Subfluvial tunnel ESPO and Lena River is a bridge that carries the Eastern Siberia–Pacific Ocean oil pipeline across the

Lena River The Lena is a river in the Russian Far East and is the easternmost river of the three great rivers of Siberia which flow into the Arctic Ocean, the others being Ob (river), Ob and Yenisey. The Lena River is long and has a capacious drainage basi ...

. The Eastern Siberia–Pacific Ocean oil pipeline is a long oil pipeline. It is between the confluence with the

Olyokma River The Olyokma (, , ; , ) is a tributary of the Lena in eastern Siberia. The river gives its name to the Olyokma-Chara Plateau, located to the west of its western bank. History In the summer of 1631, Russian pioneer Pyotr Beketov entered the Oly ...

and Soljanka village.

Building method and design

Builders initially chose a tunnel for this crossing, based on horizontal drilling. Instead, they eventually decided to build a culvert, laying an oil pipeline in a trench. According to designers of

Transneft Joint Stock Company Transneft () is a state-controlled pipeline transport company headquartered in Moscow, Russia. It is the largest oil pipeline company in the world. The company is operating over of trunk pipelines and transports about 80% ...

, the building of the underwater crossing is ecologically safe. The decision on the use of open cut river and stream crossing is based on studies performed by employees of Transneft of possible ways of crossing a waterway, proceeding from geological and hydrological conditions of a section of the Lena River. According to engineers of Transneft, this crossing is unique in reliability. In addition, pump station number 14 is on the bank of the Lena river right after the bridge. This measure lowers pressure in the pipe. The underwater piece of the oil pipeline is a pipe riveted to a wood lath. Over the lath are pig-iron pipeline weights. * The thickness of a wall of a pipe on a site of underwater transition of the main oil pipeline is . *

Strength Strength may refer to: Personal trait *Physical strength, as in people or animals *Character strengths like those listed in the Values in Action Inventory *The exercise of willpower Physics * Mechanical strength, the ability to withstand ...

of a used steel above, than at analogues on 15%. The first attempt to construct the crossing was made in the summer of 2008, but the water lever was high and construction work was halted. The crossing was constructed from the end of March to the beginning of April 2009. Workers worked on placing a section of oil pipeline in a trench that had been cut from the ice of the Lena River.

References

External links

* {{coord missing, Russia Bridges in Russia Transneft