Evening star., 1946-04-21
Soviet Program Calls
For Vast Waterway
And Highway Projects
By Eddy Gilmore

Assoeloted Press FoEsn Correspondent
MOSCOW-Russian writer's and
historians through the ages have de-
plored the roads of their country.
The U. S. S. R. must devote millions
OF man and machine hours to road
building; but here, too, they are on
the way A decree of the presidium
OF the Supreme Soviet on February
18, l946, announced the creation of a
commlsSariat of road building and
road building machinery.
One of the biggest highway prof.
ects is the Moscow -Simferopol
speedway, connecting the capital
with the Russian riviera on the Black
Sea. This road will total more
than 1000 miles.
Five or Six Lanes In All.
The highway, five or six lanes
wide, will go through Tula and Crel,
scenes of bloody fighting in the
German war, and to Kursk. famous
as the place where a Russian tank
army broke the back of Hitler's
panzer divisions in the summer of
1943.
From Kursk a speedway will be
built to Kharkov and on to
Zaporozhe and the Dnieper Dam,
then across the Nikopol fats and
the Crlmean Steppes.
Still another speedway will be
built between Kiev, capital of the
Ukraine, and RoStov on the Don at
the eastern tip of the Sea of Azov.
This highway will pass through
the DonbasS coal basin and some
Of the most fertile l. is in the
Soviet Unions Ukrair an bread
basket.
The RostovKiev speedway will
cross the MoscoW-C -Crimean thor
oughfare at Kharkov, thus bringing
the Ukraine and the Caucasus
many hours nearer to Moscow, Len f.
ingrad and other great northern
population centers.
Planes Carry Fruit.
The fruit treasures of Georgia, !
Armenia and the semitropical sec
tor on the eastern shores of the
Black Sea now are transported to
the north by plane and train.
The Russians also are planning
a big automobile road through Lat
via and Lithuania. This will afford
the Soviet Union fine highway
paralleling the Baltic
Work actually has started on the
highways of the south and the new
commissariat is said to be expecting
to tackle the northern areas this /
summer.
Another important piece of road
construction is the building of a
speedway between Yaroslavl and
Vologda. One of RuSsia's biggest
automobile tire factories is located
in Yaroslavl This project, sched-
uled to be finished by November of
this year, will link Valogda with
Moscow Valogda is an important
junction on the Transiberian and
Moscow -Murmansk- -Archangel rail-
ways.
Engineers Face Challenges.
Immense challenges await the
Soviet engineers in the possibilities
of water transport, but large
sections of this plan remain to be
announced. One new project pro-
vides for a 375-mile canal in the
Turkmen republic. 1t is described
as primarily for irrigation now, but
eventually may be pushed through
to te Caspian Sea, fulfilling a
dream Of Peter the Great for a
waterway connecting the Baltic Sea
Nit CT
which is expected to take two years
to build. begins at Bassag on the
Anu Darya River, runs west
through Kelif-Uzba into the sector
of tha towns of Bairma Ali and
Merl, }len westward to the Tedzhen
River where it meets the Caspian
Ashkhabad River.
The Baltic-White Sea canal was
completed before the war, allowing
ships to sail from Leningrad to
Archangel in six days instead of
spending II or 18 going around
through the North and Barents
Seas. During the war, however,
large numbers of heavy bombs and
shells fell on some of its most i'm
portant links and engineers are now
struggling to repair it.
Cut through the beautiful forest
lands of Karelia, it is one of the
most picturesque inland waterways
in the world. Designed to accommo-
date big timber traffic from Arch
angel and the surrounding regions,
it is soon to see ships carrying
lumber to the destroyed east and for
trading purposes to Denmark, Hol-
land, France, Britain and beyond.