И. А. Курбасова Е. И. Силантьева

TEXT 7. THE BAM RAILWAY
(1) For hundreds of years the unlimited natural resources of Siberia were out of human reach. The Trans-Siberian Railway, though of immense economic importance, could not meet the growing needs of the developing country's economy.

(2) The project of building the Baikal-Amur Railway was proposed for the first time before the Great October Socialist Revolution. But the tsarist Government could not realize it because of numerous economic and technological difficulties. It is only under the Soviet power that the construction of the BAM Railway has become practicable.

(3) The 3,102 km railway is not the longest line in the world but its construction was an extremely hard job. Long sections of the line were laid in permafrost areas where permafrost is sometimes 100 m thick. Three-quarters of the route were built in the areas subjected to earthquakes.

(4) Consequently, the BAM builders had to solve nu­merous technological and engineering problems: the bridge foundations had to be strengthened, great attention was given to stabilizing the bed of the rivers to be crossed.

(5) In all, the construction of the BAM Railway in­volved the erection of 3,200 engineering structures including over 2,000 bridges and tunnels, with a total length of 32 km.

(6) Now we can use the past tense speaking about the construction of the BAM Railway. On September 29, 1984 the last, so-called golden, rail-length was laid in the track. The significant project was realized within ten years. In addition to 3,102 km of main line 400 km of "Lesser BAM" and some 700 km of station tracks were laid.

(7) Initiating the construction the railway builders had to overcome many difficulties: at first they had to live in tents. They suffered from extreme heat and clouds of mos-quitos in summer while in winter the temperature reached —60 °C and snow was up to one metre deep.

(8) Some 130,000 people of 108 nationalities took part in building the BAM. Hundreds of students' teams includ­ing those from the country's railway transport institutes, spent their so-called "third term" on the BAM construction site. It is to those people that we must express our grati­tude for their great contribution to the further advance of our country.