The Arctic Bridge or Arctic Sea Bridge is a seasonal sea route approximately long linking

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, specifically the Russian port of

Murmansk Murmansk () is a port city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast in the far Far North (Russia), northwest part of Russia. It is the world's largest city north of the Arctic Circle and sits on both slopes and banks of a modest fjord, Ko ...

to the

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay, sometimes called Hudson's Bay (usually historically), is a large body of Saline water, saltwater in northeastern Canada with a surface area of . It is located north of Ontario, west of Quebec, northeast of Manitoba, and southeast o ...

port of Churchill, Manitoba.

Description

Churchill is the only principal seaport on Canada's northern coast and has no road connections to the rest of Canada. It is the northern terminus of the Hudson Bay Railway and is a useful link in the export of grain from the

Canadian Prairies The Canadian Prairies (usually referred to as simply the Prairies in Canada) is a region in Western Canada. It includes the Canadian portion of the Great Plains and the Prairie provinces, namely Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. These provin ...

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an markets. The Russian gauge Murmansk Railway links the port of Murmansk on the ice-free Kola Bay to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

and the rest of Europe and to the rest of Russia by the M18 Kola Motorway. Russia has shown a keen interest in developing the Arctic Bridge route and hopes to develop the link as part of its plan to build a "geostrategic bridge between Europe, Asia and North America". To this end, Russia is building railways and roads to link cities like Paris, Berlin, Tokyo and Beijing. If developed (along with the Northwest Passage) it could serve as a major trade route between Europe and North America. According to the Russian Federation's Ottawa press attaché, Sergey Khuduiakov, the retreat of Arctic ice has enabled the opening of the trade route. Currently, the route is only easily navigable about four months of the year.

History

The concept of an "Arctic Bridge", with a hub in Churchill, was proposed by Canadians in the early 1990s. In 1997 the port of Churchill was sold to Denver-based OmniTRAX, a major railroad operator. In 2004, OmniTRAX entered into talks with the Murmansk Shipping Company to promote the Arctic Bridge concept. While the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) had been able to keep Churchill a viable port, exporting nearly 400,000 tons (15 million bushels) of wheat each year, OmniTRAX has had difficulty in landing imports at Churchill. On October 17, 2007, the first shipment of fertilizer from

arrived at the Port of Churchill. Two separate 9000 tonne imports of Russian fertilizer arrived in 2008, purchased by the Farmers of North America cooperative of

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

from

Kaliningrad Kaliningrad,. known as Königsberg; ; . until 1946, is the largest city and administrative centre of Kaliningrad Oblast, an Enclave and exclave, exclave of Russia between Lithuania and Poland ( west of the bulk of Russia), located on the Prego ...

. The port of Churchill exported 710,000 tonnes of grain in 1977, 621,000 tonnes in 2007, and 529,000 tonnes in 2009. The CWB was sold off to Saudi Company, G3 Global Grain Group in 2015 and the Churchill Port suffered as grain shipments were slowly ceased. Omnitrax then closed the rail-line and port, citing a lack of profitability of the operations. They then entered into initial talks to sell the port and rail-line to a local indigenous consortium of Manitoba First Nations, Missinippi Rail Consortium.

References

External links

* ttp://www.arcticbridge.com Arctic Bridge Churchill Manitoba Key to Northern Development {{Arctic topics

Bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

Atlantic Ocean Maritime history of Canada Sea lanes Churchill, Manitoba Murmansk Buildings and structures in Kaliningrad

Description

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links