Hwy world-around will improve on these early ideas? PanAm Hwy, Cape-to-Cairo Rd, Trans Siberian Hwy, etc?

Question

Will it get done? the concept of an overland connection crossing the Bering Strait goes back at least a century. William Gilpin, first governor of the Colorado Territory, envisioned a vast "Cosmopolitan Railway" in 1890 linking the entire world via a series of railways. Joseph Strauss, who went on to design over 400 bridges, including the Golden Gate Bridge, put forward his proposal for a Bering Strait railroad bridge in his senior thesis. In 1968 engineer T. Y. Lin made a feasibility study of a Bering Strait bridge. Like Gilpin, Lin envisioned the project as a symbol of international cooperation and unity. (Wikipedia) see also Sam Berliner and Frank Didik.

Answer 1

Is it possible to do this? Probably. Will it get done? That is another thing altogether. The only reason that an endeavor of this sort would get done is if it is cost efficient to do so. That is, only if the benefits of such a road would outweigh the costs. That is what will drive the decision. Personally, I don't think it will ever happen. Here are a few reasons why.

First, the cost of building and maintaining such a structure would be quite expensive, since a road spanning an ocean would require a great deal of materials in order to span the entire ocean without collapsing. This would make it quite expensive to build initially, and repair and maintenance would be costly as well, since some regions would be harder to get to quickly. Thus, anything transported on this road would be expensive to ship. With aircraft and cargo ships available, individuals would likely take these more cost effective methods to accomplish their needs.

A second concern is how high the road would have to be. There are storms at sea, and unless the road were significantly higher than sea level, it would be subject to significant flooding at times. This would make it unsafe for travel and would cause the road to erode rapidly. Thus, it would unlikely be cost effective, since the higher it has to be, the more expensive it would be.

Also, if there is a road crossing the body of water, how would ships get past it? This would impose a problem for sea travel, and thus would again impose more costs to mitigate this on the road itself.

In conclusion, at this time, with current technology, this would be a very costly endeavor. As such, it is unlikely to happen any time soon.