Pages, some stolen, some original

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Amur Bridge Project

Incomplete Railroad Bridge over the Amur River
Russia and China are cooperating to build a railroad bridge across the Amur River, which forms part of the border between the two countries. From the above picture we can see that half of the bridge has been completed. This is the Chinese half. The Russians are going to start on their half someday soon, we hope.

I came across the picture on al fin next level, and I wondered if it would show up on a satellite image. To that end, it was first necessary to figure out just where the bridge is. Yes, it is going over the Amur River, but the Amur River is very long (2,700 miles), and even the part that forms the border between China and Russia is hundreds of miles long.

Map of the Amur River
A little digging reveals that the bridge is near Nizhneleninskoye. Now we know.

Amur Bridge Project
Nizhneleninskoye is the red placemark.
Ice! Somehow I think that would require making the bridge foundations much stronger than would be required for a bridge over a river that doesn't freeze, like one in the tropics. But maybe the day-in, day-out strain of the flowing water would outweigh the stress imposed by a few months of ice.

OpenRailway view of the Amur Project Bridge
The whole point of this operation is to carry iron ore from the Kimkan mine near Birobidzhan in Russia to steel mills somewhere in China.

No comments:

Post a Comment