UST: News

Dependence of the cost of string transport systems (STS) on the terrain and its characteristics

The cost of transport lines is only slightly dependent on the terrain and its characteristics, therefore, using STS it will be easy to develop hard-to-reach territories: deserts, swampy land areas, permafrost, taiga, tundra, jungles, ocean shelf, mountains, etc. For example, if a rugged or mountainous terrain will require an increase of the average height of supports from 15 m (on flat terrain) up to 50 m, the cost of the route will increase by only 20-25%, because the proportion of the cost of supports in the total cost of the transport system is not large (10-15%).

The cost increase will be about the same for the construction of a string route through a swamp, desert and permafrost. In these cases it would be necessary to strengthen the foundation of supports and drive in piles, respectively, into a dense swamp bottom; into the deep motionless layers of desert sand; below the depth of thawing in summer (with a special design of piles).