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Soviet Union [USSR] The Baykal-Amur Main Line
The vast Siberian region between Lake Baykal and the lower Amur
River, called the Transbaykal (or Zabaykaliye), is rich in natural
and mineral resources. Yet until recently, it lacked adequate
transportation to the rest of the country. Its main communication
artery was the overburdened
Trans-Siberian Railway (see Glossary),
running well south of it. Although providing the Transbaykal region
with a railroad was considered in the nineteenth century, work on
the Baykal-Amur Main Line (Baykalo-Amurskaya Magistral'--
BAM; see Glossary) did not begin until 1974. The BAM was finally opened in
1989.
Survey and construction crews overcame formidable geological,
climatic, topographic, and engineering challenges, including
rivers, ground ice, unstable soil, seismic areas, mountains, and
extremes of cold and heat. About two-thirds of the BAM trackage
crossed areas of ground ice that caused frost heave and other
unstable soil conditions. In the summer, permafrost created large
bogs that hampered roadbed construction, and embankments sank into
the marshy terrain during the summer thaw. To prevent such
problems, engineers insulated the strip of marsh along the tracks
to keep it in a continuously frozen state. Seismic activity along
some 1,000 kilometers of the line also caused problems, triggering
avalanches and landslides. Topographic obstacles were formidable as
well. To cross the mountains, crews had to pierce over thirty
kilometers of tunnels. The BAM also crossed more than 3,000
streams, and because of the permafrost new bridge construction
techniques had to be devised. On average, the roadbed for the BAM
required moving 100,000 cubic meters of earth--either cutting or
filling--for each kilometer of track.
The mean annual temperature along the BAM ranges from -10°C
to
-4°C, with extremes of -58°C in the winter to 36°C in
the summer.
To operate their trains under these severe climatic conditions, the
railroads used special equipment, locomotives, rolling stock, and
fixed installations. Snow plows, snow-melting machines, switch
heaters, and other specialized equipment were indispensable in the
winter. Rails made of special steel that does not become brittle at
the very low temperatures of the Arctic and Siberian winters were
also used.
From its western terminus at Ust'-Kut to its eastern end at
Komsomol'sk-na-Amure, the BAM stretched for 3,145 kilometers,
between 180 and 300 kilometers north of the Trans-Siberian Railway.
It had a total of 5,000 kilometers of main line and yard track. In
addition to the east-west main line, a 402-kilometer perpendicular
line, the "Little BAM," ran from Bamovskaya on the Trans-Siberian
Railway north to Tynda on the BAM and thence to Berkakit to serve
the important mining and industrial area of Neryungri. In the late
1980s, an extension to the Yakutiya region, rich in timber and
minerals, was under way.
The BAM and its feeder routes, both rail and highway, served an
area of approximately 1.2 million square kilometers. Although track
laying was completed in 1986, it was not yet in full operation in
1989. The projected freight traffic on the BAM was planned at 35
million tons per year, with trains of up to 9,000 tons. Moreover,
the government planned for the BAM to become an important part of
the Siberian land bridge from Japan, via the port of Sovetskaya
Gavan', to West European destinations, saving 20 percent in time
over the maritime route.
Data as of May 1989
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