When will the bridge across the Kerch Strait be completed? Opening of the Crimean Bridge for cars across the Kerch Strait: a historic connection

I received the first contractor, almost 3 years have passed, almost a record time for such activities. In March 2018, the President of Russia said that the opening of the bridge could happen earlier than scheduled, which raised many questions - is this so and what will the early delivery of the facility affect?

In fact…

It should be taken into account that there was talk about building a bridge between Crimea and the Taman Peninsula during the times of peaceful relations between Russia and Ukraine, and the first thoughts about this arose back in 2008. Then the residents of both countries were already waiting for the bridge to Crimea to be opened. Russia subsequently included this project in the list of transport strategies for the period until 2030. Initially, negotiations were conducted at the level of prime ministers, then the presidents of the countries returned to the discussion, and in 2013 documents were signed on the beginning of joint actions to organize this project.

Despite the fact that politics and military actions on the territory of Ukraine prevented joint cooperation between the countries, Russia, after unification with Crimea, decided not to postpone the construction of the bridge indefinitely, so already in 2014, President Vladimir Putin gave the corresponding orders. Thus, when the bridge to Crimea is built, several pressing issues will be resolved at once, for example, the safety of Crimeans, the ease of migration of citizens without the difficulties of crossing the Ukrainian border, etc.

Bridge Feature

Do not forget that the project not only has a tight deadline, but also a very complex creation system. The development features of the flora and fauna of that area were taken into account, advanced technologies were used, consultations were held with hundreds of specialists and about 13 thousand workers were hired. The construction of a bridge of such colossal scale was carried out in our country for the first time, so the whole of Russia is looking forward to the construction of the bridge to Crimea.

Of course, along with speed, quality also became a priority. Since the structure will immediately bear the transport load not only in the form of a highway, but also railway tracks. The length of the bridge to Crimea is 18.1 kilometers for a railway track with two lanes and 16.9 kilometers for a road track with four lanes.

The design was created taking into account all negative situations of a natural and man-made nature, therefore it has an increased degree of stability, protection from storms, strong ice drift, and can also withstand seismic vibrations of up to nine points. The country's largest stormwater treatment system was created. That is, when the bridge to Crimea is built, no waste from it was released into the water and will not be released. The structure itself was subject to modern corrosion treatment.

Well forgotten old

It is difficult to imagine that the Kerch Bridge was planned to be built 10 years ago, combining the efforts of the friendly countries of Ukraine and Russia. However, a plan to connect the Crimean peninsula with the southern part of Russia by transport links was proposed by the British. The enterprising government of England thought it was a good idea to build a railway to India just across the Kerch Strait. Then Nicholas II became interested in this project, and even seriously considered it, but the war prevented further plans.

Actually, all this suggests that the Crimean Bridge is a great idea. Interestingly, the length of the bridge to Crimea is longer than the strait itself. Thanks to this, several trading ports will be connected at once. Perhaps the concept of “every cloud has a silver lining” is applicable here, since it is unknown how the fate of the project would have turned out if the president had not decided to make the construction of the bridge the main direction of transport development for the next few years.

When will the bridge across the strait be built?

At the beginning of 2018, we can confidently say that the bridge is ready. The final stages of designing the route and railway remain. The correct alignment of forces, functionality and tasks allowed the contractors not only to meet the stated deadlines, but also to be ahead of schedule. This was first reported at the end of 2017. In a word, the bridge itself is already ready for future loads and is awaiting final preparations before testing and operation. Most systems have been verified through natural exposure and testing. The progress of construction of the bridge to Crimea began to accelerate before the finish line.

News about early delivery

At the beginning of March 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that in a few months part of the road bridge to Crimea would be opened. What specific dates the head of state spoke about was not specified. The fact is that the opening of the road to vehicles is already planned for December 2018, but there is a possibility that this will happen even in the summer. However, as the head of the Ministry of Transport, Maxim Sokolov, told the media, it is too early to make forecasts in favor of fixed dates. Unfavorable periods associated with the vagaries of nature must pass. As a rule, they last until the end of March, after which an analysis will be made of when exactly the bridge to Crimea will open.

Russians' opinion

In the same media and social networks, residents of the country have ambivalent attitudes towards such news. Indeed, Russians feel joy and pride as they witness construction on a historic scale. For many, the Kerch Bridge will be a long-awaited event in the development of the country over many years. However, Russian residents are worried about the quality of construction and do not think that it is worth rushing and putting the facility into operation ahead of schedule. We will wait, do not rush - this is the general mood of the citizens of our country. Indeed, everyone appreciated the incredible work carried out by both the head of state himself and the construction teams, and when the bridge to Crimea will be opened - in winter or summer - is not so important for the majority.

Major Event

However, there are currently actual and specific dates that the whole country is focusing on. They were announced from the very beginning and practically did not change, which, of course, indicates a good calculation. Thus, the Crimean Bridge across the Kerch Strait will be commissioned by the end of 2019. The official date for the opening of road traffic is December 2018 (according to some reports it was moved to May), and the railway tracks will open a year later - in December 2019.

It is expected that local residents will organize a celebration along the entire length of the bridge to Crimea (as far as possible), and the President of the Russian Federation will also take part in the opening. Indeed, this will be one of the most important events in the modern history of Russia; it is pleasant that we have the opportunity to observe such a development of the state. There is no point in counting how much money was spent, but imagine how many nights, efforts, and human labor were spent. The knowledge that the whole country is waiting for this bridge motivates 13 thousand workers to continue working hard. Perhaps, when the bridge to Crimea is finally built, the political situation will change.

Just two years and three months - and the automotive part is ready. The bridge is the longest in Europe. The most discussed and long-awaited.

The length of the bridge is 19 kilometers. We, the journalists who accompany the president on his trip, also toured them. Of course, there are no traffic jams now, because the bridge will open for everyone on May 16, and the road on a perfectly flat surface took less than 20 minutes, which flew by as one - the views around are simply beautiful. It was also interesting to follow the construction of the railway part of the bridge, which begins at one level, but gradually becomes higher than the road. The railway bridge has not yet been completed; trains will cross it next year.

The opening of this bridge is a historical event. Not only because two Russian regions, Kuban and Crimea, will finally be connected by land, but also because the very creation of such a crossing seemed fantastic at first. Some experts argued that this was impossible due to the characteristics of the muddy bottom, and in general construction of such a scale was too difficult and risky. But, as they said in one Soviet film, nothing is impossible for a person with intelligence. Proof of this is the bridge that stands and which we have already crossed.

By the way, Ukraine itself once stopped railway communications with Crimea. In Kyiv, at first they were happy, saying there was no point in traveling here, and then they began to count their losses. The Ministry of Infrastructure, even when the bridge was just being built, calculated that Ukraine would lose tens of millions of hryvnia.

Now cars will rush along the four-lane highway, the permitted speed is 90 km/h. Up to 40 thousand cars can pass there per day.

The next stage is the opening of the railway part of the bridge. These will be two tracks with a capacity of up to 47 pairs of trains per day.

The Crimean Bridge is going to open on the fifteenth of May, or the next day. The opening will take place with the participation of the President of the Russian Federation, and the exact opening date depends entirely on his work schedule.

Previously, officials had said more than once that vehicle traffic on the bridge would begin in the second half of May, but no one indicated a clear date. It is noted that hundreds of bikers from the Night Wolves club should be the first to cross the bridge.

Putin should be at the opening ceremony. If on the fifteenth of May the President of the Russian Federation for some reason cannot go to the opening, it will be postponed to the sixteenth.

There is information on the network that on May 14, Vladimir Putin will take part in the summit of the Eurasian Economic Union, which will be held in Sochi. Four days later, on May 18, the president will hold talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel there.

When will the Crimean Bridge be opened, the latest news today: the bridge will be opened in the middle of this month

In this regard, the fifteenth or sixteenth of May, given the short distance between Sochi and Crimea, really seems to be the optimal date for the president’s participation in the ceremony.

Thus, the opening day of the bridge directly depends on the president’s schedule, and vague statements by bridge builders, road workers and officials at all levels may be related to this.

Until now, they stubbornly do not name the exact date of the ceremony, but have repeatedly assured that the opening of the automobile part of the structure will take place exactly in the second half of May.

On April 19, Sergei Aksenov, who now holds the position of head of Crimea, said that the first cars would cross the bridge “in a few weeks.”

On April 26, Leonid Ryzhenkin, deputy general director for infrastructure projects of the contractor company Stroygazmontazh, said that the movement would be launched in the second half of May.

It is worth noting that the automobile part of the bridge was completely ready at the end of the previous month.

When will the bridge across the Kerch Strait be opened for cars: the President of the Russian Federation will come to the opening of the Crimean Bridge

The construction customer accepted this act from the general contractor on April twenty-eighth. After this and before the official opening, the builders had nothing left to do - install road signs and ensure the comprehensive readiness of all systems and departments to ensure safe traffic on the new road.

Taking into account the small amount of work that remained to be done after the twenty-eighth of April, and Rotenberg’s statements about the readiness of the project after the ninth of May, we can safely assume that the bridge itself is now completely ready to begin the movement of cars, everything depends only on the opening date .

How exactly the ceremony itself will take place is still unclear. Most likely, the traditional cutting of the red ribbon could be in the middle of the bridge, in the central arched span that Putin visited during his March visit.

Then the president checked how the final stage of construction was going, inspected the finished section of the road and briefly talked with the workers, the Wordyou website reports. Answering a question from one of the builders, the head of state then said that he would “try to come” to the opening ceremony.

Surely, every Russian is interested in the question of how the construction of the bridge to Crimea is going and when the Kerch Bridge will finally be built.

When will the Kerch Bridge open? last information

Now it is in full swing, and this article carefully examines the Kerch Bridge project itself and its features.

According to Sokolov, “the builders are on schedule, and if not there will be none exceptional, unpredictable difficulties, if there are no natural disasters and no serious discrepancies are identified in geological surveys, then we can confidently say that the task will be completed within the estimated time frame,” he specified.

When will the bridge to Crimea be opened for cars? Everything that is known at the moment.

One of the “grandsons” is 23 years old graduate Nizhny Novgorod Construction Academy Dmitry Mokhonov has been working at a construction site for four months.

Came here with a friend. Dmitry had not yet seen either Yalta, Sevastopol, or other beauties of the peninsula. Once. But he dreams of someday having a rest in the new Russian Crimea - only he will first build a bridge to the mainland.

The bridge structure is being built along the Tuzla Spit. This will allow the use of a small area of ​​land in the strait to strengthen the entire structure. To meet the time frame, construction is being carried out in several places at once.

Let us remind you that the bridge across the Kerch Strait, which will connect the peninsula and the Krasnodar Territory, will be the longest in Russia. Its length will be 19 km. The start of vehicle traffic on the bridge is scheduled for December 2018.

Then they returned to the bridge project in the 30s, during the time of Stalin. Then the idea was to build a railway across the Kerch Strait, but the implementation of the bridge was prevented by the outbreak of World War II.

In 1944, in the shortest possible time, within seven months, a railway bridge was erected, which, however, was dismantled in 1945 due to damage to part of the supports by ice from the Sea of ​​​​Azov.

The meeting participants also discussed the construction of road and railway approaches to the Crimean Bridge, the installation of the Tavrida highway, the development of road construction in Crimea, and ferry service between the ports of Crimea and Caucasus.

The builders of the crossing of the Kerch Strait are reporting the completion of an important stage in the construction of the road part of the facility. It will be possible to get from the Krasnodar Territory to Crimea by road next year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the construction of a bridge across the Kerch Strait a historical mission that could not be realized throughout the last century.

At a meeting on the socio-economic development of Crimea and Sevastopol, the president recalled that the construction of the bridge was first planned under Nicholas II in 1910, but the First World War did not allow this work to begin.

In 1930, Soviet engineers prepared a project for a railway line from Kherson to Poti, also through this section, but the Great Patriotic War interfered.

The idea of ​​creating a transport link to Crimea was revived with the annexation of the peninsula into Russia in 2014.

The implementation of this grandiose project will connect the Crimean region with the mainland of the state, will open up great opportunities for activating the tourism industry of Crimea, and Russians will have the right to visit the peninsula without need to cross borders with Ukraine.

After the annexation, Russian officials considered various options for how to connect Crimea to the Russian mainland, including a tunnel, but ultimately decided on a bridge.

We made the most of the summer-autumn period, including installing the arches of the Kerch Bridge and bringing the string of spans under the road close to the fairway section,” explains Leonid Ryzhenkin, deputy general director for infrastructure projects of the contractor company Stroygazmontazh.

It is reported that 288 supports are currently installed (85 of them in the offshore area), and the assembly of the spans is almost complete.

In addition, in the direction from Taman to Kerch, the lower layer of asphalt concrete was laid on 8 km of the bridge deck, the upper layer - almost 7 km, and in the direction from Kerch to Taman, bridge builders laid 5 km of the lower layer of asphalt concrete and 1.6 km of the upper layer.

In parallel, work is underway to install drainage systems, treatment facilities and utility networks.

Note that the road part of the bridge to the Crimean peninsula will have 4 lanes, and the total length of the crossing will be 19 km. The estimated time to cross the bridge by car is 10 minutes, and the permitted speed is 120 km/h.

The crossing will become the most important infrastructure facility in Russia and will become a more convenient and cheaper alternative to sea ferries - so far the only way to get to Crimea by car.

Kerch Bridge 2018. Breaking news

It is worth noting that at the moment a temporary bridge is already functioning in the waters of the strait, which connects the shore of Taman and the island of Tuzla.

It will not be the only one - it is planned to build two more bridges, through which, from June 2016, workers, materials and construction equipment will be delivered directly to the supports of the main bridge being built.

Traffic on the Crimean Bridge will be opened in a year. For the first time in history, it will be possible to cross the Kerch Strait by car. Moreover, to get from the mainland to the peninsula, it will take no more than ten minutes.

During a trip to Crimea, Vladimir Putin threatened severe punishment that could face those responsible for delaying the delivery of the Kerch Bridge. According to Putin, we need a person who can be “hanged after summing up the construction results” if the project is not completed on time.

Today there are no analogues to the Crimean Bridge not only in Russia, but also in the world. And the point here is not only the record length - 19 kilometers, but also a number of other factors - the connection of two seas, geological faults, weak soils going to a depth of up to 70 meters. And, finally, the short construction time, which is due to acute socio-economic need.

And at the beginning of this summer, the “conditional terrorists” intended to blow up the very same technological site “Kerch” where we are located.

This was the “legend” of the anti-terrorist training of the anti-sabotage group of the Novorossiysk naval base of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy, the Border Directorate of the FSB of Russia for the Republic of Crimea, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the transport security division of construction.

The question of when the Crimean Bridge across the Kerch Strait will be opened for cars is of interest to many Russians. The opening of the legendary Kerch Bridge, which will connect mainland Russia with the Crimean Peninsula, is scheduled to take place in May 2018. However, traffic will only be open to passenger vehicles and buses. The railway line will open a little later.

“In connection with the plans of the builders of the Crimean Bridge to put the road part of the Crimean Bridge into operation significantly ahead of schedule, in May 2018, the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation is considering a phased scheme for organizing traffic along the new route across the Kerch Strait,” the message says.

“At the first stage - immediately after the commissioning of the bridge - the passage will be open to passenger vehicles and buses providing passenger transportation,” the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation clarifies.

“The opening of traffic for freight transport is planned at the second stage - at the end of 2018, as planned in the original schedule,” the department reports.

An exception is provided for freight and technological transport involved in the construction of the railway part of the Crimean Bridge.

The Crimean Bridge will allow creating alternative routes to Sochi-Crimea cruises

Tourist routes that will allow you to see both Crimea and Kuban will appear after the opening of the bridge across the Kerch Strait, which will become an alternative to existing sea cruises, Minister of Resorts, Tourism and Olympic Heritage Christopher Konstantinidi told reporters on Thursday.

“We are committed to comprehensive joint work [with Crimea after the opening of the bridge across the Kerch Strait], and it is possible to receive tourists as part of interregional tourism programs. There is already an example of such work - "Prince Vladimir", our liner, which sailed last year Sochi - Novorossiysk - Yalta - Sevastopol.<…>It is important for us that the service is aimed at tourists who come to relax in Sochi and then go to Crimea for a few days,” said Konstantinidi.

The Crimean Bridge will become a new magnet for tourists

In the coming years, the Crimean Bridge will become one of the main attractions of the peninsula, which will further attract tourists. This opinion was expressed to a REGNUM correspondent by the head of the State Council of the Republic of Kazakhstan Committee on Sanatorium-Resort Complex and Tourism, Alexey Chernyak.

“In connection with the imminent opening of transport links along the Crimean Bridge, we expect an increase in the number of tourists who prefer to travel by car. I am sure that many Russian citizens have a great desire to see this engineering miracle with their own eyes, drive through it in person, and take pictures. The bridge is a huge magnet for attracting tourists,” the parliamentarian noted.