In 2024, Russia will solemnly celebrate the 50th anniversary of the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM). In accordance with the Decree of the President of Russia, which was published in early March, the government was instructed to form an organizing committee for preparing the celebrations within three months. In addition, a plan for holding anniversary events is to be adopted. Their main organizer and official sponsor will be the Ministry of Transport of Russia. The main days of the celebration are scheduled for July 6-7, 2024. Meanwhile, Glavgosexpertiza of Russia continues to work with the facilities of the second phase of the development of the Eastern range – the largest project in the history of Russian railways to increase the carrying capacity of the BAM and the Trans-Siberian Railway towards the Far Eastern ports.
The idea of building a northern understudy of the Trans-Siberian appeared at the end of the 19th century. So, in 1888, the Russian Technical Society for the first time presented a project for the construction of a railway through the northern tip of Lake Baikal to the Pacific coast. Already in 1889, the first studies were carried out on the route from the Angara River through the Baikal and Severo-Muisky ridges, in the area of \u200b\u200bthe modern BAM route. But due to difficult conditions, construction was delayed for almost half a century. A new start to construction was given in 1932, when the decision of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR “On the construction of the Baikal-Amur railway” was issued. At the same time, the BAM Construction Department was created and full-scale design and survey work was launched. And for the first time, the Bam station appeared on the map of the Trans-Siberian Railway as the starting point of the future Baikal railway. In 1938, the construction of the western section of the BAM began – from Taishet to Bratsk, and in 1939 the builders began work on the eastern section from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Sovetskaya Gavan. And although the first Soviet BAM project was never fully implemented due to the technical complexity and high cost of construction, nevertheless, sections of the highway laid in the 1940s-1960s from Taishet to Lena with a total length of 692 km played a huge role in the development of domestic technologies transport construction and industrial development of the Far Eastern territories.
The beginning of the modern history of BAM is considered to be the release of the resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR of July 8, 1974 “On the construction of the Baikal-Amur Railway”. It is to this date that the celebration of the 50th anniversary of BAM is timed.
The new project involved the construction of a first category railway along the previously laid route, including the section Ust-Kut (Lena) – Komsomolsk-on-Amur, as well as the construction of a second track from Taishet to Ust-Kut (Lena) and the Bam-Tynda lines and Tynda – Berkakit.
Today the Baikal-Amur Mainline crosses all of Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East. Its total length is 4,324 km, of which more than 1,000 km of track pass through the permafrost zone or high seismicity. The route crosses 11 rivers, 7 mountain sections. In different years, 8 tunnels, 142 bridges, more than 200 railway stations and sidings, over 60 cities and towns were built along the entire length of the BAM.
The construction of the longest Severomuysky tunnel in Russia, 15,343 meters long, began in May 1977. But it was only in March 2001 that it was possible to break through it to the end. In December 2003, it was put into operation. Thus, this year the builders of BAM will celebrate another anniversary – the 20th anniversary of the launch of the longest and still unsurpassed in terms of complexity tunneling through the Severomuysky Range.
In the meantime, today, as part of the second stage of the modernization of the Eastern test site, the construction of a new Dusse-Alinsky tunnel 1824.32 meters long continues at the BAM section Urgal – Postyshevo in the Khabarovsk Territory. In 2019, the project received a positive conclusion from the Glavgosexpertiza of Russia. The work is scheduled to be completed in late 2024 or early 2025. Putting the new tunnel into operation will remove the overall restrictions that exist during the operation of the old tunnel and will significantly increase the capacity for promising cargo flows in the direction of the seaports of Vanino and Sovetskaya Gavan. And the first Dusse-Alinsky tunnel on the BAM route was put into operation on November 4, 1982. Now it greatly complicates movement on the highway due to its outdated design.
In addition, as part of the second stage of the development of the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM-2), the construction of second tracks and sidings continues. All projects of the Eastern test site are also evaluated by Glavgosexpertiza. The largest number of new facilities will appear on sections of the BAM route in Buryatia. Here, in particular, the construction of sidings with passenger and cargo infrastructure is underway on the Kichera – Dzelinda, Dzelinda – Kiron, Kiron – Angoya and Agney – Anamakit sections. The design and estimate documentation for the reconstruction of these sections received positive conclusions from the Glavgosexpertiza of Russia in 2021-2022.
The main feature of the implementation of the BAM-2 projects in Buryatia is that the construction sites of the second tracks are located here within the boundaries of the Baikal natural territory. “Special environmental and environmental requirements are imposed on the construction of facilities in the Baikal areas of the Eastern Test Site, which were fully met in the submitted design solutions,” Mikhail Kamenskikh, Deputy Head of the Glavgosexpertiza of Russia, noted earlier.
Photo: Russian Railways, Edgar Bryukhanenko/TASS, Press Service of the Bamtonnelstroy-Most Group of Companies
