Baikal-Amur Mainline: large transport hubs. Construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline

The Baikal-Amur Mainline is one of the largest railways in the world. Its construction has played a strategic role in the development of the Siberian region, has become a catalyst for the formation of manufacturing enterprises, the emergence of new cities, provided jobs for thousands of residents.

Design

The Russian government decided to build the Baikal-Amur Mainline back in the late 19th century. The road that ran through the north of Lake Baikal would be a breakthrough in the development of eastern territories. After the end of the war with the Japanese, it was necessary to solve the problems of supplying hard-to-reach eastern regions. The First World War, revolutions and their consequences forced to postpone this issue - in the USSR then there was neither technology nor the ability to implement a large-scale project.

Again, it took him only in 1930. The government meeting instructed special organizations to start work on a railway project that would duplicate the Trans-Siberian railway, but was located to the north and provided access to the Pacific coast. Then the new ways were given a name - the Baikal-Amur Mainline. Large transport hubs come to the Irkutsk, Amur regions, the Khabarovsk Territory, run through the republic of Buryatia and hard-to-reach lands of Yakutia. Already in 1933 the first area of the railroad track was established.

Building

Full-scale work on the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline, which connected Taishet and Sovetskaya Gavan, a city off the coast of the ocean, was launched in 1937. BAM immediately received an unofficial name - "building of the century." And this is not surprising. The construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline was delayed for many years, stopped for several years because of the war, and then because of a lack of funding. To this day, BAM is one of the most expensive projects realized in the 20th century.

For the construction of thousands of prisoners from all prisons and camps of the country. The authorities agitated the population to take part in the construction of a road that was to become a future power. The builders were provided with housing and all the necessary conditions. With the construction of the road, the cities of Siberia developed.

Between 1942 and 1947 the works were suspended because of the war. The next stop occurred in 1953. A costly project required large investments and human resources.

Construction was resumed only after almost 20 years - in 1974. "The construction of the century" again began with a rapid pace, several directions developed and developed at once. Another 12 years were needed in order to connect all the sites. During this time, about 2 million builders worked together at different sites in several regions of the country. In 1989, BAM appeared on the map of Russia. Then it was formally put into operation.

Baikal-Amur Mainline: large transport hubs

The BAM begins at the Taishet station of the Trans-Siberian Railway and then leaves for the East. It is here that the starting point of the road connects the two most grandiose transport projects of the country. When the Baikal-Amur Mainline was laid, large transport hubs began to actively "build up" the population at the expense of builders from all corners of the country who came here to work, and then stayed for permanent residence.

The key stations of the road were Taishet, Tynda, Neryungri, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Sovetskaya Gavan. BAM was the first railway in the territory of Yakutia, which because of the hardest natural conditions for a long time remained cut off from the country, and the message was carried out exclusively with the help of air travel.

The development of territories around the Baikal-Amur Mainline

Designers, connecting the Trans-Siberian Railway with the Pacific coast, have chosen the path for the future road, covering the largest deposits of minerals. Thus, it was planned to increase the efficiency of transportation. The railways had to bring tangible profits and facilitate the transportation of fossils.

The most studied along the BAM route are such coal deposits: Ogorodsky and Elginskoye, copper Udokan, oil and gas deposits in Talakan, Verkhnechonsk, Yaraktinsky and other regions. There are also significant deposits of iron ores, copper, polymetals, apatites and gas in other parts of the road. To increase the indicators and efficiency of work at these sites, it is necessary to establish transport infrastructure in the region and ensure the transport of minerals directly to the place of loading in the car.

The largest stations along the road

Thanks to the construction of the road, the status of the cities of Ust-Kut, Tynda (the latter became known as the "heart of BAM") was obtained. Taishet is a strategically important station, the point where the Baikal-Amur Main Line originates. Large transport hubs also pass through Tynda, from which follow two branches: to the North (to Neryungri) and to the South (to Skovorodino), thus connecting with the Trans-Siberian Railway.

The terminal station is the city of Sovetskaya Gavan, located on the banks of the Tatar Strait. He is known for another long construction - an underwater tunnel, which was to connect Sakhalin and the mainland. So far this project has not been implemented. There are 3 stations in Sovetskaya Gavan, however, passenger trains stop in another, nearby area. Also, in order to travel to the West by passenger train, it is necessary to follow through Vladivostok, which you can reach with trailer cars.

Other railways of the region

The Baikal-Amur Main Line is subordinated to the Eastern Siberian Railways on the Siberian route, and the Far Eastern Railway is located on the territory of the Amur Region and the Khabarovsk Territory. BAM repeats the Trans-Siberian railway, which runs along the southern border of Russia (similarly - through the Siberian and Far Eastern territories).

BAM development plans

The main problem of this railway is that, despite more than 15 years of operation, it is still unprofitable. Railways have a huge potential, which concealed this road, when the designers created it, but it has not been implemented yet.

The main difficulties lie in the fact that the main deposits of minerals and ores are not laid ways of communication. After the completion of the construction it was decided to continue to develop the direction, but first because of the collapse of the USSR, then because of the unstable economic situation in the 90s and the global economic crisis in the early 2000s, plans were repeatedly postponed. In 2011, this topic was again raised by Vladimir Putin. It is planned to increase the speed of trains, throughput and carrying capacity.

General characteristics of the Baikal-Amur Mainline

The total length of the road is 4,300 kilometers, mainly it consists of one track. The railway from the two tracks is built only from Taishet to Lena and has a length of about 700 kilometers.

The construction of BAM was complicated by the harshest natural conditions. Many sites had to be built on permafrost, in earthquake-prone areas. 11 bridges were built across the deep rivers, more than 30 kilometers of the road passes through tunnels in the rocks. The mountainous terrain also significantly complicated the process of erecting the railway.