Severobaikalsk. Baikal-Amur Mainline

The construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline required the mobilization of huge resources from the entire country. Even before the completion of the highway, many declared the construction pointless and unnecessary. There is still a lot of controversy around the history of the BAM construction. What is the Baikal-Amur Mainline after all? Is this the road to the future or a huge mistake of the Soviet government? Below are quite interesting facts, read and draw conclusions ..

In 1888, the Russian Technical Society discussed a project to build a Pacific railway across the northern tip of Lake Baikal, after which, in July - September 1889, Colonel of the General Staff N. A. Voloshinov overcame a thousand-kilometer space from Ust-Kut to Mui with a small detachment - just along to the places where the BAM route now lies. And he came to the conclusion: "... drawing a line in this direction is certainly impossible due to some technical difficulties, not to mention other considerations." Voloshinov was not a pessimist, but he was soberly aware that at that time Russia had neither the equipment nor the means to carry out grandiose works.

In 1926, the Separate Corps of Railway Troops began topographic reconnaissance of the future BAM route. In 1932, a decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR "On the construction of the Baikal-Amur Railway" was issued, according to which design and survey work was launched and construction began. By autumn, it became clear that the main problem of construction was the lack of workers. With the officially established number of employees at 25 thousand people, only 2.5 thousand people were attracted. As a result, on October 25, the second decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR was issued, according to which the construction of the BAM was transferred to a special department of the OGPU. Following this, the construction of three connecting lines from the Trans-Siberian Railway to the planned BAM route continued (mainly by the prisoners of the Baikal-Amur ITL (Bamlag)) construction of three connecting lines from the Trans-Siberian Railway to the planned BAM route: Bam - Tynda, Volochaevka - Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Izvestkovaya - Urgal. In 1937, the general direction of the BAM route was determined: Taishet - Bratsk - the northern tip of Lake Baikal - Tyndinsky - Ust-Niman - Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Sovetskaya Gavan. In May 1938, Bamlag was disbanded and six railway labor camps were created on its basis. In 1938, construction began on the western section from Taishet to Bratsk, and in 1939, preparatory work began on the eastern section from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Sovetskaya Gavan.
The photo shows a large junction railway station in Tynda

In January 1942, by decision of the State Defense Committee, from the Bam-Tynda section built by that time, track links and bridge trusses were removed for the construction of the Stalingrad-Saratov-Syzran-Ulyanovsk (Volzhskaya Rokada) railway line.

Pictured is a map of the Baikal-Amur Mainline

In June 1947, the construction of the eastern section of Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Urgal continued (mainly by the prisoners of the Amur ITL (Amurlag)) . Before the Amurlag was disbanded (in April 1953), embankments were poured over the entire section, tracks were laid, bridges were built on the Komsomolsk-2 - Berezovy (Postyshevo) section. The site was operated by the Komsomolsk United Railway Transport Enterprise, whose office and depot were located in the village of Khurmuli, Komsomolsky District. The section Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Sovetskaya Gavan was put into operation in 1945, and the movement of trains on the Taishet - Bratsk - Ust-Kut (Lena) line was opened in 1950. The map below shows the Baikal-Amur Mainline in green, with the Trans-Siberian Railway in the background.

In 1967, a resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR was issued, and design and research work was resumed. By the Decree 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" the necessary funds were allocated for the construction of the first category railway Ust-Kut (Lena) - Komsomolsk-on-Amur with a length of 3145 km, the second track Taishet - Ust-Kut (Lena) - 680 km, lines Bam - Tynda and Tynda - Berkakit - 397 km.

In April 1974, it was declared an all-Union shock Komsomol construction site, masses of young people were sent here for an internship.
In 1977, the Bam - Tynda line was put into permanent operation, and in 1979 the Tynda - Berkakit line. The main part of the road was built over 12 years - from April 5, 1972 to October 27, 1984, and on November 1, 1989, the entire new three thousand-kilometer section of the highway was put into permanent operation in the volume of the launch complex. The longest Severo-Muisky tunnel in Russia (15,343 meters), the construction of which began in May 1977, was broken through to the end only in March 2001 and put into permanent operation in December 2003.

Such a large-scale construction was only possible for a great power, with its colossal economic power and resources. 60 branches of the national economy, hundreds of supplying enterprises, design and scientific organizations in Leningrad and Chelyabinsk, Novosibirsk and Rostov, Nikopol and Blagoveshchensk participated in providing the construction site with everything necessary. BAM is rightly called the route of friendship and brotherhood. It was built by representatives of 70 nationalities of the USSR. The General Scheme of the District Planning of the BAM Influence Zone was developed, taking into account the regional features of the route, the specific factors of the economic development of the territories adjacent to it, as well as the multinational features of architectural and planning solutions, the construction art of all the republics participating in the construction of the highway. Tynda, Neryungri, Severobaikalsk - the largest cities along the route - were built exactly according to master plans. As a result, each has its own look, its own special architectural "accents". However, like any new business, the Baikal-Amur Mainline aroused interest in environmental problems. The virgin nature demanded a careful attitude towards itself. After all, a delicate natural organism, balanced for thousands of years, is especially fragile in conditions of permafrost, high seismicity and low temperatures.

It was important to use the powerful equipment that the builders were armed with wisely, carefully and skillfully, so that the industrial power of the BAM was organically combined with the natural landscape, clean air, and the transparency of rivers and lakes. The extreme conditions of the track required new scientific, technical and engineering and production solutions. Here, for the first time in world practice, a fundamentally new design of foundations for bridge supports was created, a number of new ideas in tunneling were implemented, technologies for backfilling the subgrade and drilling and blasting operations in permafrost conditions were developed, and modern methods of dealing with ice icing appeared. The highway passed through the territory of the region in the northern areas rich in natural resources. Near it, the Svobodnenskoye brown coal deposit was explored and transferred for development. In the Zeya and Tyndinsky districts there are rich gold-bearing placers, on the basis of which dozens of powerful dredges work. Forests are spread over millions of hectares, the total operational reserves of which exceed one billion cubic meters. The development of all natural resources and serves Baikal-Amur Mainline. Where previously only a nomadic Evenk hunter on his reindeer traveled, where only occasionally geologists flew in helicopters, the taiga was awakened by the whistle of a diesel locomotive, residential settlements have grown. Previously, the southern regions of the Amur Region were connected with the North by the AYAM highway (Amur-Yakutsk Mainline), running from the Big Never on the Trans-Siberian Railway to Chulman. And this thin transport brook was replaced by a "full-flowing river" named BAM

The Baikal-Amur Mainline is one of the largest railway lines in the world. The construction of the main part of the railway, which took place in difficult geological and climatic conditions, took more than 12 years, and one of the most difficult sections - the Severo-Muisky tunnel - was put into permanent operation only in 2003

The Severomuysky ridge was one of the most difficult sections of the BAM. Prior to the opening of the Severomuysky tunnel, trains followed a bypass railway line laid across the ridge. The first version of the bypass, 24.6 km long, was built in 1982-1983; during its construction, slopes of up to 40 thousandths were allowed (that is, up to 40 meters of elevation per kilometer of distance). Because of this, only freight trains with several wagons could go through this line; the movement of passenger trains was prohibited (people were transported through the pass by buses)

In 1985 - 1989, a new bypass line 54 km long was built, consisting of numerous steep serpentines, high viaducts and two loop tunnels (the old bypass was subsequently dismantled). The "Devil's Bridge" gained fame - a viaduct in a sharp turn on a slope across the valley of the Itykyt River, standing on two-tier supports. The train was forced to maneuver between the hills, moving at a maximum speed of 20 km / h and risking falling under an avalanche. On the rises, it became necessary to push the trains with auxiliary locomotives. The site required large expenses for the maintenance of the track and ensuring traffic safety. Pictured is Devil's Bridge

It took more than 25 years to build a tunnel through the ridge. The first train passed through the tunnel on December 21, 2001, but the tunnel was put into permanent operation only on December 5, 2003. The total length of the mine workings of the tunnel is 45 km; along the entire length of the tunnel there is a working of a smaller diameter used for pumping water, placing engineering systems and transporting technical personnel. Ventilation is provided by three vertical shafts. The safety of trains passing through the tunnel is ensured, among other things, by seismic and radiation monitoring systems. To maintain the microclimate in the tunnel, special gates are installed on both of its portals, which are opened only for the passage of the train. The engineering systems of the tunnel are controlled by a special automated system developed at the Design and Technological Institute of Computer Engineering of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Along with the tunnel, the Severomuysky bypass is also maintained in working order - it is expected that it can be used in the event of an increase in cargo traffic along the BAM.

There are many trains running along the Baikal-Amur Mainline. Below is the BAM train schedule

In 2007, the government approved a plan, according to which it is planned to build "capillary" branches to mineral deposits. Also, earlier it was decided to build a crossing in the form of a Sakhalin tunnel or bridge.

In 2009, the reconstruction of the section Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Sovetskaya Gavan (Far Eastern Railway) began with the construction of a new Kuznetsovsky tunnel, it is planned to be completed in 2016. The total cost of the project is 59.8 billion rubles. These works will increase the speed of trains, which will entail an increase in throughput and carrying capacity, and will also make it possible to increase the weight rate of trains on the section from 3600 to 5600 tons.

According to the "Strategy-2030", the volume of investments in BAM will be about 400 billion rubles. 13 new railway lines with a total length of about 7,000 kilometers will be built. First of all, these are such cargo generating lines as Lena - Nepa - Lensk, Hani - Olekminsk, Novaya Chara - Apsatskaya, Novaya Chara - China, Shimanovskaya - Gar - Fevralsk, Ulak - Elginskoye field. The construction of the last branch is already in full swing by private investors

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April 27, 2009 marked the 35th anniversary of the day when the first All-Union shock Komsomol detachment, the detachment named after the XVII Congress of the Komsomol, went to the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline. This day became the day of the second birth of BAM - from it the active construction of the highway began at once in several directions.

The Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) is a railway in Eastern Siberia and the Far East, the second main (along with the Trans-Siberian Railway) railway access of Russia to the Pacific Ocean.

The Baikal-Amur Mainline runs from Taishet to Sovetskaya Gavan and runs through the territory of the Irkutsk, Chita, Amur regions, Buryatia and Yakutia, Khabarovsk Territory. The total length of the highway is 4300 kilometers.

The main line of the BAM is the Ust-Kut section (on the Lena River) - Komsomolsk-on-Amur (3110 km); adjacent to it are two sections built in the late 1940s - early 1950s (Taishet - Ust-Kut and Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Sovetskaya Gavan).

BAM is connected to the Trans-Siberian Railway by three connecting lines: Bamovskaya - Tynda, Izvestkovaya - Urgal and Volochaevka - Komsomolsk.

Until 2015, it is planned to build 8 sidings, 2 low-power slides and 18 additional tracks at BAM, and it is also planned to reconstruct the Korshunov tunnel.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

On April 13, 1932, a decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR "On the construction of the Baikal-Amur Railway" was issued, according to which design and survey work was launched and construction began.

The idea of creating the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM), the main Soviet construction site of the 1970s, appeared in the 19th century. Even then, local entrepreneurs justified the need to build a road with the prospect of developing mineral resources to the north of Lake Baikal. In 1888, the Russian Technical Society discussed a project to build a Pacific railway across the northern tip of Baikal, after which, in July - September 1889, Colonel of the General Staff N. A. Voloshinov overcame a thousand-kilometer space from Ust-Kut to Mui with a small detachment - just to the places where the BAM route now lies. He came to the conclusion: "... drawing a line in this direction turns out to be absolutely impossible due to some technical difficulties, not to mention other considerations." Voloshinov was not a pessimist, but he was soberly aware that at that time Russia had neither the equipment nor the means to carry out grandiose works.

At that moment, the government was not interested in the idea of building a road, and returned to it only in 1906-1907 - immediately after the Russo-Japanese War, which showed that the eastern borders of the empire were not as reliable as it seemed.

The fact that the design and survey work of the northern branch of the Trans-Siberian Railway began precisely in 1907 indicates a trend that will be visible in the future: the state was preparing for serious investments in the BAM only when it concerned security. The Trans-Siberian Railway passed too close to the border, and in order to conduct hostilities in the east, the state needed a rocade - a railway that runs parallel to the alleged front line of a possible war and makes it possible to transport and supply troops. In all subsequent years, the state will seriously return to the construction of the road only in moments of tension on the eastern borders.

The first exploration work at the future BAM ceased in 1914 with the outbreak of the First World War, in which Japan turned out to be an ally of Russia, and China was not an independent player. The new government returned to the construction of the road only after almost 20 years. Although plans to build a road north of the Trans-Siberian were put forward in the mid-1920s, until the early 1930s they remained just an idea. The impetus for the start of the process, most likely, was the conflict on the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER) - on the section of the Trans-Siberian Railway that passed through China, which was then the Soviet-Chinese joint venture and along which, before the revolution, the main part of the movement from Eastern Siberia towards the Far East.

In the summer of 1929, in China, after the nationalists came to power, Chinese troops seized the Chinese Eastern Railway and held it for half a year. By this time, the CER itself was no longer the only continuation of the Trans-Siberian to the Pacific Ocean, but the conflict showed a potential danger on the Soviet-Chinese border, along which the main Trans-Siberian highway passed. Already in 1930, the Dalkraikom of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks sent proposals to the Central Committee and the Council of People's Commissars for the construction of a second Trans-Siberian road. In this document, the name "Baikal-Amur Mainline" is mentioned for the first time. It was proposed to start the road from the Urusha station (approximately the middle of the current BAM near Skovorodina), and they planned to make Komsomolsk-on-Amur, which was then the village of Perm, as the final point.

By 1932, the proposals of the Dalkraikom had passed all instances, and in April the first resolution of the Council of People's Commissars "On the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline" appeared, which approved the BAM construction plan and the route proposed by the Dalkraikom. The People's Commissariat of Railways was instructed to ensure "an immediate start to all preparatory work for the construction of the BAM." The construction, according to the decree, was planned to be completed in three years: through traffic along the entire highway in the operating mode was to be opened by the end of 1935.

But almost at the very beginning of construction, it became clear that its terms, as well as for many other objects of the Stalinist five-year plans, were too optimistic and it would not be possible to complete the highway on time. The main problem was the lack of manpower: with an officially established contingent of 25-26 thousand people working at the construction site, only 2.5 thousand people were able to attract the start of construction in 1932. Moreover, the first head of the BAM construction, Sergei Mrachkovsky, even considered the established contingent to be underestimated three times. Given the difficulties with the delivery of building materials and equipment, by the end of 1932, the project had formed, as it was then called, “huge breakthroughs”, funding for the construction was almost stopped by the fourth quarter, and its curtailment was already being discussed.

The decision was common for that time: in October 1932, when it became finally clear that the plan to recruit free workers could not be fulfilled, the construction was transferred from the jurisdiction of the People's Commissariat for Railways (NKPS) to the OGPU, which at that moment was completing the construction of the Belomorsko -Baltic Canal. The number of prisoners in the OGPU camps grew every year, the construction of the White Sea Canal was completed in 1933, so the problem with the labor force at BAM was solved: by 1934, about a quarter of more than 500 thousand prisoners were employed in the structure of the Baikal-Amur Camp (BAMLAG) who served time in the camps of the OGPU. The most famous of the BAMLAG prisoners were the philosopher Pavel Florensky and the future marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky.

The question of the labor force was removed, but the original plans by 1934 still had to be changed: the territory of the future route turned out to be poorly explored, and a significant part of the labor force was abandoned ahead of time for the construction of the second tracks of the Trans-Siberian Railway. So far, it has been decided to carry out work on the construction of a new highway only on the connecting section from the BAM station on the Trans-Siberian Railway (near Skovorodina) to Tynda. But it was also opened very late - only in October 1937. In the same year, after the start of a full-scale Sino-Japanese war in northern China, the Soviet government adopted a second resolution on the construction of the BAM, approving the modern route for the passage of the highway from Taishet through Ust-Kut, Nizhneangarsk, Tynda, Urgal, Komsomolsk-on-Amur with access to the port of Sovetskaya Gavan.

The total length of the route has grown from the originally proposed 1.65-2 thousand km to 4 thousand km or more. For the design of BAM, according to this decree, for the first time a special design institute "BAMtransproekt" was created (since 1939 it was renamed "BAMproekt"). In 1937, work began on the construction of the second connecting part with the Trans-Siberian Railway - the Izvestkovaya-Urgal line. In 1938, after the first open conflict between the Red Army and the Japanese troops on Lake Khasan, another decree of the Council of People's Commissars followed, which approved a new deadline for putting the line into operation - 1945.

The Great Patriotic War, which broke out in 1941, confused all plans for the construction of the highway. Two months before the start of the war with Germany, in April, the USSR and Japan signed a non-aggression pact. The Japanese military industry began to prepare for a naval war with the United States, and the likelihood of a large-scale war in the Far East, and with it the strategic need to build the BAM, significantly decreased. On the contrary, in the European part of the country, with the start of the war with Germany, the situation worsened every day, and in these conditions the NKPS used the BAM materials as a reserve. Rails and railway equipment were used in the restoration of destroyed sections of railways in the southern sectors of the front, for example, in the construction of a supply road along the western bank of the Volga near Stalingrad - the Zavolzhskaya Mainline, in the construction of railway sections of the transport corridor to organize supplies of allies under Lend-Lease through Iran.

As a result, almost all BAM lines built have actually ceased to exist. In 1941, the BAM-Tynda line, introduced back in 1937, was dismantled, the construction of the Urgal-Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Taishet-Padun and Komsomolsk-Sovetskaya Gavan sections was mothballed. The Izvestkovaya-Urgal line was tentatively put into operation in 1942, but a year later it was also dismantled. Railway communication on already constructed sections with a total length of approximately 400 km was discontinued.

Nevertheless, even during the war, BAM remained a priority project for the Soviet leadership. As soon as the situation at the front began to improve, in 1943 the USSR State Defense Committee resumed the construction of the Komsomolsk-Sovetskaya Gavan line, at that time the most important in the event of a war with Japan, at an accelerated pace. With the help of American deliveries of railway equipment under lend-lease in July 1945 (a month before the USSR declared war on Japan), the line went into operation. Construction continued immediately after the war. Work resumed on the western section of the BAM, in 1947 the Taishet-Bratsk line was opened, and in 1951 it was brought to the Lena station (Ust-Kut city), in fact forming the current western section of the route. True, the full commissioning of the site took place only seven years later - in 1958. The lines were necessary to ensure the operation of large construction projects - the Ust-Ilimsk hydroelectric power station, the Bratsk and Ust-Ilimsk forestry complex.

But these lines were the last to be introduced before the start of the new construction of the Brezhnev period. There was no longer a real threat to the Soviet borders in the east: with the coming to power of the Communists in China, Soviet-Chinese relations seemed to become exclusively friendly forever, and Japan as a military entity in the region after the defeat in the war no longer existed. In addition, the new leadership, headed by Nikita Khrushchev, who came to power, proposed new large-scale projects in other regions, in particular, the development of virgin lands.

And since the late 1950s, to the already known problems of construction - difficulties in attracting labor, permafrost and difficult terrain - another one has been added. In the late 1950s, high seismic activity was recorded on the BAM route: seven earthquakes with a magnitude of 7 to 10 occurred at once in the highway zone. In 1957, on the northern spurs of the Udokan Ridge, the most significant in the USSR since 1911, the Muya earthquake with a magnitude of 10-11 points occurred, which caused the formation of a system of cracks and faults with a length of about 300 km, a shift in river beds, and the collapse of mountain slopes. In 1961, the Institute of the Earth's Crust of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences began seismological studies along the BAM route, which took several years.

Until the end of the 1960s, only minor work continued at BAM - embankments were filled and rocks were cut to the west of Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Throughout the 1950s and 60s, the constructed section of the main highway and the connecting line Izvestkovaya-Urgal were used as a logging road. Construction at BAM was almost completely suspended until the mid-1970s.

The state decided to return to the topic of BAM only in the 1960s. As before, the impetus for the resumption of investment and the start of new design work was geopolitical considerations. Since the late 1950s, relations between the USSR and China began to deteriorate, the Chinese leadership insisted on revising the border with the Soviet Union. By the second half of the 1960s, it became clear that an armed conflict on the Soviet-Chinese border was quite real, and it could be quite large-scale: 658 thousand Soviet and 814 thousand Chinese soldiers were deployed on 4,380 km of the Soviet-Chinese border. In 1969, these assumptions were confirmed - the first open border conflict took place between the USSR and China on the disputed Damansky Island, where 300 Chinese soldiers landed. Fortunately, the conflict did not escalate into full-scale hostilities, but skirmishes between Soviet border guards and Chinese troops continued after that.

Of course, military-strategic considerations were not the only reason for starting new work at the BAM. Soviet economists viewed the construction of the railway as the main element in the integrated development of the productive forces of the Irkutsk region, Buryatia, Transbaikalia, Yakutia, the Amur region and the Khabarovsk Territory. The route route passed the largest undeveloped deposits located in these regions, including the copper Udokanskoye, the largest oil and gas (Chayanda and Verkhnechonskoye) and coal (Neryungri and Elginskoye) deposits of Yakutia, polymetallic (Chineyskoye) and uranium (Kholodnenskoye) deposits of Buryatia and the Chita region .

Economists substantiated the need to create nine territorial production complexes (TPK) in the BAM zone. In addition, during the 1970s, high oil prices stimulated government investment, and traffic on the Trans-Siberian Railway increased significantly, causing the country's leadership to fear that the capacity of the main road would be insufficient for the foreseeable future. In the future, the task was to continue the BAM north to Yakutsk, then to Magadan, Chukotka and Kamchatka.

In 1967, the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR issued a resolution on the resumption of design and survey work at the BAM, which were entrusted to the institutes Mosgiprotrans, Lengiprotrans and Sibgiprotrans. The design work, in fact, had to be carried out again - both because of the clarification of the natural conditions on the route route compared to the 1930s (including increased seismic hazard), and because of changes in the technical conditions for the operation of the route, on which instead of The previously planned locomotive traction was now supposed to organize movement on diesel and electric. By this time, only the westernmost section of the Taishet-Lena route was electrified.

The first work on the new construction site began even before 1974, from which it is customary to count the history of the modern BAM. The first construction division of the highway, the BAMstroyput department at the Skovorodino station, was created in November 1971, and the construction itself began in 1972. In April, the first cubic meters of soil were backfilled at the BAM-Tyndinsky section, and in September, the first link was laid at the zero kilometer of the line.

In March 1974, at a speech in Alma-Ata, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev for the first time called BAM "the most important construction site of the ninth five-year plan." Four months later, on July 8, the resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR N 561 "On the construction of the Baikal-Amur Railway" appeared, which is now considered the official start of construction. It was planned to complete the construction of the highway in ten years. The plan involved the construction of a 3,145 km highway from Ust-Kut (Lena station) to Komsomolsk-on-Amur, the laying of a second track 680 km long - on the already built section of Taishet-Lena and a single-track 400-kilometer BAM-Tynda-Berkakit railway - a total of 4,225 km of tracks.

At the end of July 1974, Pravda published an article "From Baikal to Amur" on the front page, which launched a mass propaganda campaign that continued until the end of construction. True, very little was written about the initial stage of the BAM construction in the 1930s in numerous books, brochures and newspaper articles that were published in millions of copies. By this time, the state preferred not to tell the real story of even relatively successful projects, such as the White Sea Canal. And about the sections of BAM built and dismantled during the war, for example, in the Soviet encyclopedic dictionary of the 1980s, there was nothing at all - the date of commencement of construction was 1974, and only a passing mention was made of two sections built "in the late 1940s - early 1950s.

As in the 1930s, during the years of the second construction of the BAM, the state faced the task of providing labor to the construction site, and relatively cheap one at that. This problem had to be solved in other ways. Even before the July decision of the Central Committee, at the XVII Congress of the Komsomol in April, BAM was declared an all-Union Komsomol construction site. Right at the congress, the first Komsomol detachment was formed, which went to the highway. By the summer of 1974, there were already 2,000 Komsomol members working at BAM. The share of those who arrived at the construction site "on a public call" in the first year was 47.7% of the total number of employees, and in individual departments - up to 80%. In addition to volunteers, university graduates who came to BAM for distribution also worked at the construction site.

The second driving force was the railway troops - the same Komsomol members, but who got to the construction site no longer voluntarily. The first military construction units arrived at BAM in August 1974. The republics of the USSR took patronage over the construction of the BAM infrastructure - the Urgal station was built by Ukraine, Muyakan - Belarus, Uoyan - Lithuania, Kichera - Estonia, Tayura - Armenia, Ulkan - Azerbaijan, Soloni - Tajikistan, Alonka - Moldova, Tynda was built under the patronage of Moscow. In parallel, construction was also carried out "at the exit" - in the ports of Vanino and Sovetskaya Gavan.

Komsomol members and the military built the road almost as quickly as the prisoners. In 1979, the Komsomolsk-Berezovka section was completed, which closed the eastern ring of the BAM (Izvestkovaya-Urgal-Komsomolsk-Volochaevka). By 1981, when the line in the system of the Ministry of Railways officially became an independent Baikal-Amur Railway with management in Tynda, the operational length of the tracks of the new road was more than 1.6 thousand km. On the western section, the Lena-Nizhneangarsk line was put into operation in the same year. In 1982, on the eastern section of the BAM, the working movement of trains from Tynda to Verkhnezeysk station was opened, and in November of the same year, the 300-kilometer section Urgal-Postyshevo was put into permanent operation.

The docking of the western and eastern sections of the tracks took place in September 1984, and on October 1, the solemn laying of the "golden" links of the BAM took place at the Kuenga station in the Chita region. For another five years, work continued on the completion of the BAM infrastructure and auxiliary branches. In 1989, an act was signed on the acceptance of the main line, and through train traffic began on it. But the final work on the construction of the BAM was completed only 14 years later, when in 2003 the world's fifth largest 15-kilometer Severomuysky tunnel was opened, the preparatory work on which began back in 1976. Before the tunnel was completed, trains had to take a 64-kilometer detour.

The history of the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline (1974-1984)

Great importance was attached to the construction of this highway. Firstly, the BAM was supposed to be the second, shorter than the Trans-Siberian, access to the Pacific Ocean. Secondly, it is the road to the riches of Eastern Siberia and the Far East. Economists considered the task of economic development of the territory in the BAM zone as a major national economic program that can be put on a par with such as the Ural-Kuznetsk complex, the Angara-Yenisei project, as well as the development of the oil and gas wealth of Western Siberia.

The builders of BAM had to complete in 1970-80. something that the pioneers of the route failed to do in the 1920s and 30s, as the war and the huge material and human losses associated with it prevented.

In 1974 The Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a resolution on the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline.

The Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Transport Construction were instructed to build a 3145 km long highway from the city of Ust-Kut (Lena station) to the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur through Nizhneangarsk, Chara, Tynda, Urgal; lay a second track 680 km long on the current western part of the Taishet-Lena BAM. In 1974-1979. to build a single-track 400-kilometer BAM-Tynda-Berkakit railway.

In the main directions of economic and social development of the USSR for 1981-1985. and for the period up to 1990. it was written: "To open the movement of trains throughout the Baikal-Amur railway line."

Back in April 1972. construction of the BAM-Tynda line (the so-called small BAM) began. April 1974 A detachment of envoys from the KhPU of the VLKSM congress arrived at the construction site. A year later, May 8, 1975. on the eve of Victory Day, the builders commissioned the BAM-Tynda line ahead of schedule, thus opening the way for construction cargo to the main highway. November 1977 the BAM-Tynda line was put into permanent operation. At the same time, the working movement of trains from Tynda to Barkakit was opened.

During the ten years of construction of the BAM route, colossal work has been done, almost every year has become a new milestone, a new frontier in mastering the difficulties of the northern road.

In January 1981 a new, then 32nd in a row, railway - Baikal-Amur began to operate. Three operational departments were opened in its structure - Tyndinsky, Urgalsky and Severobaikalsky, as well as the Directorate for the construction of BAM. At that time, 17.5 thousand railway workers of various professions worked on the road.

During the years of construction of the highway, the words “The whole country is building the Baikal-Amur Mainline” have become familiar. Behind these words are facts, the heroic labor of the Soviet people.

Hundreds of industrial enterprises located in all regions and regions of the country supplied various machines, structures, materials to BAM. The workers of the cities of Ivanov, Kalinin, Voronezh, Donetsk, Kostroma sent excavators, Chelyabinsk - bulldozers, Moscow, Kremenchug, Minsk - trucks, Leningrad - powerful Kirovets tractors, Kamyshin, Odessa, Kaliningrad, Kirov, Balashikha - cranes; structures for artificial structures arrived from Voronezh and Ulan-Ude, rails - from the Kuznetsk metallurgical plant.

Stations and settlements along the BAM route were built by representatives of all Union republics, many regions and cities of Russia.

During the construction of the highway and roadside roads, the builders completed more than 570 million m3 in ten years. earthworks, threw about 4200 bridges and pipes across rivers and watercourses, laid 5 thousand km of main and station tracks, built dozens of railway stations, erected residential buildings with a total area of over 570 thousand m2, opened new schools, hospitals, kindergartens and nursery.

Employees of 60 branches of the national economy, as well as 40 patronage organizations of all Union republics, took a direct part in this enormous work. Representatives of 70 nationalities and nationalities worked on the track.

On the same day, the Decrees of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR “On conferring the title of Hero of Socialist Labor to the participants in the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline” and “On awarding orders of the Soviet Union to the teams of research institutes, trusts, departments and other enterprises” that participated in the construction of BAM were published.

16 builders were awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor for the outstanding production successes achieved during the construction of the route, the provision of early laying of the main track along its entire length and the labor heroism shown. Among them: Head of Glavbamstroy - Deputy Minister of Transport Construction K.V. Mokhortov, famous foremen - A.V. Bondar, Yu.Yu. Bocharov, I.N. Varshavsky, V.P. Stepanischev, tunneler V.R. Tolstoukhov (veteran of the Moscow Metro) and other builders.

Speaking about the builders and engineers who participated in the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline, one cannot but dwell on the multifaceted work of the team of the Khabarovsk Institute of Railway Engineers.

Back in the 1950s and 60s. Head of the Department “Foundations and Foundations”, Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the RSFSR Professor A.V. Pataleev formed a young, energetic team of permafrost builders. Professor Pataleev's school specialized in building in the harsh climatic conditions of the Far East and Transbaikalia. In the 1970-80s, the great experience accumulated by the scientists of the Institute was used to solve the urgent problems of the construction of the BAM. From 1969 to 1973 the oldest employee of the institute A.S. Yakovlev, with the help of students, solved a number of fundamentally important problems related to the construction of the road in the sections Urgal-Dusse-Alin, Urgal-Berezovka and Dusse-Alin-Berezovka. These decisions formed the basis of the project for organizing work on the Urgal-Komsomolsk section. A great economic effect was achieved during the construction of the Urgal-Berezovka section as a result of the use of another project by A.S. Yakovlev - on optimizing the placement of earth pits and the conditions for developing soil in them for the construction of road embankments.

In 1986 a group of students led by the author of the project B.I. Solodovnikova (department “Design and construction of railways”) worked out options for tracing the most difficult sections of the track, passing along the Amgun river. The results of the work were used in the technical design of the road.

For almost 20 years, E.A. Rumyantsev and his collaborators dealt with the problems of icing on the eastern link of the BAM. The main provisions of this work are widely used in the design and construction of structures on the road.

The staff of the research laboratory "Foundations and Foundations" under the scientific guidance of A.G.

Frosty heaving of soils is the worst enemy of engineering structures. It poses a particular danger to bridge supports - the most vulnerable points of the railway. Therefore, the work of the department “Bridges and Tunnels” under the guidance of Yu.V. Dmitriev, dedicated to the protection of bridge supports from heaving, were very relevant. About 7 million rubles were saved by BAM bridge builders as a result of the use of regulatory documents developed by the department together with the Central Research Institute of the Ministry of Railways.

During the Great Patriotic War, Professor Pataleev took part in the creation of the ice "road of life" near Leningrad. During the construction of BAM, his former student and graduate student Yu.V. Dmitriev was invited by the builders of the largest out-of-class bridge across the Amur near Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The bridgemen were building the bridge “from the ice”, based on the recommendations and calculations developed by him.

The unique bridge crossings across the Amur River and across the Zeya reservoir at BAM were a significant event in the history of Soviet bridge building. However, everything went through a thorough preliminary development and full-scale tests.

The bridge-building group of the department “Building Mechanics” consisting of associate professors A.V. Shestakova, F.I. Kosoblika, head. laboratory V.G. Povkha, engineers I.V. Mordueva, S.N. Karpov, technicians G.N. Ocheretko, V.G. Krel performed work during the assembly of the span structures of the railway bridge across the Amur in April 1973. to July 1975, as well as the installation of span structures of the bridge across the Zeya reservoir from December 1980. to January 1982, installation of a road bridge across the Amur in the period from 1981. to 1982

The Department of Building Materials (I.Ya. Mednik, P.S. Krasovsky) helped the road builders with their research in the field of using local building materials.

The diesel locomotive departments of the Institute, the staff of the Scientific Research Laboratory “Deploy Locomotives” and its supervisor, Associate Professor V.G. Special recording devices were created and traction tests were carried out, including when driving twin trains. On the Izvestkovaya-Urgal-Postyshevo section, a new diesel locomotive in the “northern” version was tested. However, during the tests, it was revealed that during severe frosts, the water in the radiator pipes froze. The oldest researcher of the Institute, Associate Professor V.M. Solomonov took up the elimination of this defect and in a short time created an improved design of the radiator, more resistant to freezing.

Issues of organization of transportation (weight and speed of trains, plan of formation and schedule of trains) during 1979. were thoroughly and comprehensively worked out at the Department of “Railway Operations” by associate professors S.V. Balalaev and V.S. Kuptsov. The staff of the department and graduate students developed the basics of the technology for the operational work of the Tynda branch and the first marshalling yard Tynda.

But, perhaps, the main contribution of KhabIIZhba to the creation of BAM is the training of engineering personnel. Hundreds of graduates: railwaymen, bridgemen, builders, signalmen, power supply, water supply built a new road. Especially active in the construction of the highway was the activity of A.K. Pogrebny, A.S. Kasyanika, A.I. Samoylenko, who were part of the management of the BAM construction directorate, A.I. Gavrilenko and I.Ya. Alekhanov, who headed the Tyndinsky and Urgalsky branches in the first years of operation of the road, Yu.Z. Levadny - chief engineer of the traffic service.

The prospects for the construction of the northern highway in solving the problem of transportation, as well as the economic development of the areas where the route passes, led to close attention to the BAM from journalists, scientists, and the general public of the country.

In the initial period of the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline, a number of journalistic essays, photo reports, documentary and artistic works about the history of the route were published, and documentary chronicles of the construction were based. The authors revealed the heroism of the work of the BAM workers, together with the heroes of the essays - prospectors, builders, railroad warriors dreamed about the future of the route.

In the future, deep, versatile studies appeared on the problems of the construction of the BAM. These are monographs and dissertations, collections of scientific articles and materials of scientific and practical conferences, widely represented in scientific central and Far Eastern literature.

The works of economists Yu.A. Soboleva, M.E. Adzhieva, A.G. Aganbegyan. They considered the construction of the mainline not only as a source of alleviation of the tension of the Transbaikal and Far Eastern railways, but also as the main condition for the systematic exploration and extraction of minerals in South Yakutia and northern Transbaikalia.

The works of economists substantiated the need and possibility of creating developed territorial production complexes (TPK, and even their number was accurately indicated - 9) based on local raw materials and the proximity of processing industrial centers in Siberia and the Far East, spoke about the sources of development of local diversified agriculture.

Many years have passed since the writing of optimistic scientific forecasts. It must be recognized that the builders and railway workers have done a huge amount of work. At the same time, the vital issues of the social sector were not resolved either in the 1970s or in the 1980s - they never “reached their hands”.

Already in the late 1970s. experts noted a number of serious shortcomings in the organization of life in the BAM construction zone. Thus, the practice of the sectoral principle of management was recognized as incorrect, when the bulk of capital investments in the development of the social program along the BAM were carried out by departments and ministries that sought to save money on the maintenance of the labor force, shifting the care of the population to local councils. The question was raised about the advisability of transferring material resources directly to the Soviets. Now, as you know, they are no longer there, but then it was very relevant.

Acute were, along with housing, the problems of social and cultural life and health care, providing builders with food and goods in high demand; did not think seriously about environmental protection.

By the mid 1980s. the purely production problems of the new road became obvious. They were, in particular, mentioned in the monograph of the Far Eastern historian L.M. Medvedeva. The author writes that while the small BAM (BAM-Berkakit branch) is loaded, work on the main route has not begun in full; the forecasting of the TPK did not justify itself, except for the South Yakutsk (extraction of Neryungri coal); objects are rented with poor quality of work; high staff turnover.

The collective works “Socio-economic problems of the BAM construction”, “BAM: problems; perspectives”, “Socialist competition of the working class of the Far East in 1935-1985”. They are among the most significant works in the field of research of the Baikal-Amur Mainline.

Unfortunately, many reasonable warnings and advice from scientists and specialists were never taken into account in the process of construction and operation of the BAM, which in the future, in the conditions of the collapse of entire links of the state economy in the 1990s. led to such a disastrous situation on the track on the eve of its disbandment.

Today, the Baikal-Amur Mainline is going through a difficult time due to the restructuring of the railway industry. The construction of the road and the development of the infrastructure of the BAM zone have been completely stopped. The government and the leadership of the Ministry of Railways took a course of reforms to abolish the unified BAM: the administration of this road was disbanded, the North Baikal branch became part of the East Siberian road, and the Tyndinsky and Urgalsky branches became part of the Far East (according to the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation, signed on November 20, 1996). While the East Siberian and Far Eastern roads have their own great difficulties and problems, their main task is to keep the Transsib operational.

The road was built to develop the productive forces of the Irkutsk region, Buryatia, Transbaikalia, Yakutia, the Amur region and the Khabarovsk Territory. And the road passed through the richest places in order to develop mineral deposits. For example, the Udokan copper deposit, which contains 20% of the world's copper reserves. But the 60-kilometer branch to this field was not built. Thanks to BAM, it was planned to develop the railway deposits of southern Yakutia, to create a metallurgical complex there; develop neighboring deposits of coking coal, titanium, vanadium, as well as oil, coal, manganese and iron ores of the Dzhugdzhur-Udsky region; develop the timber industry.

BAM had one more task (and no one canceled it) - this was the continuation of the construction of the railway to Yakutsk, then to Magadan, and then go to Chukotka and Kamchatka. But at present, the construction of the BAM is in a frozen form, the upper structure of the track is dying.

According to V.F. Zuev, a full member of the Geographical Society of Russia, in order for the BAM to continue to work effectively for Russia, it is necessary to attract public and private investments to continue the construction of the BAM, tunnels, and infrastructure in the highway zone. Allow the road administration to carry out industrial activities in the BAM zone, give a concession for the construction of new railways and seaports in the northeastern regions of Russia. Such bold proposals are put forward as the transfer of ownership of the Vanino commercial port, the Vanino-Kholmsk sea ferry to BAM, permission to have its own shipping company, its own administration in the road zone, and abolish taxes for ten years.

When you get acquainted with these regular projects, many historical analogues are involuntarily recalled. Ideas and projects remained unrealized for various reasons. Perhaps these plans are not destined to come true.

Adygea, Crimea. Mountains, waterfalls, herbs of alpine meadows, healing mountain air, absolute silence, snowfields in the middle of summer, the murmur of mountain streams and rivers, stunning landscapes, songs around the fires, the spirit of romance and adventure, the wind of freedom are waiting for you! And at the end of the route, the gentle waves of the Black Sea.

January 14, 2014, 13:03

In 1888, the Russian Technical Society discussed a project to build a Pacific railway across the northern tip of Lake Baikal, after which, in July - September 1889, Colonel of the General Staff N. A. Voloshinov overcame a thousand-kilometer space from Ust-Kut to Mui with a small detachment to the places where the BAM route now lies. And he came to the conclusion: "... drawing a line in this direction is certainly impossible due to some technical difficulties, not to mention other considerations." Voloshinov was not a pessimist, but he was soberly aware that at that time Russia had neither the equipment nor the means to carry out grandiose works.

Following this, the construction of three connecting lines from the Trans-Siberian Railway to the planned BAM route continued (mainly by the prisoners of the Baikal-Amur ITL (Bamlag)) construction of three connecting lines from the Trans-Siberian Railway to the planned BAM route: Bam - Tynda, Volochaevka - Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Izvestkovaya - Urgal. In 1937, the general direction of the BAM route was determined: Taishet - Bratsk - the northern tip of Lake Baikal - Tyndinsky - Ust-Niman - Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Sovetskaya Gavan. In 1938, construction began on the western section from Taishet to Bratsk, and in 1939, preparatory work began on the eastern section from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Sovetskaya Gavan. In January 1942, by decision of the State Defense Committee, from the Bam-Tynda section built by that time, track links and bridge trusses were removed for the construction of the Stalingrad-Saratov-Syzran-Ulyanovsk (Volzhskaya Rokada) railway line.

Pictured is a map of the Baikal-Amur Mainline

In June 1947, the construction of the eastern section of Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Urgal continued (mainly by the prisoners of the Amur ITL (Amurlag)) . Before the Amurlag was disbanded (in April 1953), embankments were poured over the entire section, tracks were laid, bridges were built on the Komsomolsk-2 - Berezovy (Postyshevo) section. The section Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Sovetskaya Gavan was put into operation in 1945, and the movement of trains on the Taishet - Bratsk - Ust-Kut (Lena) line was opened in 1950. The map below shows the Baikal-Amur Mainline in green, with the Trans-Siberian Railway in the background.

It is more than likely that BAM would have been built much earlier than the famous Komsomol construction of 1974 began. Indeed, only from 1947 to 1958, the prisoners completed 24 million m3 of earthworks, laid 840 km of main and station tracks, built 55 stations and sidings, 5 locomotive depots, 9 power stations, 19 water supply points, 90 thousand square meters of living space near BAM.

However, as you know, after the death of Stalin, many "cult" projects had to be frozen.

One way or another, July 8, 1974 is considered the official "birthday" of BAM, when the resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 561 "On the construction of the Baikal-Amur Railway" was issued.

The smiles on the faces of young people who were leaving Moscow on April 27, 1974 for the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline were the most sincere. Not all of them "lasted" on the BAM for a long time, literally a few returned to Moscow on a no less legendary train that arrived at the Yaroslavsky station on the Tynda-Moscow flight in January 1984.

It was from that moment that the active construction of the highway began in many directions at once by the forces of the Komsomol construction "landing forces" and parts of the Railway Troops. Here it is impossible not to note the traditional nature of the decision: to use soldiers instead of prisoners in the construction.

In 1977, the Bam - Tynda line was put into permanent operation, and in 1979 the Tynda - Berkakit line. The main part of the road was built over 12 years - from April 5, 1972 to October 27, 1984, and on November 1, 1989, the entire new three thousand-kilometer section of the highway was put into permanent operation in the volume of the launch complex. The longest Severo-Muisky tunnel in Russia (15,343 meters), the construction of which began in May 1977, was broken through to the end only in March 2001 and put into permanent operation in December 2003.

The photo shows a large junction railway station in Tynda

Such a large-scale construction was only possible for a great power, with its colossal economic power and resources. 60 sectors of the national economy, hundreds of supplying enterprises, design and scientific organizations participated in providing the construction site with everything necessary. BAM is rightly called the route of friendship and brotherhood. It was built by representatives of 70 nationalities of the USSR.

The General Scheme of the District Planning of the BAM Influence Zone was developed, taking into account the regional features of the route, the specific factors of the economic development of the territories adjacent to it, as well as the multinational features of architectural and planning solutions, the construction art of all the republics participating in the construction of the highway. Tynda, Neryungri, Severobaikalsk - the largest cities along the route - were built exactly according to master plans. As a result, each has its own look, its own special architectural "accents". However, like any new business, the Baikal-Amur Mainline aroused interest in environmental problems. The virgin nature demanded a careful attitude towards itself. After all, a delicate natural organism, balanced for thousands of years, is especially fragile in conditions of permafrost, high seismicity and low temperatures.

It was important to use the powerful equipment that the builders were armed with wisely, carefully and skillfully, so that the industrial power of the BAM was organically combined with the natural landscape, clean air, and the transparency of rivers and lakes. The extreme conditions of the track required new scientific, technical and engineering and production solutions.

Here, for the first time in world practice, a fundamentally new design of foundations for bridge supports was created, a number of new ideas in tunneling were implemented, technologies for backfilling the subgrade and drilling and blasting operations in permafrost conditions were developed, and modern methods of dealing with ice icing appeared. The highway passed through the territory of the region in the northern areas rich in natural resources.

Where previously only a nomadic Evenk hunter on his reindeer traveled, where only occasionally geologists flew in helicopters, the taiga was awakened by the whistle of a diesel locomotive, residential settlements have grown. Previously, the southern regions of the Amur Region were connected with the North by the AYAM highway (Amur-Yakutsk Mainline), running from the Big Never on the Trans-Siberian Railway to Chulman. And this thin transport brook was replaced by a "full-flowing river" named BAM. But, it should be recognized that BAM turned out to be unprofitable. The number of trains and freight traffic did not correspond to the original plans.

The main mistake was the emphasis on the actual laying of the route to the detriment of the development of industrial infrastructure. "Cutting in crutches" became an end in itself and was not sufficiently supported by the use of mineral deposits made available as a result of the construction of the railway line.

The Baikal-Amur Mainline is one of the largest railway lines in the world. The construction of the main part of the railway, which took place in difficult geological and climatic conditions, took more than 12 years, and one of the most difficult sections - the Severo-Muisky tunnel - was put into permanent operation only in 2003.

The Severomuysky ridge was one of the most difficult sections of the BAM. Prior to the opening of the Severomuysky tunnel, trains followed a bypass railway line laid across the ridge.

In 1985 - 1989, a new bypass line 54 km long was built, consisting of numerous steep serpentines, high viaducts and two loop tunnels (the old bypass was subsequently dismantled). The "Devil's Bridge" gained fame - a viaduct in a sharp turn on a slope across the valley of the Itykyt River, standing on two-tier supports. The train was forced to maneuver between the hills, moving at a maximum speed of 20 km / h and risking falling under an avalanche. On the rises, it became necessary to push the trains with auxiliary locomotives. The site required large expenses for the maintenance of the track and ensuring traffic safety. Pictured is the Devil's Bridge:

It took more than 25 years to build a tunnel through the ridge. The first train passed through the tunnel on December 21, 2001, but the tunnel was put into permanent operation only on December 5, 2003. The total length of the mine workings of the tunnel is 45 km; along the entire length of the tunnel there is a working of a smaller diameter used for pumping water, placing engineering systems and transporting technical personnel. Ventilation is provided by three vertical shafts. The safety of trains passing through the tunnel is ensured, among other things, by seismic and radiation monitoring systems. To maintain the microclimate in the tunnel, special gates are installed on both of its portals, which are opened only for the passage of the train. The engineering systems of the tunnel are controlled by a special automated system developed at the Design and Technological Institute of Computer Engineering of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Along with the tunnel, the Severomuysky bypass is also maintained in working order - it is expected that it can be used in the event of an increase in cargo traffic along the BAM. Many trains now run along the Baikal-Amur Mainline.

In 2007, the government approved a plan, according to which it is planned to build "capillary" branches to mineral deposits. Also, earlier it was decided to build a crossing in the form of a Sakhalin tunnel or bridge:

In 2009, the reconstruction of the section Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Sovetskaya Gavan (Far Eastern Railway) began with the construction of a new Kuznetsovsky tunnel, it is planned to be completed in 2016.

Now 8 trains pass through BAM every day, the volume of traffic is 8 million tons of cargo per year. In general, BAM even today is a piggy bank of railway records: the most severe climatic conditions, the longest tunnels, the highest bridges, the most original engineering solutions.

According to the "Strategy-2030", the volume of investments in BAM will be about 400 billion rubles. 13 new railway lines with a total length of about 7,000 kilometers will be built. All these plans for the future and strategies still do not allow BAM to be called a road without a future, and it is no coincidence that the construction of the North-Muya tunnel was not curtailed even in the most difficult times for the Russian economy. Despite everything, the history of the Baikal-Amur Mainline continues...

Photo album about construction and life at a shock Soviet construction site:

Diver on bridge construction

Girls of the Bamovsky village. 1977

The first train at the zero kilometer of BAM. Station "Lena" 1975

Port Vostochny

Tynda. Caption to the photo with a fireplace: “... cozy houses were built for the BAM workers in Tynda. The living room in the house of the master of the path ... ".