A second trans-Siberian railroad, running 100 to 500 kilometers north of the original Trans-Siberian Railway and extending 3,145 kilometers from the western terminus at Ust -Kut to the eastern terminus at Komsomol sk-na- Amure. Opened in 1989, the BAM was designed and built to relieve traffic on the Trans-Siberian Railway, lessen rail traffic s vulnerability to Chinese military incursion, and facilitate transport of natural resources from huge, unexploited deposits in eastern Siberia.
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