R297 highway (Russia)

The most problematic stretch of the highway lies between Chita and Khabarovsk. The first section of this route, linking Belogorsk to Blagoveshchensk (124 km (77 mi) in length), was constructed by gulag inmates as early as 1949.

In 1966, the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union ordered the construction of the 2,165 km (1,345 mi)-long Chita-Khabarovsk highway, which would run through permafrost-covered soil and mountainous areas. After a long feasibility study, construction began in 1978. Due to the difficulty of the natural conditions, after nearly 20 years of construction only 605 km (376 mi) had been built, around Chita, Blagoveshchensk, and Khabarovsk. The road from Chita to Khabarovsk at that time, in the mid-1990s, consisted largely of undeveloped taiga glades that were passable only in winter.[3]

On May 24, 1995, the government of the Russian Federation passed a resolution "On accelerating the construction of the Chita-Khabarovsk federal road." Shortly thereafter, another 389 km (242 mi) of the highway was completed. In September 2001, the Russian Ministry of Transport increased funding for the project significantly in order to bring it toward completion, allocating 26% of the entire federal transportation budget to the highway. By 2002, the road became technically passable for the first time (with major difficulties, see next section), and 500-700 cars per day began to use it.[3] As part of the Asian route AH31, the road completed the connection from Belogorsk to Dalian in China.

The section of the Chita–Khabarovsk road known as the Zilov Gap remained largely unfinished and was known during the semiannual mud seasons to be notoriously difficult to traverse. Traveling a distance of 300 m (980 ft) could take as long as three hours,[4] and the route involved numerous serious river crossings.

It posed a major challenge to long-distance overland expeditions and nearly caused the end of the Mondo Enduro expedition.[2] The Long Way Round trip avoided it altogether.[5] Motorcyclist Jim Oliver traveled the entire route in May-June 2004 and described massive marshes, gravel, rock, mud, sand, washboarding, potholes, stream fording, and detours along the elusive highway, with a noticeable absence of pavement. Many motorcyclists were injured or killed trying to "master" the Amur Highway.[6]

To avoid the gap, drivers would typically load their cars onto the Trans-Siberian Railroad at Chernyshevsk for the 800-km trip to Magdagachi.[7]

Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin promotes the Lada Kalina brand by driving through the recently opened Amur Highway in 2010

In early 2004, Russian President Vladimir Putin symbolically opened the Amur Highway, with great swaths of forest separating major portions from one another. At this time, large sections of the highway were still dirt or crushed stone roads.[8]

From 2008-2010, 35 billion rubles (roughly US$1.05 billion in 2009) were allocated to complete paving of the highway.[9] The St. Petersburg Times reported in September 2010 that paving had been completed.[10] At a videoconference marking the event, Putin described it as "a dependable, modern farm road, but not the Autobahn." Shortly afterward, a memorial marker for the "Zero kilometer of the Chita-Khabarovsk Federal Highway" was installed in Lenin Square, Khabarovsk, marking the final completion of the 40-year construction project.[11]

Today, the Chita–Khabarovsk road is a modern paved highway with painted, reflective lane-lines.

• Chita
• A360 Lena Highway to Yakutsk
• Birobidzhan
• Khabarovsk, via the Khabarovsk Bridge
• A370 highway to Vladivostok

• 
  View of the Amur Highway, 2015
• 
  Amur Highway in winter near the village of Takhtamygda, 2010
• 
  Khabarovsk Bridge at the far eastern end of the highway, constructed in 1999.

•  Siberia portal