When will the Crimean bridge across the Kerch Strait be opened?

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

At the opening of the International Yalta Economic Forum, the head of the Republic of Crimea, Sergei Aksenov, answering the question when the Crimean bridge across the Kerch Strait will be opened for cars, did not name a specific date, but replied that in a couple of weeks. The news swept through periodicals and drew calm approval in friendly states like Belarus.

The news that it would be possible to drive a car across the Crimean bridge in May of this year made everyone happy: those interested in economic cooperation with Crimea, and those who were going to spend a vacation on the peninsula, or just relax for a few days. No less gratifying were the reports on the commissioning of the Sevastopol and Balaklava power plants.

How realistic are the voiced prospects

Initially, the deadlines for completing the necessary work on the construction and installation of a complex technical structure were planned to be completed by the end of 2018. But the urgent need to communicate with the peninsula, which returned to the Russian Federation in May 2014, forced the contractors to foresee possible difficulties and accelerate the pace of construction and installation work.

So the date when the Crimean bridge across the Kerch Strait will be opened has moved more than six months, and this is confirmed with confidence by Arkady Rotenberg, the owner of the company that is building the Crimean bridge.

In order to complete the construction of a grandiose facility, the growth rates and delivery dates of which are monitored by the whole world, Rotenberg's contractor had to overcome many difficulties. Pictures are taken from space on a regular basis. After the newly elected President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin expressed the wish that the bridge be completed by the summer, the builders had to accelerate the pace and apply some improvements.

Such a rush was due not only to the economic needs of the peninsula, but also to concern for the Russians, who so far can only get to the picturesque Crimea via a ferry crossing.

Such a journey involves a number of inconveniences:

long lines for cars;

• many hours of heat for people trying to cross the ferry to the peninsula;
• obstacles to the development of the infrastructure of the returned constituent entity of the Federation;
• possible difficulties with the supply of resources necessary for a good rest of tourists.

The main good news for 2018 sounded on March 14, when the contractor announced the new likely dates for the commissioning of the road section of the bridge in May of this year, and the railway line is scheduled to be commissioned in 2019.

During an interview given to media representatives, the director of a construction company made special emphasis on the fact that in the last century this ambitious project was repeatedly tried to start, but it seems that it will be the Russian Federation that will be able to bring it to life. He also added that the announced prospects are quite real and feasible.

Triumphant messages

The latest news about the construction of the Crimean bridge across the Kerch Strait sounds even more encouraging, despite the fact that just over a month has passed. Some time ago, it would seem quite recently, the builders reported that one site, located on the Tuzla island, was completely ready. And now the bridge has already acquired the appearance of a decorated structure in the images from space. The weather did not indulge the selfless builders with either the sun or the absence of storms, and the wind sometimes reached such a force that it knocked the installers off their feet.

Objective difficulties created by bad weather impeded both the supply of building materials and the full-fledged work of specialists.

To imagine what difficulties arose during the construction of the bridge in winter, it is enough to remember what difficult weather was during the winter.

Strong winds alternated with storms, periodically there were quite noticeable frosts, icing, heavy rainfall. Despite this, the latest news about the Crimean bridge is good news.

They appear in periodicals and on the air almost daily:

• the news of the creation of a full-fledged asphalt pavement pleased both motorists and bus drivers (because at the initial stage, the Crimean bridge will be open for this type of transport);
• creation of barriers to ensure the safety of traffic on the bridge for vehicles;
• even the lighting elements have been installed, which will be required later to move along the road at night.

Despite the originally promised deadline at the end of 2018, progress towards completion of construction is proceeding at an accelerated pace. Even an operational basis for the operation of the bridge has been created, which will coordinate and provide all the scope of work to maintain it in a state that is safe for transporting passengers, managing transport processes and resolving emerging disputes.

The Crimean bridge, built in an unprecedented record time in the history of the country, has a total length of 19 km. It is longer than all Russian and all European bridges. Some mass media exaggerate unverified reports that the automobile part of the grandiose construction will be put into final operation by the Great Victory Day. How much this corresponds to the truth, the time and state of the work carried out will show.

However, the builders are filled with optimism, as well as Arkady Rotenberg, whose firm was entrusted to build the Crimean bridge across the Kerch Strait.

Operational prospects and further modernization

The estimated capacity, after the first stage has been completed, is the throughput of an impressive figure. The bridge will be able to pass more than 40 thousand cars per day, for which the construction of the required number of entrances to it is envisaged in the Crimea and Krasnodar Territory. For the convenience of movement of vehicles across the peninsula, a federal road will also be built in Crimea, which will not only preserve the protected ecology, but will also preserve the purity of nature and air. It will shorten the travel time for passengers and tourists to reach their final destination.

There is no doubt that the Crimean Bridge can be called a grandiose and significant achievement of Russia, and the name of the construction site of the century, judging by the latest news, it received by right.