The problems of creation of a trans-continental highway (TCH) and a tunnel under the Bering straight

Technological and operational, organizational and economic problems of the civil-engineering design of Transcontinental railway transition through Bering Strait are considered. The features of the Russian and North American transport systems are marked and the ways of decrease in available contradictions are offered. The examples of similar large-scale investment transport projects in Europe and Asia are given. Large-scale railway projects at the stage of structuring the design plan can be considered as investment-construction, capital-forming, aimed at creating tangible assets of the country's basic infrastructure industry. Institutional aspect is no less important for the sustainable development of the economy and society, since the emergence of a new large element in the industry cannot but affect commercial and social effectiveness of the industry. Therefore, an integral part of a systematic analysis of projects of this type, the volume of investments in which are comparable to federal budget expenditures, is the rules and procedures for assessing their social effectiveness at the highest level of the economic and political hierarchy. The difficulty in assessing social effectiveness of large-scale projects is its systemic complexity. The problem has not been solved by the corps of modern sciences, but so far it has not been posed with the necessary rigor even theoretically. The absence of a relevant theory, the necessity, leads the “problem owners” to use empirical techniques when making complex investment decisions, which usually offer prescription guides. Moreover, the recipes, being narrowly disciplinary, often claim to methodological universality and systemic completeness. The history of the idea and the beginning of the design of the transition date back more than a century. However, global risks and trials of certain periods of history always push the start of the project. The study gives a brief overview of economic and geographical areas of gravity for the construction of the Transcontinental crossing between Russian Chukotka and American Alaska. An obvious lag in the development of transport and economic infrastructure on the Russian side is indicated. Institutional problems of the design and construction are noted without the solution of them further movement of the project is impossible.