How difficult was it to make the Trans Siberian Railway?
The Trans-Siberian railway construction took place in many difficult climate conditions. Most of the road was build through low populated or not populated areas with tense forests. The road goes across many strong Siberian rivers, meets many lakes, swampy and permafrost areas in its way. The most difficult part for the builders was the section around the Baikal. They had to blast rocks, make tunnels, and build additional structures on the rivers that go into Baikal. According to the Railway Construction Committee calculations estimated costs of the road building were 350 millions of gold rubles. To lower the costs and to build the road faster, committee established special simplified technical conditions base for the Ussuriysk and Western Siberia sections of the road. Major construction works were planed only for the big bridges. Smaller bridges were built of wood. 50 mile distance between stations was allowed. The biggest problem was the problem of attracting labor for the building of Trans-Siberian railway. The need for qualified workers was satisfied by hiring workers in the center and by transporting them to Siberia. Most of the builders were convicts and soldiers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41sPlZKWqYI