, Yakutia, Amur region and Khabarovsk Territory. And the road passed through the richest places with the aim of developing mineral deposits. For example, the Udokan copper deposit, containing 20% of all world copper reserves. But a 60-kilometer branch line to this field was not built. Thanks to BAM, it was planned to develop the iron ore deposits of southern Yakutia and create there metallurgical complex; to develop neighboring deposits of coking coal, titanium, vanadium, as well as oil, coal, manganese and iron ores in the Dzhugdzhur-Ud region; develop the timber industry complex.
BAM had one more task (and no one canceled it) - this was the continuation of the construction of the railway to Yakutsk, then to Magadan, and then to Chukotka and Kamchatka. But at present, the construction of the BAM is frozen, the upper structure of the track is dying.
When you get acquainted with these latest projects, you involuntarily recall many historical analogues. Ideas and projects remained unrealized various reasons. Perhaps these plans are not destined to come true.
1956, Osetrovsky river port on the Lena River, transshipment of goods for BAM
1949 prospector camp on the future route
Where are these Tyndenkas now? Their parents at that time were not tormented by the problems of supporting their families.
History of the construction of BAM
The idea of building a road was first put forward in the 80s of the 19th century. In 1888, the Russian Technical Society discussed the project of building a Pacific railway through the northern tip of Lake Baikal, after which in July - September 1889, under the leadership of Colonel N.A. Voloshinov, visual surveys and surveys were carried out on routes from the river. Angaras through the Baikal and North-Muya ridges into the river valley. Muya and between the river. Buya and R. Black Uryum is right in the places where the BAM route now lies.
The surveyors, taking into account the difficult physical and geographical conditions and the underdeveloped economy, concluded that there would be enormous difficulties and exorbitant costs when laying the road. The southern version of the route in the lake area was chosen. Baikal.
1906 . The idea of a “Second Trans-Siberian Railway” is being discussed again in Russia. In 1911, on the routes Irkutsk - Zhigalovo, Tirot - Zhigalovo, Tulun - Ust-Kut, Taishet - Ust-Kut, a party of engineers conducted research. P.I. Mikhailovsky and I.I. Afonin, continued under the leadership of Mikhailovsky by order of the government in 1914. In the area of the river. Amur also at that time, surveys of the route were carried out with the aim of laying a railway track from the gold mines in the area of the river. Bodaibo, ensuring connection of these areas with the Trans-Siberian Railway. The initiative came from individuals and entrepreneurs.
However, the idea of building a second latitudinal railway through the northern tip of Lake Baikal in the pre-revolutionary period and until the 30s did not receive practical permission.
In 1924, the Labor and Defense Council of the USSR approved a long-term plan for the construction of the country's railways. The papers outline for the first time the contours of the future “Second Trans-Siberian Railway”.
In 1926, the Separate Corps of Railway Troops began to conduct topographical reconnaissance of the future BAM route. The materials were used in 1930 when developing proposals to the government to build a second latitudinal route through Siberia. Then the road for the first time received the code name of the Baikal-Amur Mainline. In 1931, reconnaissance surveys were carried out in the Bam (Bamovskaya) - Tynda section.
In 1932, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR issued a decree “On the construction of the Baikal-Amur Railway,” according to which the BAM Construction Administration was created, design and survey work was launched, and construction began. For the first time, the Bam station (on the Trans-Siberian Railway) appears on the maps. The general direction of the BAM route with the support points Taishet - northern Baikal - Tyndinsky - Urgal - Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Sovetskaya Gavan has been determined. Construction of the line Bam - Tyndinsky (later - Maly BAM) began.
By autumn it became clear that the main problem in construction was the shortage of workers. With an officially established number of workers of 25 thousand people, it was possible to attract only 2.5 thousand people. As a result, the second resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR was issued, according to which the construction of the BAM was transferred to the special management of the OGPU. In 1933, small rolling lines of the Trans-Siberian Railway were laid to the planned BAM route: Bam - Tynda, Volochaevka - Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Izvestkovaya - Urgal.
In 1937, BAM-proektstroy was organized in Irkutsk, where in 1937-42. design assignments and technical projects were drawn up for the sections: Taishet - Bratsk, Ust-Kut - Nizhneangarsk, Tynda - Zeya - Nora, Urgal - Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Sovetskaya Gavan (port of Vanino). In 1938, construction began on the western section from Taishet to Bratsk, and in 1939, preparatory work began on the eastern section from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Sovetskaya Gavan.
In 1940-41 the first approach to the highway was built - the Bam - Tynda section, which in 1942, by decision of the State Defense Committee, was dismantled, the track links and bridge trusses were transferred to the rock road along the river. Volga, the need for which arose in connection with the defense of Stalingrad. In 1941, construction continued on the Volochaevsk - Komsomolsk-on-Amur direction with the aim of connecting with the Trans-Siberian Railway. In 1942, another connecting line Izvestkovaya - Urgal was laid.
In May 1943, the State Defense Committee decided to build the Komsomolsk - Sovetskaya Gavan railway.
The eastern section of the road was put into operation in 1945 and played significant role in the delivery of goods during the war with Japan.
The construction of the western section of Taishet - Lena was carried out in 1946-51. In 1947, traffic opened on the Taishet - Bratsk line. The section Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Sovetskaya Gavan (442 km) was put into operation; in 1951 . - section Izvestkovaya - Urgal (340 km); in July 1951, the first trains ran from Taishet to Lena station (city of Ust-Kut). This accelerated the construction of the Bratsk hydroelectric power station and large industrial facilities in Bratsk and Ust-Ilim; in 1958 . - section Taishet - Lena (692 km). With its commissioning, the construction of the highway was suspended until 1967, when a government decree “On strengthening research on the BAM” was adopted. Major survey work, line adjustments, and feasibility studies began.
April 5, 1972 . construction of the modern BAM began (at the BAM station the first cubic meters of soil were poured into the Bam-Tyndinsky railway).
In 1974 . The Decree “On the Construction of the Baikal-Amur Railway” was issued, after which construction work began on the BAM: everything had to be built 4,200 km. In April 1974 . The All-Union Komsomol Shock Detachment named after the XVII Komsomol Congress was created - the first of such detachments at this construction site.
On September 14, 1975, the “silver” link of the Tynda-Chara line was laid, and in December 1975, the first train ran from Ust-Kut to the village of Zvezdny. In November 1976, the BAM-Tynda section was put into temporary operation, and in 1979 the Tynda-Berkakit section (220 km) was put into operation. In October 1979, the first working train arrived in Severobaikalsk along a branch line that bypassed the Baikal Tunnel. In 1980, traffic began along the Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Berezovka section (199 km). In July 1980, the Baikal-Amur Railway was organized with the location of the Road Administration in the city of Tynda. In 1981 . 556 km of tracks were put into operation in 1982 . – 303 km, in 1984 – 136 km. September 29, 1984 . A “golden” connection took place at the Balbukhta junction, when the eastern and western directions of the BAM builders met, moving towards each other for 10 years. On October 1, 1984, the “golden” links of the BAM were laid at the Kuanda station, and on that day the monument to the glory of the BAM builders was inaugurated there.
October 27, 1984 . At a meeting in the city of Tynda, the official opening of through train traffic along the entire Baikal-Amur Mainline took place.
But even after the “Golden Link” was laid, the railway route did not acquire its final shape. The 15-kilometer tunnel under the North-Muysky ridge, which was supposed to become the longest tunnel in the USSR, had not yet been completed. Instead, trains crossed the ridge along a long pass detour. There were no tunnels on the bypass, but the steepness of the climbs on it reached 40‰, which meant a height difference of 4 meters for every 100 meters of the path. According to current regulations, the movement of passenger trains on such slopes was prohibited, therefore from the side of Severobaikalsk they reached the Angarakan station, and from the side of Tynda - to the Okushikan station. For an approximately 20-kilometer stretch between these stations, passengers were transported in crew cars along a dirt road.
In 1989, a new bypass came into operation. Its length was 61 km and it already had 2 tunnels, as well as unusually high viaducts with two-tier supports, including the famous Devil's Bridge-viaduct at a sharp turn on a slope across the Itykyt River valley.
The main feature of the new bypass is the steepness of the climbs no more than 18‰. Now passengers could travel along the bypass without restrictions. This bypass is still in use today.
In 1986, the Larba - Ust-Nyukzha section (206 km) was put into operation. In the same year, the Lena - Nizhneangarsk section (943 km) was electrified; in 1987 - the Nizhneangarsk - Novy Uoyan section (179 km); in 1988 - the New Uoyan - Angarakan section (102 km), the Novaya Chara - Tynda section was built. In 1989, the bypass of the Severo-Muisky tunnel, the Tynda - Urgal and Nizhneangarsk - Novaya Chara sections were put into operation and electrified, the Angarakan section was electrified - Taximo (102 km).
In 1989, an act of the State Commission was signed on the acceptance into permanent operation of the last sections of the BAM. The entire line was handed over to the railway workers (USSR Ministry of Railways).
During 1979-1989 The main line was gradually put into permanent operation at the launch complex, and a number of lines were put into full design capacity.
The construction of the main passage was carried out from six directions: from the station. Lena to the east; from Art. Tynda to the east and west; from Art. Komsomolsk-on-Amur to the west; from Art. New Urgal to the west and east. Complex methods were used: along with the construction of railway lines, residential villages, cultural centers, public service institutions were built, and industrial enterprises were created. Powerful equipment and rational labor methods were widely used, and special technology was developed taking into account natural conditions. During the construction of the roadbed, crushed stone for the first layer of ballast was delivered to areas located near the quarries by dump trucks even before the track was laid. Ballasting was carried out immediately after laying the rail and sleeper grid, which made it possible to preserve the roadbed, increase train speeds and ensure the safe passage of heavy cranes and platforms with construction materials. During the construction of artificial structures, progressive structures were used (corrugated metal culverts, columnar bridge supports instead of pile ones, gantry abutments, standardized concrete blocks, support foundations made of reinforced concrete cylindrical pillars), as well as methods of suspended installation, longitudinal sliding of spans. In difficult engineering and geological conditions, excavation of the Baikal, Severo-Muisky, Kodarsky and other BAM tunnels was carried out. Difficulties in tunneling, which delayed the construction of the route, necessitated the construction of bypasses, which ensured traffic while the tunnels were being dug. Temporary detours were made at the Baikalsky (Davan junction), Severo-Muisky (Okushikan junction), and Kodarsky tunnels. Original seismic-resistant linings for tunnels, methods for reducing water, and securing flooded zones and tectonic faults have been developed.
The BAM builders made a great contribution to the science of permafrost. A way was found to preserve permafrost soils using thermal piles (liquid cooling systems). For the first time, methods for controlling thermal conditions were developed and implemented using structures made of sorted stone, as well as using foam plastic and geotextiles. When electrifying sections of the BAM, unconventional solutions were found for the construction of longitudinal power lines.
BAM provides economic services to a territory of 1.5 million km 2 . In world practice, there are no examples of the operation of constructed sections of the railway with the simultaneous continuation of construction. The primary tasks for the road during its gradual commissioning were the development and practical implementation of methods for organizing the transportation process in difficult technological and climatic conditions.
On the road, a technology for handling heavy-duty trains has been developed, the maximum weight standards for trains have been determined in order to fully utilize the power of the 4-section diesel locomotive 4TE10S (power 8760 kW), manufactured specifically for operation on the road. To increase the weight standard of trains, various measures were taken to form and dispatch only full-weight and full-fledged trains, and to reduce the empty run of cars. Optimal weight standards for trains on all sections of the road were selected, train driving schedules were drawn up, and the traction and operational characteristics of the new 4TE10S diesel locomotives were determined.
During the construction of the highway and highway roads, builders completed more than 570 million m 3 of earthworks over ten years, threw about 4,200 bridges and pipes across rivers and watercourses, laid 5 thousand km of main and station tracks, built dozens of railway stations, erected residential buildings with a common with an area of over 570 thousand m 2, new schools, hospitals, kindergartens and nurseries were opened.
The BAM runs through the territory of the Irkutsk, Chita, Amur regions, Buryatia and Yakutia, and the Khabarovsk Territory. The road route crosses 11 full-flowing rivers such as the Lena, Upper Angara, Vitim, Zeya, Bureya, Amur, seven mountain ranges: Baikalsky, Severo-Muysky, Stepovoy, Turansky, Kodarsky, Dusse-Alinsky and Tukuringrsky.; more than 1000 kilometers of the route were laid in areas of permafrost and high seismicity. Eight tunnels with a total length of 25.3 km were punched along the road route, 142 bridges (more than 100 meters long), more than 200 railway stations and sidings, four main locomotive depots in Nizhneangarsk, Tynda, Zeysk and Urgal, over 60 cities and towns were built.
After the start of political and economic transformations, the state's interest in BAM fell sharply. Journalists came up with the label “Road to Nowhere” for it, and made BAM a symbol of the era of stagnation. The truth was that the BAM, which was built as a high-load main line, in practice turned out to be an inactive section according to the Ministry of Railways classification with a traffic load of less than 8 pairs of trains per day.
However, in our time, despite the abundance of regulations, commercial structures are beginning to show increasing interest in the BAM region, rich in valuable natural resources, and the railway is a key link in any program for their development. Another project that will allow the road to be loaded to its designed capacity is the connection to the island. Sakhalin with the mainland. Then the BAM will become the shortest route along which the entire flow of transit cargo from Japan to Europe should go. January 4, 1992 . The Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation "On measures to complete the construction of the Baikal-Amur Railway and the construction of the Berkakit - Tommot - Yakutsk railway line" was issued. In July 1996 . The Board of the Ministry of Railways decided to divide the Baikal-Amur Railway: the eastern section was transferred to the Far Eastern Railway, the western section to the East Siberian Railway.
June 16, 1997 Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 728 "On priority measures for economic stimulation economic development zone of the Baikal-Amur Railway", January 19, 1999. Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 481 "Issues of economic development of the zone of the Baikal-Amur Railway"
All this does not allow us to call the BAM a road without a future, and it is no coincidence that work on the construction of the North-Muysky tunnel was not curtailed even in the most difficult times for the Russian economy.
The construction of the tunnel through the ridge took more than 25 years. The first train passed through the tunnel on December 21, 2001, but the tunnel was accepted into permanent operation only on December 5, 2003. The total length of the tunnel's mine workings is 45 km; Along the entire length of the tunnel there is a working of a smaller diameter, used for pumping out water, placing engineering systems and delivering technical personnel. Ventilation is provided by three vertical shafts. The safety of trains passing through the tunnel is ensured, among other things, by seismic and radiation monitoring systems. To maintain the microclimate in the tunnel, special gates are installed on both of its portals, which are opened only for the passage of trains. The tunnel's engineering systems are controlled by a special automated system developed at the Design and Technology Institute of Computer Science of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
The final completion of the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline can be considered December 5, 2003, when traffic through the Severo-Muysky tunnel was opened. In terms of its length (15,343 m), it is the longest tunnel in Russia and the fifth in the world. According to the construction conditions, the tunnel has no analogues: permafrost, abundance of groundwater, landslides, landslides, tectonic faults.
Despite everything, the history of the Baikal-Amur Mainline continues.
In 2007, the government approved a plan according to which it is planned to build “capillary” branches to mineral deposits. It was also previously decided to build a crossing in the form of a Sakhalin tunnel or bridge. In 2009, reconstruction of the Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Sovetskaya Gavan (Far Eastern Railway) section began with the construction of a new Kuznetsovsky tunnel, it is planned to be completed in 2016. These works will increase the speed of trains, which will entail an increase in throughput and carrying capacity , and will also make it possible to increase the weight standard of trains on the section from 3600 to 5600 tons.
Currently, the socio-economic potential of BAM has not been fully realized. The operation of this highway does not bring profit to JSC Russian Railways. The main reason for the current situation is the slow development of adjacent territories. Of the planned nine territorial production complexes that were supposed to ensure the loading of the BAM, only one was implemented - in the Neryungri coal basin.
The Baikal-Amur Mainline - one of the largest railways in the world - runs through the territory of the Irkutsk, Chita, Amur regions, Buryatia and Yakutia, and the Khabarovsk Territory. Along with the Trans-Siberian Railway, the BAM serves as Russia's second through access to the Pacific Ocean. Being the shortest railway route to the ports of the Pacific Ocean, to Southern Yakutia and other regions of the country, BAM reduces the distance of transportation of passengers and cargo to Primorye, Vladivostok and Nakhodka by more than 200 km, to Vanino - by almost 500 km, Yakutia - by 600 km , and for passengers and cargo traveling to Sakhalin, Kamchatka and Magadan - 1000 km.
JSC "Russian Railways" has developed a "Strategic program for the development of the Baikal-Amur Mainline until 2020", which provides for a significant amount of work:
· construction and restoration of 91 sidings;
· construction of 800 km of second main tracks;
· equipment of about 700 km of railway lines with automatic blocking;
· extension and construction of 171 receiving and departure tracks;
· acquisition of about 750 freight locomotives and about 11 thousand units of freight cars;
· reconstruction of 85 bridges, 3 tunnels, 650 km of roadbed, etc.
This program was actively used in developing the provisions of the “Strategy for the development of railway transport in Russian Federation until 2030." The strategy forecasts an increase in traffic volumes on the BAM due to the growth of industrial production, the development of a number of fields, the construction of a railway line to Yakutsk and the development of Vanino-Sovgavansky transport hub. It is also planned to specialize the BAM for the passage of heavy trains, and the Trans-Siberian Railway for the passage of specialized container and passenger trains.
The “Railway Transport” program of the federal target program “Development of the Russian Transport System (2010-2015)” provides for:
· construction of a new railway line Tommot - Kerdem - Yakutsk (Nizhny Bestyakh) with a total length of 450 km;
· design of a new railway line Selekhin - Nysh with a total length of 582 km.
Strategy for the development of railway transport until 2030. assumes an increase in transportation volumes on the BAM by two to three times due to the growth of industrial production, the construction of a railway line to Yakutsk, the development of a number of fields and the development of the Vanino-Sovgavan transport hub. The limiting link of the BAM is now the Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Sovetskaya Gavan section.
To eliminate this barrier link, the Russian Railways company has developed the project “Reconstruction of the Oune-Vysokogornaya section with the construction of a new Kuznetsovsky tunnel.” The project includes the direct construction of a new tunnel, as well as the necessary development of railway sections located on the Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Sovetskaya Gavan line. The implementation of the project will allow by 2020 to increase cargo flows on the eastern sections of the BAM to 50 million tons per year. According to Strategy 2030, 13 new railway lines with a total length of about 7 thousand km will be built. These are, first of all, such cargo-generating lines as Lena - Nepa - Lensk, Khani - Olekminsk, Novaya Chara - Apsatskaya, Novaya Chara - China, Shimanovskaya - Gar - Fevralsk, Ulak - Elginskoye field. Construction of the last line is already in full swing by private investors.
In general, the BAM complex is designed to solve five important problems of a national scale, which are grandiose and at the same time clear and understandable:
Open access to the natural resources of a huge region;
Ensure transit transportation over the shortest distance (reduce freight travel by an average of 500 km);
Create the shortest intercontinental East-West railway route, running over 10,000 km along Russian railways;
Ensure traffic in cases of force majeure on the Trans-Siberian Railway;
To become a supporting pillar for the economic development of a vast territory (about 1,500,000 sq. km), rich in reserves of valuable mineral raw materials, fuel and energy, and forest resources.
The Baikal-Amur Mainline (abbreviation BAM) is a railway in and around the Far East.One of the largest railway lines in the world. The main route, Sovetskaya Gavan, was built with long interruptions from 1938 to 1984. The construction of the central part of the railway, which took place in difficult geological and climatic conditions, took more than 12 years, and one of the most difficult sections - the North Muisky Tunnel - was put into permanent operation only in 2003.
Railway line
Project estimates
Economist Yegor Gaidar expressed his opinion about BAM in the early 2000s: [ 9]
“The project for the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline is a typical example of the socialist “construction of the century”. The project is expensive, large-scale, romantic - beautiful places, Siberia. Backed up by all the power of Soviet propaganda, economically absolutely meaningless. Knowing how to build roads does not mean producing competitive products or good goods consumer consumption".
At the same time, opinions were expressed that, despite its unprofitability, the Baikal-Amur Mainline gave impetus to the development of a number of industries, and also plays a significant geopolitical role, stitching together “our vast spaces with steel stitches” .
Two railway corps of the railway troops of the USSR armed forces took part in the construction of the eastern section.
One of the tasks solved by the construction of the BAM was to ensure reliable communication with the Far Eastern regions of the country in the event of a possible seizure of the eastern section of the Trans-Siberian Railway, located almost at the border, in the event of a military conflict with China.
The asteroid (2031) BAM, discovered in the Main Asteroid Belt on October 8, 1969 by Lyudmila Chernykh from the Crimean Observatory, is named after BAM.
Although in the phrase Baikal-Amur Mainline the word mainline is feminine, the abbreviation BAM is very often used in the masculine gender.
For the construction of the BAM in Germany, about 10 thousand dump trucks and flatbed trucks of the Magirus-Deutz brand with an air-cooled diesel engine were ordered. In the USSR, such diesel engines were not produced for civilian vehicles. Deliveries were made in 1975-1976. Some of these machines are still operating in the regions of Siberia and the Far East. It was considered prestigious to work on these machines, and they differed in quality and comfort from domestic ones, so mostly excellent production workers worked on them. In addition, along with domestic equipment, other imported equipment produced by Western countries and CMEA countries was also used in the construction of the BAM.
BAM stations
|
310 Bratsk Sea (Bratsk) 326 Padunskie Porogi (Bratsk) 328 Energetik (Bratsk) 339 Hydrostroitel (Bratsk) 533 Ilim River (Ust-Ilimsk Reservoir) 550 Korshunovsky tunnel (1100 m) 652 Kuta River 713 Ust-Kut 720 Lena (Ust-Kut) 737 Lena River 784 Zvezdnaya (Zvezdny) 889 Kirenga (Main) 915 Kirenga River 1007 Baikal (Davansky) tunnel (6686 m) 1028 Goujekit 1063 Severobaykalsk 1067 Cape Tunnels, 4 tunnels with a total length of 4500 m 1090 Nizhneangarsk 1235 Upper Angara River 1242 New Uoyan 1354 North-Muysky tunnel (15,343 m) 1385 Severomuisk 1469 Taximo completion of the electrified section of the BAM 1535 Vitim River Transbaikal Territory MSK+6 (UTC+10)) 1645 Kodar tunnel (1981 m) 1713 Chara River Chineyskoye field (66 km; 26 km built) 1719 New Chara 1864 Hani Far Eastern Railway |
1866 Amur region 1918 Olekma River 2268 Khorogochi line from Bamovskaya stations on the Trans-Siberian Railway (179 km) 2348 Tynda (Capital of BAM) 2375 Bestuzhevo AYAM (Amur-Yakutsk Mainline) to Yakutsk 2560 Tutaul branch line to the Elginskoye field (300 km, under construction) 2687 Zeya River (Zeyskoye Reservoir) 2690 Verkhnezeysk 2833 Miroshnichenko 3012 Selemdzha River 3162 Etyrken 3247 Alonka 3292 Bureya River line from Izvestkovaya station on the Trans-Siberian Railway (326 km) 3298 New Urgal 3312 Urgal-1 branch line to Chegdomyn (16 km) 3384 Dusse-Alinsky tunnel (1800 m) 3621 Amgun River 340 Komsomolsk-Sortirovochny line from Volochaevka station on the Trans-Siberian Railway (351 km) 3871 Selikhino line to Black Cape stations (120 km) Kuznetsovsky tunnel (about 1800 m) 4039 Highland 4253 Vanino ferry to Kholmsk on Sakhalin 4261 Sovetskaya Gavan-Sortirovochnaya 4287 Sovetskaya Gavan |
Reconstruction plans
Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the Russian government to prepare a detailed schedule for the modernization of the BAM and Trans-Siberian Railway. Funds from the federal budget and the National Welfare Fund will be used to solve the problem.
Until 2018, it is planned to allocate 560 billion rubles in stages, of which 300 billion as part of the Russian Railways investment program, 110 billion in the form of direct budget investments, and another 150 billion on a repayable basis from the fund. It is expected that the modernization of the BAM and Trans-Siberian Railway will increase the throughput of the line from 110 to 165 million tons of cargo per year.
Priority measures to develop the infrastructure of the western part of the BAM are estimated at 177 billion rubles. It is planned to build about 430 km of additional main tracks and double-track inserts, 27 sidings, and develop the stations Taishet (Irkutsk region) and Novaya Chara (Trans-Baikal Territory).
In 2013, about 20 million tons of various cargoes were transported annually along the BAM section within the boundaries of the East Siberian Railway. The development of transport infrastructure will make it possible to intensify the development of new fields, which will entail an increase in transportation. According to forecasts, by 2020, the growth of traffic volumes along the northern part of the road could reach 60 million tons. Therefore, it is necessary not only to increase the throughput of the highway, but also to develop the infrastructure as a whole. Thus, according to the VSZD investment program, in the next three years the construction of multi-apartment residential buildings at BAM stations is envisaged.
In 2014, a decree of the Russian government, which allows the use of funds from the National Welfare Fund for the modernization of the Baikal-Amur and Trans-Siberian Railways, was signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
Celebrating the anniversary of BAM
Forty years ago, the all-Union Komsomol construction started - they began to build the Baikal-Amur Mainline. To celebrate the anniversary, remember everything and prove that there is still life on BAM, a festive train with number 905 set off on a journey along the great railway, which has never been before and, most likely, will no longer be on the schedule. He traveled along the Irkutsk-Tynda route.
Read on Irkipedia:
Literature
- Korobov S.A. Miniature chronicle of BAM // Ottisk - Irkutsk, 2004.
- Polunina N.M., Korobov S.A., Sutton J.M., Korobova G.W. Her Majesty - Queen of Siberia // Korobov Publishing House - Irkutsk, 2008.
- Edited by prof. Kantora I.I. Construction and track business in Russia of the 20th century // UMK MPS - Moscow, 2001.
- Shestak I. BAM: kilometers of the era // Tynda printing house- Tynda, 2009.
- The truth about BAM // Young Guard - M., 2004.
- Towards the time // Soviet Russia - M., 1986.
- Vasiliev M. Yu., Gromov V. V. Tourist routes of the Western BAM. - M.: Physical culture and sport, 1984. - 208 p. - (Across native expanses). - 26,000 copies.
- Smile. YU. Modernization of BAM and Trans-Siberian Railway Issue “Regional Special Issue” # 117 (1138) October 18, 2013
Notes
- Great Russian Encyclopedia: In 30 volumes / Chairman of scientific editor. Council Yu. S. Osipov. Rep. edited by S. L. Kravets. T. 2. Ankylosis - Bank. - M.: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 2005. - 766 p.: ill.: map.
- Gennady Alekseev: “It is necessary to speed up the approval of the Strategic Program for the Development of the Baikal-Amur Mainline // Official web server of the authorities of Yakutia. - March 24, 2010
Do you hear time buzzing - BAM!
R. Rozhdestvensky
BAM- one of the largest railway lines in the world.
The route Taishet - Sovetskaya Gavan is 4287 km long. and was built with long interruptions from 1938 to 1984. Currently, BAM is operating at capacity. The length of the main route Taishet - Sovetskaya Gavan BAM runs north of the Trans-Siberian Railway route and is 500 km shorter than it. How it was..
The highway route passes mainly in mountainous areas, including through the Stanovoye Highlands, cutting through seven mountain ranges. The highest point of the route is Mururinsky Pass (1323 meters above sea level); Steep slopes when approaching this pass require the use of double traction and limiting the weight of trains.
Ten tunnels have been punched along the road route, among them the longest in Russia is the North Muisky tunnel. The longest tunnel in Russia (15,343 meters), the construction of which began in May 1977, was completed only in March 2001 and put into permanent operation in December 2003.
The road route crosses 11 major rivers; a total of 2,230 large and small bridges were built on it. The highway passes through more than 200 railway stations and sidings, more than 60 cities and towns.
The cost of construction of the BAM in 1991 prices amounted to 17.7 billion rubles, thus making the BAM the most expensive infrastructure project in the history of the USSR.
The Russian Technical Society discussed the project back in 1888. Colonel of the General Staff N.A. Voloshinov with a small detachment covered a thousand-kilometer space from Ust-Kut to Muya, right along the places where the BAM route now lies. And I came to the conclusion that construction was impossible. There was no technology at that time.
In Soviet times, reconnaissance was carried out by the military. In 1926, the Separate Corps of the Red Army Railway Troops began to conduct topographical reconnaissance of the future BAM route. In 1932 (April 13), the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR issued a decree “On the construction of the Baikal-Amur Railway.” Then the war and there was no time for travel.
In 1967, design and survey work was resumed. In April 1974, BAM was declared an all-Union Komsomol shock construction site. Young people went to BAM. There were jokes about this, like a comic decoding of the acronym BAM - “Brezhnev Absorbs Youth.”
And the harsh everyday life began! Imported equipment was purchased for the most difficult areas.
Along the BAM route, it was initially planned to build nine or even eleven giant territorial-industrial complexes, but so far only one has been built - the South Yakutsk coal complex, which includes the Neryungri coal mine.
On September 29, 1984, a meeting took place between the teams of Alexander Bondar and Ivan Varshavsky at the Balbukhta crossing; on October 1, the “golden” link was solemnly laid down at the Kuanda station; both parts of the road are connected into a single whole.
In 2007, the government approved a plan according to which it is planned to build “capillary” branches to mineral deposits. It was also previously decided to build a crossing in the form of a Sakhalin tunnel or bridge.
The weather there is harsh, I've been to those parts. And he lived and served.
Baikal-Amur Mainline
For the gigantic land expanses of our Motherland, with different climatic and natural conditions, uneven distribution of resources and population, railways are a massive, universal mode of transport with great advantages. All-weather and year-round operation, combined with high traffic speeds, creates a huge daily and annual carrying capacity, which, combined with almost unlimited reserves for its rapid and relatively uncomplicated step-by-step increase at a low cost of money, labor and time, promises efficiency in the future. With the low cost of rail transportation and the lowest unit costs of energy resources, this is the safest and most environmentally friendly mode of transport.
Against the background of the general development of railway transport in Russia (based on the results of 1999, the growth in many respects is quite significant), there are structures that are undeservedly left without due attention. We are, of course, talking about the “construction project of the century” - the Baikal-Amur Mainline.
Ideology of construction, history of the issue
The territories that are today included in the BAM zone began to be developed by the Russians after the campaigns of Ermak (1581-85) and the defeat of the Siberian Khanate. For exclusively short term- a little more than half a century - almost all of Siberia was annexed to the Russian state, the Russians reached the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean, and a little later reached North America.
The development of vast spaces beyond the Urals, undoubtedly, cannot be explained only by the attempt of the most active part of the Russian peasantry and Cossacks to escape from serfdom and church-state control. Such a spontaneous, intuitive rush to the east turned out to be not only a historical and religious response of the Russian Orthodox world to the colonial expansion of Catholic and Protestant Europe - it also created a global alternative to the “Eurocentric” policy of the Russian state.
This alternative began to be realized only in late XIX century, when the rapid development of Japan, and especially the United States, became a harbinger of the inevitable collapse of the old European metropolises. Entry of Russian goods into Chinese markets and Central Asia, as well as ensuring security eastern borders The Russian Empire brought to life the grandiose project of the Trans-Siberian Railway, brilliantly implemented in an incredibly short time. And if the loss of Alaska did not cause any political reaction, then the defeat in the war with Japan of 1904-1907, the loss of the Kuril Islands, South Sakhalin and influence in Manchuria - put a more balanced policy on the agenda and made it necessary for serious economic development of the regions of Siberia and the Far East. East, for which there was a catastrophic lack of population and transport routes. It is no coincidence that plans for railway construction along the “northern route” in the current BAM zone with access to the areas of Yakutsk and Magadan and further to the Bering Strait date back to this time.
The well-known “land reform”, undertaken on the initiative of P.A. Stolypin, in addition to solving the problem of agrarian overpopulation in central Russia, also had these goals in mind: Echelons of settlers stretched to the east, the Russian agricultural population of Siberia and the Far East increased significantly. However, it was not possible to achieve the necessary results using purely economic methods. In addition, the resource base of these areas remained insufficiently explored.
Scientific expeditions began studying the regions of Eastern Siberia only from the second half XVII V. The most important were the travels of I.G. Gmelin from Irkutsk to the upper reaches of the river. Lena and along it to Yakutsk (1733-43); research by academicians E.G. Laksmana in Transbaikalia (1764-74); P.I. Pallas (1770-73) and I.G. Gregory (1770-74) in the Baikal region. In 1851, the Siberian (later East Siberian) branch of the Russian Geographical Society was organized in Irkutsk. In the Trans-Baikal part of the BAM in the 60-70s of the last century, famous geographers and geologists I.A. conducted research. Lopatin, P.A. Kropotkin, A.L. Chekanovsky, I.D. Chersky, and from the late 80s - V.A. Obruchev. In 1889-92. he studied the Baikal region, the upper reaches of the Lena and the Olekmo-Vitim mountainous country, paying special attention to the gold-bearing placers of the Lena basin.
However, the results of these works, which laid the foundation for further study of the geology of the region, still did not provide c. systemic picture of its mineral resource base, and even more so could not be in demand by the then Russian economy. The matter was limited to “skimming the cream” from unique deposits of gold, mica, precious and ornamental stones.
In 1889, when the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway from Chelyabinsk to the Pacific Ocean came next, an expedition led by Colonel of the General Staff of the Russian Army N.A. Voloshinov, walked along the proposed route from Ust-Kut in the upper reaches of the Lena River to the northern shore of Lake Baikal and further through the North Muya Range to the valley of the Muya River, and the expedition of the communications engineer Prokhasko - from the Muya River to the Black Uryum River (in the Mogochi area) . They established the significant difficulty of the conditions for the construction of the future Trans-Siberian Railway according to the northern version. It was decided to build a railway on the section east of Taishet, according to the southern option - through Irkutsk.
Comparing the northern option with the southern one from Taishet to Irkutsk and further around Lake Baikal to Verkhneudinsk (Ulan-Ude) and Chita, Voloshinov justifiably spoke out for the southern route, which at that time did not and could not have an alternative.
The idea of building a second latitudinal railway through the northern tip of Lake Baikal in the pre-revolutionary period and until the 30s did not receive practical permission. The country was not economically and technically ready for the construction of the BAM.
BAM - this short word, as a signal for an offensive, first sounded from the pages of newspapers, in government and other documents in the 30s of the 20th century. Since then, the Baikal-Amur Railway has attracted the attention of many specialists for many years and required significant capital investments necessary for the construction of a gigantic natural-technical railway complex stretching over thousands of kilometers.
The region, in which a huge amount of work had to be completed, due to the prevailing natural, geographical and economic conditions, has been developing for many decades on the basis of state support. In the 30s - 50s, 2075 km of railways were built at the expense of state funds (mainly according to lightweight standards) on the approaches to the BAM and on the end sections.
In 1967, by decision of the Government, they were resumed design work at BAM.
By the Decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated July 8, 1974 “On the construction of the Baikal-Amur Railway”, the necessary funds were allocated for the construction of the core of the transport infrastructure - a first category railway with a length of 3100 km, a second track Taishet - Lena - 740 km, Bamovskaya lines - Tynda and Tynda - Berkakit -400 km.
Over the course of half a century, the emphasis changed, but the dominants remained unchanged: the importance of the construction of the Baikal-Amur Railway for the economic development of Siberia and the Far East was never denied, its economic feasibility was implied, and its military-strategic necessity was emphasized.
The Great BAM, the construction of which began in July 1974, was impossible without the preliminary implementation of approaches to it and connecting branches, the invaluable experience of research, design and construction accumulated since the early 30s. The main direction of the route Ust-Kut - Nizhneangarsk - Chara - Tynda - Urgal - Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Sovetskaya Gavan, finally chosen in 1942 as a result of many years of work, turned out to be optimal.
In 1974, construction work began on the BAM: a total of 4,200 km had to be built. During 1979 - 1989 The main line was gradually put into permanent operation at the launch complex, and a number of lines were put into full design capacity. The construction of the western section of the BAM, the second track Taishet - Lena and the Bamovskaya - Tynda - Berkakit lines was carried out by organizations of the Ministry of Transport (since 1992 - Transstroy Corporation), and the eastern section - by the railway troops. The customer of the entire BAM complex was the Ministry of Railways of the Russian Federation.
On January 4, 1992, the Russian Government adopted a decree “On measures to complete the construction of the Baikal-Amur Railway (BAM) and the construction of the Berkakit-Tommot-Yakutsk railway line”
Since 1994, work on the construction and improvement of the BAM route itself, and especially work on the development of the territory adjacent to the route, has essentially ceased.
In 1997 (June 16), the Russian Government Decree (No. 728) “On priority measures to stimulate the economic development of the Baikal-Amur Railway zone” was adopted, which supports the adoption of the necessary measures to accelerate the growth of industrial production and social development in the BAM zone. The resolution noted the need and possibility of creating economically favorable conditions in the BAM zone, including attracting investments, for the development of new industries for the extraction and use of gold, titanium, copper, rare earth metals, oil, apatite, coal, as well as the development of traditional industries : mining metallurgy, coal industry, shipbuilding, timber processing.
In 1999, the State Duma of Russia adopted the Federal Law “On Special Economic Zones of the Baikal-Amur Railway,” which is aimed at creating favorable conditions for the socio-economic development of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, on whose territories the BAM special economic zones are located and aims to preserve and develop productive forces, development of natural resources, development of transport and other infrastructures of the territory adjacent to the BAM.
In general, the BAM complex is designed to solve five important problems of a national scale, which are grandiose and at the same time clear and understandable:
open access to the natural resources of a huge region;
ensure transit transportation over the shortest distance (reduce freight travel by an average of 500 km);
create the shortest intercontinental East-West railway route, running for 10,000 km along Russian railways;
counter possible disruptions and interruptions in train traffic on the Trans-Siberian Railway;
to become the supporting core of the economic development of a vast territory (about 1,500,000 sq. km), rich in valuable reserves of mineral raw materials, fuel and energy, and forest resources.
In the territories adjacent to the BAM highway, mineral resources were explored and prepared for industrial development, the development of which can significantly increase the economic potential of our country and contribute to the settlement of vast territories of Siberia and the Far East; to create here a highly efficient national economic complex with an almost self-sufficient resource and food base, a developed social, scientific and technological sphere, to form a new springboard for the further advance of Russian civilization to the north.
It was planned to create several territorial-industrial complexes (TIC). The optimal among them in terms of many parameters is South Yakutsk, the basis of the economy of which was to be ferrous metallurgy based on the unique combination of iron ore deposits of the South Aldan region (explored reserves - 1.6 billion tons) and coking coals of the Aldan-Chulmakan region (Neryungri, Chulmaken, Denisovskoye with reserves of about 2.9 billion tons), located less than 100 km from each other.
Nowhere in the world are there such favorable conditions for the development of ferrous metallurgy. The famous connection between the Rhine coal basin and the Lorraine iron ore region, which largely determined the course of history of the 20th century (the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, partly the First and Second World Wars), is not comparable to South Yakutia either in terms of reserves or the quality of raw materials.
In addition to the above-mentioned South Aldan deposit, which produces the main concentrates, the richest Charo-Tokkinskoye iron ore deposit (1.3 billion tons), which produces acidic concentrates, is also located here. This makes it possible, when used together through appropriate charging, to sharply reduce the consumption of fluxes and increase the iron content in the charge, which will give considerable competitive advantages to South Yakut steel in foreign markets. In addition, the easily beneficiated ores of the Charo-Tokyo deposit are suitable for use in blast-furnace metallurgy, and for refining concentrates and in powder metallurgy. In general, on the basis of the South Yakutsk TPK it is possible to achieve an annual production of 23 million tons of coal, 42.5 million tons of iron ore, and produce 14 million tons of iron ore concentrate. For comparison: the USSR in 1990 produced 446 million tons of coal and 107.9 million tons of iron ore.
Another important direction in the development of the South Yakutsk TPK was to be the production of phosphate fertilizers on the basis of the largest Seligdar apatite deposit, suitable for producing concentrates with a phosphorus oxide content of 36.5-37.5%. In addition, non-ferrous metallurgy (gold of the Aldan region), mica industry (phlogopite of the Aldan region) and mining of colored stones (Yakut charoite deposit) had good development prospects. At the same time, the issues of providing the TPK with the necessary construction materials and water resources were resolved.
According to the same principles of integrated economic development of territories and in accordance with their administrative division six more TPK could be created, comparable to the South Yakutsk.
Thus, the Verkhne-Lensky TPK, initially using the forest resources of the Irkutsk region and its hydropower, in the near future could rely on proven oil fields (in particular, Verkhne-Chonskoye) of the Nepa arch, capable of meeting the needs of the BAM zone for hydrocarbons for the future 20-25 years. The commissioning of the Nepsko-Gazhinskoye potassium salt deposit is of great importance for the development of agriculture in Siberia and the Far East. Its sylvinite ores are of the best quality in the country. They are characterized by a high content of potassium oxide and a low content of harmful impurities: insoluble residue and potassium chloride, which, taking into account the close hydrocarbon raw materials, can contribute to the development of large-scale chemical production.
The Lensky gold-bearing area, associated with the mining of precious metals for many years, could be transformed into the Mamsko-Chuysky TPK thanks to the development of the mica industry and the commissioning of the Lilac Stone (charoite) deposit.
With the collapse of the USSR, the importance for the Russian economy of the deposits of the Udokan TPK, where the largest deposits of copper ores were discovered (26% of Russian reserves), increased sharply. There are also reserves of rare earth and uranium ores ready for development (Katuginskoye deposit), as well as a smaller-scale than in the South Yakutsk TPK, but very promising combination of iron ores of the Charskoye deposit with coking and thermal coals of the Absat basin. In terms of the total economic capacity, the Udokan TPK, along with the South Yakutsk, is capable of becoming a kind of industrial heart of the BAM.
The backbone for the development of the North Bayalsky TPK should be non-ferrous metallurgy - the production of zinc and lead on the basis of the Kholodninsky deposit, molybdenum - on the basis of the Orekitkan deposit, as well as - in the future, after the creation of acceptable technological processing schemes - the production of alumina at the expense of nephelines and synnyrites. Due to the fact that the developed aluminum industry in Russia is experiencing an acute shortage of raw materials (about 2 million tons of alumina and 4 million tons of bauxite worth over $1 billion are purchased abroad annually), this program is being promoted to a number of priorities. In addition, when processing synnyrites into a separate production, potassium compounds can be isolated. A significant role in the potential of the North Baikal TPK will be played by the use of Molodezhnoe, a deposit capable of completely saturating the domestic market with scarce textile varieties of chrysotile asbestos, as well as supplying them for export.
The Zeysko-Selemzhinsky TPK, in addition to the traditional forestry and wood processing industries, has good prospects for the development of energy on the basis of existing hydro resources, coal, Tyndinskoye and other deposits, as well as energy-intensive non-ferrous metallurgy.
Finally, the easternmost of the TPK of the BAM zone, Urgalo-Komsomolsky, already today has developed machine and shipbuilding, non-ferrous metallurgy based on tin ores of the Komsomolsk region, petrochemistry, coal industry, energy and a system of sea ports. To this complex, which will undoubtedly undergo significant quantitative and qualitative changes, metallurgical enterprises of the first and second processing stages can be added
Already in the first stages of the implementation of this program, the population of the BAM zone can grow to 1 million people, which will sharply aggravate food problems. Agricultural productivity in these regions is low due to a lack of potassium and phosphorus in the soil, as well as a very short growing season. But the efficiency of using mineral fertilizers is quite high: every kilogram of nutrient applied per hectare pays off with an increase of 5-8 kg of grain. Currently, mineral fertilizers are not produced here, and importing them from central Russia is quite expensive and poses a serious transport problem. As a result, the use of mineral fertilizers in Siberia is approximately 3 times less than in Russia. Therefore, the need for advanced development of the corresponding deposits: Nepa (potassium salts) and Seligdar apatite deposits is understandable, especially since the demand for phosphate and potassium fertilizers is quite high both in China and in the countries of the Asia-Pacific Economic Community.
To complete the overall picture, I will provide some information on the Irkutsk region alone. The Irkutsk region is rich in mineral resources. In terms of mineral reserves, the region ranks among the unique natural territories of Russia. Within its borders are the country's largest Lena gold-bearing, Mamsko-Chuysk mica, Angarsk iron ore and East Sayan rare metal provinces, the Irkutsk coal basin, and the world's largest East Siberian salt basin.
The main mineral resources that determine the industrial potential are hydrocarbons, gold, mica-muscovite, table salt, iron, brown and hard coal. The subsoil of the region is rich in deposits of non-metallic raw materials for ferrous metallurgy - magnesite, molding sands, building materials, gemstones and facing stones. Proven promising diamond-bearing areas have been identified in the region. More than 1,000 diamond crystals were extracted from the alluvium of 40 rivers. One of the promising diamond-bearing areas in the south of the Siberian Platform is the Sayan region and the adjacent side of the Rybinsk Basin - the Chuno-Biryusa diamond-bearing area. Diamonds and their satellites are installed in the basins of the Oka, Uda, and Biryusa rivers. About 11 tons of gold are mined annually in the region. The supply of balance reserves is about 15 years.
Current status and development opportunities
The Baikal-Amur Mainline is a supporting element of the infrastructure of a poorly developed economically and sparsely populated corridor 400 km wide, stretching 4095 km in the latitudinal direction from the city of Ust-Kut in Eastern Siberia to the village of Vanino on the Pacific coast (total area of the designated zone 1, 5 million km2; population 600 thousand people).
Now the profitability of BAM, defined as the ratio of the income rate to the cost, is “-50%”; this means that annually BAM generates a loss for the Ministry of Railways (and, consequently, the state) in the amount of 0.115 billion USD (at current prices).
The main reason for the unprofitability of BAM is its insufficient workload (2.5 times less than the design one) with a high capital intensity, which is 4.6 times higher than the average network.
Practically the only way to make the BAM profitable is to intensify economic activity in the BAM zone, relying on the unique reserves of natural resources and the existing highway. However, the systemic crisis of the domestic economy does not allow quickly and in the required volumes to concentrate investment resources in the zone in the volumes necessary for its intensive development.
At the same time, negative processes in cities and towns in the BAM zone are intensifying. Open unemployment in some regions reaches 30%, all enterprises in the zone, starting from Komsomolsk-on-Amur and ending with Ust-Kut, are in a difficult financial situation; approximately a third of them are debtors for VAT and income taxes.
If we talk about other state costs (direct and indirect), then the amount of annual subsidies needs to be increased, adding to it the losses of the Ministry of Railways from the operation of the unprofitable BAM and the maintenance of a significant part of the social infrastructure of the BAM zone (0.115 billion USD / year), as well as the same costs for the current resettlement program from the most depressed areas of the zone (0.6 billion USD/year).
In such a situation, it would be advisable not to first pump funds out of the depressed zone and then return them there with a lag of 3 months to a year, but simply leave them in the zone. Below are considerations of how this strategy can be implemented, at least partially, within the framework of the adopted law “On the special economic zone in the BAM region.”
In addition, apparently, it is necessary to invest in the development of mining and processing enterprises located along the BAM. Pilot among them are: see Appendices
Considering the dynamics of the main indicators of the BAM (see Appendices), we can draw the following conclusions:
the volume of traffic along the BAM in comparison with the Trans-Siberian Railway is an order of magnitude smaller and one of the lowest in the network, which requires classifying the unfinished BAM as an inactive road of a development type;
the level of cost of transportation along the BAM as a whole during the period under review consistently exceeded the average network cost by 1.6 times, and the cost of transportation along the Trans-Siberian Railway by 1.85 times;
BAM's profitability indicators in the period under review were of an estimated nature and were maintained at an acceptable level due to regulation by the settlement price.
In such a situation, increasing the profitability of BAM can be solved in four areas:
finding internal reserves to reduce costs;
redistribution of profits from other railways, taking into account the current system of financing the objectively worse operating conditions of the BAM;
redistribution of transportation work between BAM and Transsib;
increasing the volume of transportation work by stimulating the industrial development of the BAM zone by various methods.
For various reasons, of these four directions, real steps can be taken only in two (reducing capital intensity and increasing the volume of transportation work) - see Appendix.
In general, a special program has been developed for the development of the BAM zone, some of the characteristics of which are given in the Appendix.
Interested structures and real users
The constructed BAM is a ready springboard for access to huge, relatively well-explored reserves of mineral raw materials, which are in demand both on the global and domestic Russian markets. Activation of the extraction of renewable (for example, timber) and non-renewable resources in the BAM zone will be able to generate high and sustainable cargo flow and, consequently, the load on the BAM.
Much has already been said about the wealth of the territories located around the BAM. Let's look at the example of the Khabarovsk Territory:
The Khabarovsk Territory is Russia's leading region for the production of tin concentrate - it accounts for about 35% of Russia's tin. In addition to tin, copper is mined in the region.
State of deposits:
are in operation - deposits of tin-polymetallic ores of the Komsomolsk ore district: Festivalnoye, Solnechnoye, Perevalnoe (located 60-80 km west of Komsomolsk-on-Amur), tin ore deposits of the Badzhal ore district (40-70 km from the BAM) ;
prepared for exploitation - the Sobolinoye (located 80 km north-west of Komsomolsk-on-Amur), Blizhneye and Pravourmiyskoye deposits (located in the Verkhnebureinsky district, 40-70 km from the Baikal-Amur railway);
require further study - the Lunnoye, Oktyabrskoye, Vetvistoye (located 60-80 km west of Komsomolsk-on-Amur), Boltoro, Dvoinoye, Rudnoye, Omot-Makit, Vysokoye deposits (located in the Verkhnebureinsky district 40-70 km from the BAM) ; Udzhaki, Mopau, Tausa, Rudninskoye (located 80 km southwest of Sovetskaya Gavan), Sorukan, Bastion, Derimikan (district named after P. Osipenko), Khayrindzha (Ayano-Maysky district).
Characteristic features of all deposits:
complexity - in addition to tin, ores contain copper, zinc, lead (in industrial quantities), bismuth, silver, cadmium, gold, indium and other non-ferrous and rare metals;
high saturation of ores with useful components;
high technological properties of ores - extraction for tin is 70-90%, for copper - 75%;
possibility of development by open and underground methods.
Ore mining in the region is carried out by:
joint stock company “Solnechny GOK” (the state owns the “golden share”); it accounts for 98% of tin production and 100% of copper production;
prospecting artel "Amgun" (private enterprise).
The Baikal-Amur Railway, with its multi-purpose purpose in the country's economy, is a key factor in the development of a huge region, exceptionally rich in natural resources. For the industrial development of these resources, it is necessary to build short-length access railway tracks from the existing highway.
The Ministry of Railways of Russia, as the coordinator of activities related to the economic development of the BAM zone, purposefully takes concrete steps to develop this zone.
The first such step was the creation, on the initiative of the ministry, of an open joint stock company"Baminvest", which was approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated June 16, 1997. No. 728. The company’s activities are aimed at the industrial development of the BAM zone. The goals of the society can be briefly formulated as follows - the creation of life support conditions for the BAM zone for the implementation of Russia’s strategic interests, which consist of:
in economic terms, this is the creation of a modern mechanism for the subsidy-free functioning of the economic space;
in social terms - the formation of business structures aimed at socially significant programs, the creation of new jobs;
in environmental terms - the creation of regulatory mechanisms that contribute to maintaining a sustainable balance between the economy, nature and people.
"Baminvest" has prepared the "Program for the economic development and development of the BAM zone for 1998 - 2005." A project has been developed and construction has begun of a 67-kilometer railway line from Chara station to Chyny, with a branch to Udokan, to the Chiney complex deposit of titanium-magnetite and vanadium-containing iron ores and copper-platinum ores at the Udokan deposit. By the beginning of 1999, more than 230 million rubles had been spent on the construction site, 12 km of roadbed had been poured, 8 km of railway track had been laid, 2 bridges had been built and 4 more were in operation. This year, out of the planned 923 million rubles of capital investments, more than 30 million rubles have been spent, or since the beginning of construction - 13% of the cost of the launch complex.
OJSC Baminvest was one of the initiators of the participation of the state railway - the Far Eastern Railway and Baminvest itself in the creation of OJSC Elgaugol, which will build an access railway track stretching 318 km from the Milko crossing on the eastern section of the BAM to the Elga coal deposit and the development of this rich deposits (2.1 billion tons with open-pit mining).
The implementation of just these two projects will significantly increase the volume of cargo transportation along the BAM.
In addition, work is already underway to develop the Sukhoi Log gold deposit. This deposit is one of the largest in Russia. According to the classification of reserves, it belongs to the second group with a metal content in the contours of productive ores - 2.3 grams per ton of ore. Located in the central part of the Lensky gold mining region, 137 km from the city of Bodaibo and 357 km from the nearest railway. Taximo station. The commissioning of the first start-up complex with a gold productivity of 8 tons should be commissioned no later than 2 quarters. 2001, the quarry should reach its design capacity (30 tons) by 2005.
The BAM represents enormous potential for the development of the entire region in the coming years, although today, due to the decline in transportation volumes, the line is unprofitable: instead of the planned transportation of 8-10 million tons of cargo annually, due to the reduction in industrial production, less than half is transported along the line.
The main task is to attract cargo, which will make the highway profitable. One of the ways to solve this problem is the development of mineral deposits in the BAM zone. Another is an increase in transit from Europe to Asia and back.
According to expert estimates, today 580 billion worth of cargo goes from Asia to Europe annually. Doll.
Transport of goods between Europe and the Asia-Pacific region is currently carried out mainly by sea through Indian Ocean, Suez Canal, Mediterranean Sea: from the ports of China and Japan to the cities of Western Europe - Naples, Barcelona and Marseille - 22 thousand kilometers with a route speed of 1000 km per day, or in 22 days. Whereas the length of the railway route from the ports of Primorye to Berlin is 14 thousand km, and at a route speed of 1100 km per day, the transportation time will not exceed 13 days. Taking into account the delivery of goods from the ports of China and Japan to Primorye (2 days), the total delivery time from Asia to Central Europe via the Trans-Siberian Railway will not exceed 15 days, and when traveling from Skovorodino to Taishet via the BAM, it will speed up by another 5-6 hours.
But these terms can also be reduced; on April 16, 1998, a demonstration container train with one hundred containers set off on the Nakhodka-Brest route, which traveled a distance of 9943 km along Russian railways and arrived at its destination in 9 days. The average speed was 1168 km per day, that is, it significantly exceeded the route speed of sea vessels.
BAM and Transsib
Despite the apparent competition between two neighboring highways, each of them is designed to solve its own set of problems. Essentially, these railways complement each other.
The Trans-Siberian Railway was originally built to deliver cargo and military equipment to the eastern part of our country, and its main task was to organize the economic space of the southern regions of Siberia and the Far East. At the same time, no emphasis was placed on transit. It acquired its role as a carrier of transit cargo between Asia and Europe relatively recently. And we can say that the transportation of container cargo from Far Eastern ports to the European part has never been its main activity.
So does BAM. It was built not for specialization in international container transportation, but for the development and exploration of a new geospace. Therefore, when opinions are now heard that competition between our core East-West routes is unprofitable, it is necessary to realize that container and other international transit transportation is only auxiliary work in the arrangement of Russia’s storerooms.
Geopolitical situation and future forecasts
To identify priority areas for the development of the zone adjacent to the highway, it is necessary to change approaches - to go not only from the development of resources (which can be seen in the Government Resolution), but also from studying the situation in the domestic and foreign (primarily the Pacific region and Southeast Asia) markets. Only in this case can it be convincingly proven what goods the BAM zone can bring to markets, what industries should be developed there, and what effect can be obtained.
Tourism can become one of the most important areas for boosting the economy of the BAM zone. The Baikal Ring, which includes the Angarsk hydroelectric power stations, the upper Lena, the Tsarskaya Kotlovina, Sikhote-Alin and other places with excellent recreational conditions, is of great interest for international and Russian tourism.
It is also advisable to include in the sphere of interests of the created BAM zone the zone of economic development of the Amur-Yakutsk railway line under construction, the work of which will significantly affect the load on the Baikal-Amur railway.
Transport development of the BAM zone should not be limited only to the railway. The BAM will operate efficiently and fully only when it is supported by sea and river ports (Vanino, Osetrovo, Komsomolsk-on-Amur), when a highway runs parallel to the route and access roads to Udokan and other mineral deposits and forests are built, when Dozens of local airports and large international airports will start operating. We should talk about the development of the entire transport complex, including all types of modern transport.
The comprehensive development of the BAM zone also presupposes a second exit of the railway route to the Pacific Ocean, since the growing trade of APEC countries with Europe opens up serious opportunities for using the BAM as the shortest and most reliable transport route between these world centers. It is also important to expand our own trade with APEC.
From these points of view, closing the BAM route at the ports of Vanino and Sovetskaya Gavan does not make any sense: the northern part of the Tatar Strait is shallow and difficult for navigation, and South part connected to the Sea of Okhotsk only through the La Perouse Strait. Much more promising is the continuation of the Berkakit - Yakutsk branch into the mining areas of northeastern Yakutia and the Magadan region with access to the Sea of Okhotsk near Magadan. The implementation of this option is very expensive, but it is most profitable in the medium term, 10-15 years.
Also worthy of attention are plans to build a highway east of the city of Neryungri with access to the sea in the Okhotsk region or slightly to the south. In this case, deposits of the Tokyo coal-bearing region (20 billion tons) and the Sutam iron ore deposit (2 billion tons) of easily enriched quartzites can be involved. Access to the sea near the mouth of the river is not excluded. Udy, however, the disadvantages of this option are the poorly explored mineral deposits of the Udsko-Selemzhinsky region, the shallow depth of the sea off the coast, and the lack of well-protected bays here.
However, any of the options for the “Eastern Russian Route” makes the BAM zone extremely attractive for investment, including foreign investment, since it gives a powerful impetus to development for APEC countries.
I would like to emphasize the special importance of the BAM, which made the current idea of creating a transcontinental railway line with a length of 15 thousand kilometers from Ireland to Tokyo “Japan-Europe” a reality, of which over 10 thousand kilometers are on the territory of Russia, using the shortest route along the BAM from Taishet to Komsomolsk -on-Amur.
Next, it will be necessary to build a railway to Cape Lazarev and dig a 7-kilometer-long tunnel under the Nevelskoy Strait to Sakhalin, reconstruct the Sakhalin narrow-gauge road to Cape Krillon and connect Sakhalin Island with the island of Hokkaido with a 40-kilometer-long tunnel or bridge. The Japanese islands are already connected by tunnels. England is connected to the mainland by the Channel Tunnel, and Sweden and the island part of Denmark are connected to the mainland. It is necessary to connect Ireland with England with a 56-kilometer tunnel, the decision on the construction of which has already been made.
IN Lately interest in resuming the construction of the tunnel to Sakhalin has increased significantly (on March 22, 1999, in Khabarovsk, in a secret railway storage facility in the north of the Khabarovsk Territory, an archive of two special objects of the Stalinist Gulag - construction sites No. 500 and 506 - was discovered - survey materials, design and executive documentation for the construction of the railway tunnel, which was supposed to connect the mainland and Sakhalin Island).
The existing ferry crossing Vanino - Kholmsk cannot cope with the transportation of goods. In addition, all the islands of Japan are already connected by railway lines, including the island of Hokkaido, located just 19 kilometers from Sakhalin. Thus, it is technically quite possible to create a Transcontinental railway line with a length of 15,000 kilometers - Tokyo - Sakhalin - Komsomolsk - BAM - Transsib - Moscow - Minsk - Warsaw - Berlin - London.
At a press conference held on March 17, 1999, Minister of Railways Nikolai Aksenenko said that the revival of the project to build a tunnel under the Tatar Strait to Sakhalin could become very promising. The tunnel will provide railway communication between the island and the mainland. As Nikolai Aksenenko said, the railway tunnel to Sakhalin “was made by very smart people. My task as minister is to revive this project.”
The new intercontinental railway transport line will lead to the unification of four markets: the European Union, Eastern Europe. Russia and Japan. Thus, the economic interests of these regions, including China and the entire continental part of the Asia-Pacific Region, will be connected in reliable shortest ways. This will undoubtedly be a powerful counter to the economic, political, financial and military expansion of the United States. Peaceful opposition. It is with this idea that Russia will enter the 21st century.
By the way, on July 6, 1999, the initiative working group “Russian Far East - West Coast of the USA” met for the fourth time in Vladivostok to discuss the concept of the East-West transport corridor. It has now been joined by delegations from two northeastern provinces China and observers from South Korea, Japan and Mongolia.
It is impossible not to mention the problems that have arisen in the field of transit cargo transportation, which we will have to get acquainted with in the near future. Namely, about the clash of interests of our BAM system - Trans-Siberian Railway and the resurgent Great Silk Road - a comprehensive Eurasian transcontinental bridge.
BAM has its drawbacks. This is a single-track road for almost its entire length, which also ends in the “dead-end” Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Further to the ocean there is an old logging line, not suitable for large-scale transportation. Meanwhile, enterprising Chinese neighbors began to build a road, which, according to their plan, should become a competitor to the Trans-Siberian Railway and the BAM. This road, in essence, is a continuation of the Chinese Eastern Railway, which Russia built back in the last century, and in 1952 donated to the PRC.
Its total length from the starting point of the port city of Lianyungang, which is located north of Shanghai, to the final point of Rotterdam along the shortest route is 10.9 thousand km. On Chinese territory, the highway runs along the route Lianyungang port - Xi'an - Lanzhou - Urumqi - Alashankou, where it connects with the railway network of Kazakhstan, which is called the Trans-Asian (TAR), passes through the territory of Kazakhstan and crosses the border with China at the Druzhba station, which after the collapse The USSR became the property of Kazakhstan. Today Druzhba is an integral part of the Almaty railway, which has also become one of the most important sections of the TAR. According to the border agreement concluded between the Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Ministry of Railways of the People's Republic of China, traffic was opened through the Druzhba station in September 1991. Soon after this, the idea of creating the Trans-Asian and then the Euro-Asian railways was born. If both of these projects are completed, the Trans-Siberian Railway and the BAM will no longer be needed by either the West or the East. According to the project, up to 15 million tons of cargo per day will go through the Druzhba station from China, India, Vietnam, Korea to Turkey and further to European countries.
Already in 1996, 2,005 thousand tons of cargo were imported to China through Druzhba, including 1,370 thousand tons from Kazakhstan, 516 thousand tons from Uzbekistan, and only 95 thousand tons from Russia. 195 thousand tons were exported from China, including 40 thousand tons to Kazakhstan, 131 thousand tons to Uzbekistan, and the rest to Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia. At the same time, 15 forty-car block trains were operated from South Korea to Uzbekistan. Trying to attract more cargo to the Trans-Asian and Euro-Asian highways, interested CIS countries, as well as Iran and Turkey, are developing joint programs. Most active Kazakhstan and China show this. Thus, the transportation of goods on the railways of Kazakhstan to the PRC is carried out at international transport tariff rates with a coefficient of 0.5, while on the Trans-Siberian Railway there is a coefficient of 0.6. Recently, the railways of Kazakhstan and China, in order to increase freight turnover, decided to apply special through rates for transit traffic through Druzhba. In addition, they want to attract the maximum number of passengers. Back in 1992, that is, before the opening of international passenger traffic, the station at Druzhba station was restored. The residential village also began to expand: today about 3 thousand people live here. In fact, the Euro-Asian and Trans-Asian highways have already begun their lives, having received the figurative name of the “new Silk Road”. By the way, this is also the name of the comfortable train “Zhibek Zholy” (“Silk Road”), which has been running from the capital of Kazakhstan to the Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China for 5 years. In the near future, it is planned to open international passenger traffic on the route Almaty - Beijing, and in the future it is planned to transport up to 500 thousand passengers per year through Druzhba. Great hopes are pinned here on the commissioning of the new railway line Tenzhen - Serakhs - Mashhad between Turkmenistan and Iran. However, it is enough to look at the diagram of the Trans-Asian Railway, running from the Yellow to the Black Seas, for its prospects to become clear. Connecting the Trans-Asian Road with the Eurasian Road will facilitate the route from ports on the Baltic and North Sea to the Far Eastern ports.
Further, from Kazakhstan, cargo can go along existing main highways in several directions: 1) Kazakhstan - Russia - Belarus - Poland - Western Europe; 2) Kazakhstan - Russia - Ukraine - Romania - Southern Europe; 3) Kazakhstan - Uzbekistan - Iran - Türkiye - Southern Europe.
Probably, it was these circumstances that prompted the largest banks in the world to invest their funds in the development of the Euro-Asian and Trans-Asian roads. Among the investors are the World Bank, the Asian and Islamic Development Banks, and the EBRD. According to the head of the European sector of the German railway consulting society, Peter Kulke, the project for the development of the trans-Asian corridor and the new Eurasian Continental Bridge is one of the most gigantic transport projects of our century. The European Union has already determined the main directions for the development of a pan-European transport network. Thus, the second pan-European transport conference unveiled plans for the main routes to Asia. The Silk Road is supposed to be “connected” through the railway corridor that leads from Western Europe to Istanbul. Branches from the “Silk Road,” according to Western experts, will go to the route connecting Moscow with Western Europe, as well as to ferry crossings across the Black Sea and from there to Romania and Bulgaria.
The greatest benefit goes to China and the countries of Central and Central Asia.
Firstly, China gains access to wide open spaces in the very center of Asia. From here, trade flows of Chinese goods, including industrial ones, can flow to the markets of all countries of the continent, including the EU countries, which are its main partners. The markets of other countries will also be diligently explored. The latest machines, equipment, modern technologies and so on.
Secondly, the states of Central Asia, primarily Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, are now potential for the PRC, and in a few years real suppliers of oil, gas and other raw materials, materials, without which the PRC may not be able to fulfill promising program development until 2010
Thirdly, China receives large economic benefits from the transit of goods to Europe from Japan, Korea and other Southeast Asian countries. The third part of the entire highway (4131 km) passes through the territory of China, which will allow the latter to receive large incomes from transit cargo transportation. (For reference: the cost of transporting one container from South Korea and Japan to Central Europe is 1550-1750 dollars)
Fourthly, the PRC gets the opportunity to improve transport support for the development of the economy and foreign economic relations of its northwestern and northern regions with a population of about 300 million people. The highway passes through territories rich in various natural resources: only in the region of its gravity (a strip 200 km wide) are concentrated 63% of the national coal reserves, 40% of oil, 50% of natural gas, from 30 to 77% of aluminum, copper, and gold reserves and other minerals.
Fifthly, the highway passes through 11 provinces of China, and its operation is considered as an important factor in accelerating the economic development of the country's interior regions, their active integration into world economic relations, and weakening regional imbalances in the development of the national economy. The road should become the axis of economic development of the regions gravitating towards it. It is planned to build along the highway enterprises for the extraction and processing of natural resources, oil and gas pipelines, as well as modern communication lines; development of tourism and international cultural exchanges.
According to economists from Central Asian countries, the creation of the “New Silk Road” has a beneficial effect on the economic situation in the area. “The joining of Eurasian railways,” writes Kazakh economist U. Kasenov, “is an epoch-making event, marking the revival of the “Great Silk Road,” which since ancient times connected Europe and Asia.” And, as a consequence of this, there is a significant increase in the role and importance of Kazakhstan as a major transit hub of Eurasian significance. With the opening of the transcontinental railway, the most important growth factor begins to gain momentum - the expansion of international trade, tourism intensifies, and the chances of an influx of foreign investment increase. All Central Asian states have gained access to the seas and oceans through neighboring countries and are expanding their trade and economic ties.
Since Kazakhstan is located on the most advantageous section of the transcontinental bridge, it hopes to receive significant foreign exchange earnings for the transit of goods and services for tourists. The PRC is currently one of Kazakhstan's major trading partners.
EU countries expect to receive considerable economic and other benefits from the transcontinental bridge. First of all, they gained direct access to the markets of China from its northwestern side. After Japan, EU countries occupy second place in trade with China, and constantly have a significant surplus. Secondly, the transcontinental bridge made it possible for EU countries to develop the commodity and raw materials markets of Central Asia, create various kinds of strategic foundations in this area, tie tighter knots with capital, etc.
Thus, the creation of the Second Eurasian Bridge (if the BAM-Transsib system is considered the First) has already significantly intensified and tightened trade and economic ties in the Central Asian region. Meanwhile, experts from the Russian Ministry of Railways believe that the Euro-Asian Highway is not capable of becoming the main road between the West and the East.
In particular, the route, especially the southern branch of the New Silk Road, already runs from Lianyungang to the northwestern provinces of China, in an area of environmental disaster, dangerous water and wind erosion, acute shortage of water resources, deforestation and sand encroachment. Moving further to the west, the highway enters a zone of difficult natural conditions and interethnic conflicts.
Transsib and BAM, they argue, have more advantages. This is an electrified two-track railway (Trans-Siberian, partially BAM), on which you can travel from the Far East to any city in Europe. BAM, which is 500 km shorter than its “big brother,” in their opinion, is also promising. However, the “shock therapy” of the reforms forced railway workers to introduce high tariffs, as a result of which travel on the mainline became unaffordable even for foreigners. As if the situation is now changing for the better: the Ministry of Railways has found an opportunity to reduce tariffs. But there are other problems. Business people are afraid of the lack of infrastructure (in terms of infrastructure) of the Trans-Siberian Railway and the BAM and even consider these roads unsafe for life and property. It is necessary to take into account that, in comparison with the Euro-Asian Highway, these roads are essentially shorter, because they are located further from the equator. Using them, the journey from the Far East to London or Madrid takes less time.
And it is no coincidence that another “project of the 21st century” appeared: the Madrid-Chicago railway corridor via the BAM, with the continuation of this highway to Yakutsk and the Bering Strait.
conclusions
The role of the BAM in the economic development of the region is comparable to the role of the Trans-Siberian Railway in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century and the largest transport and communication structures in North America, Europe and Asia. The BAM can and should become one of the main highways connecting Russia to the dynamically developing Asia-Pacific region. The latter circumstance presupposes competition between the BAM-Trans-Sib system and the trans-Asian railway from Asia to Europe through the Central Asian republics, which is capable of “intercepting” the transit flow of goods: China, Pakistan and Iran are now working on a project for its creation.
In the BAM corridor there are areas whose total living conditions are suitable for receiving migration flows from Russia and the CIS countries. They should be considered as part of a system of settling vast areas from Lake Baikal all the way to the Pacific coast, where the average population density is one person per 1 sq. km of territory. Therefore, the demographic situation along the more than 4,000 km border with China resembles a membrane separating two containers. On the one hand, where the demographic giant China is located, pressure is mounting; from the regions of Transbaikalia and the Far East, the vacuum is increasing due to population migration. Creeping “sinicization” has already begun: in the regions of Siberia and the Far East, where hundreds of thousands of Chinese citizens now live. And this process will develop: in the northeastern Chinese provinces bordering Russia, whose population is more than 100 million people, which is more than 3 times the entire population of the Asian part of Russia.
Consequently, the long-term interests of Russia require the settlement of the BAM zone, and the existing highway will be one of the most important factors contributing to the intensification of this process. In addition, BAM retains its military-strategic importance as a rolling railway along the border.
Today, the only serious mistake made during the construction of the BAM seems to be the emphasis on the actual construction of the route to the detriment of the development of the production infrastructure. Hammering the crutches became an end in itself and was not sufficiently supported by the use of mineral deposits made available by the construction of the railway. Thus, construction costs were not recouped, and their economic return was postponed “for later.”
Achieving acceptable profitability of the BAM by 2005 (at the level of 17%) is possible only if large investments are made in the development resource potential BAM zone within the framework of the economic development program of the BAM zone, which will lead to an increase in the need for transportation work. In the most likely scenario, the volume of cargo shipped along the BAM will be about 40 million tons per year. An increase in transit cargo flows before 2005 for the BAM is unlikely; however, after 2005, when the BAM zone program enters the stage of focal development, these flows will increase. However, in any case, the BAM must be completed to its full profile by 2005. Any other options for increasing the profitability of the BAM, not related to the program for the economic development of the BAM zone, are ineffective.
Adygea, Crimea. Mountains, waterfalls, herbs of alpine meadows, healing mountain air, absolute silence, snowfields in the middle of summer, the murmuring of mountain streams and rivers, stunning landscapes, songs around the fires, the spirit of romance and adventure, the wind of freedom await you! And at the end of the route are the gentle waves of the Black Sea.
