Lesson Theme: Special text. Railway System in Uzbekistan

Lesson 11. Theme: Reading of special text. Special text: The BAM Railway Work with new special terms from professional dictionary. Doing exercises
The Baikal–AmurMainline is a 1,520 mm (4 ft 11+²⁷⁄₃₂ in) broad-gauge railway line in Russia. Traversing Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East, the 4,324 km (2,687 mi)-long BAM runs about 610 to 770 km (380 to 480 miles) north of and parallel to the Trans-Siberian Railway.
The Soviet Union built the BAM as a strategic alternative route to the Trans-Siberian Railway, seen as vulnerable especially along the sections close to the border with China. The BAM's costs were estimated^{[by whom?]} at $14 billion, and it was built with special, durable tracks since much of it ran over permafrost. Due to the severe terrain, weather, length and cost, Soviet general secretary Leonid Brezhnev described BAM in 1974 as "the construction project of the century".^[1]
If the permafrost layer that supports the BAM railway line were to melt, the railway would collapse and sink into peat bog layers that cannot bear its weight. In 2016 and 2018 there were reports about climate change and damage to buildings and infrastructure as a result of thawing permafrost.^[2][3] The BAM departs from the Trans-Siberian railway at Tayshet, then crosses the Angara River at Bratsk and the Lena River at Ust-Kut, proceeds past Severobaikalsk at the northern tip of Lake Baikal, past Tynda and Khani, crosses the Amur River at Komsomolsk-on-Amur and finally reaches the Pacific Ocean at Sovetskaya Gavan. There are 21 tunnels along the line, with a total length of 47 km (29 mi). There are also more than 4,200 bridges, with a total length of over 400 kilometres (250 mi).^[4]
Of the whole route, only the western Tayshet-Taksimo sector of 1,469 km (913 mi) is electrified. The route is largely single-track, although the reservation is wide enough for double-tracking for its full length, in the case of eventual duplication. The unusual thing about the railway is that it is electrified with a 27.5 kV, 50 Hz catenary minimum height at 6.5 metres (21 ft 4 in) above top of the rails to suit double-stacking under the overhead wires on the Russian gauge tracks, which requires rolling stock to be modified for service on the railway.
At Tynda the route is crossed by the Amur–Yakutsk Mainline, which runs north to Neryungri and Tommot, with an extension to Yakutsk opened in 2014, and now extension to Magadan under construction. The original section of the AYaM connecting the Trans-Siberian at Bamovskaya with the BAM at Tynda is also referred to as the "Little BAM".
During the winter the passenger trains go from Moscow past Tayshet and Tynda to Neryungri and Tommot and there are also a daily trains from Tynda to Komsomolsk-on-Amur and from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Sovetskaya Gavan on the Pacific Ocean via Vanino ("Vladivostok-Sovetskaya Gavan" train No.351Э). Travel time from Tayshet to Tynda is 48 hours.^[5] Travel time from Tynda to Komsomolsk-on-Amur is 36 hours.^[5] Travel time from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Sovetskaya Gavan is 13 hours.^[5]
There are ten tunnels along the BAM railway, totaling 30 kilometres (19 miles) of route. They include:^[6]

• 
  Baikalsky tunnel 6,685 metres (4.154 mi)^[7]
  
• 
  Severomuysky Tunnel 15,343 metres (9.534 mi)
  
• 
  Kodar Tunnell 1,981 metres (1.231 mi)
  
• 
  Dusse Alin Tunnel 1,852 metres (1.151 mi)
  
• 
  Korshunovsky tunnel 950 metres (3,120 ft)