In 1947 - 1953 "Lentransproekt" (from 1951. - "Lengiprotrans") developed the project of the Chum - Salekhard - Igarka railway line, now known as the Transpolar Mainline. The route was supposed to become a link in the Great Northern Railway, which runs along the Arctic Circle from the Barents Sea to the Sea of Okhotsk and Chukotka. The idea of creating a highway arose at the beginning of the 20th century.
In the post-war years, the Chum - Salekhard - Igarka line acquired strategic importance in the defense of the Arctic coast of the USSR. The construction of the route was classified as construction sites No. 501 (Chum - Pur section) and 503 (Pur - Igarka section). Among other things, the road was supposed to solve the problem of transport communication of the industrial region of the city of Norilsk and connect the lower reaches of the Ob with the Vorkuta coal basin, where it was required to supply a large amount of fixing timber.
The route was laid in an uninhabited tundra region through large natural obstacles such as the Ural ridge and West Siberian rivers. Engineering surveys and construction were complicated by frost, high snow load, the presence of permafrost and the lack of soils suitable for filling the subgrade.
In 1948 - 1951, under the leadership of the chief engineer of the project "Lentransproekt" P.K. Tatarintsev, the Northern Expedition was organized to survey the route. During this period, the design and survey work was completely completed. Construction was carried out simultaneously from both ends of the line. The laying of the topside was carried out from the side of the Chum station at 500 km and from the side of Igarka at 150 km.
Two ferry crossings were developed across the Ob and Yenisei rivers. The most difficult obstacle was the Yenisei due to the complex hydrological regime. The rise of water in it reaches 23 m, and the width of the channel into low water is 2-2.5 km.
In 1953, with the death of I.V. Stalin's construction of the line was mothballed. Thus, the track at many sites turned out to be abandoned, for which it was called a "dead road". The Chum - Labytnangi section (station on the left bank of the Ob, opposite Salekhard) was put into permanent operation and today is part of the Northern Railway. In the 1970s, the completion of individual sections of the Transpolar Mainline began. Currently, it is planned to complete the construction of the entire railway line as part of the creation of the Northern Latitudinal Railway.
