The length of the bridge across the Kerch Strait is still not exactly known. The history, present and future of the bridge across the Kerch Strait

The design of the bridge on the coast of the Taman Peninsula across the Kerch Strait received a new impetus immediately after the reunion of the Crimea with Russia. When the new transport transition is put into operation, it will directly connect the Krasnodar Territory with the Crimea. The shortest possible time is spent on design and survey work and on construction itself. While it is not known exactly what will be the length of the bridge across the Kerch Strait. Probably, the transport corridor is 2 times higher than the size of a similar structure in 1944. The modern bridge crossing will greatly accelerate development in the region of tourism and agriculture.

The bridge across the Kerch Strait. Project photo

The construction projects of the transport transition were presented to the attention of specialists of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation and the participants of the interdepartmental commission. One of the new objects of the transport infrastructure of Crimea - a two-level bridge over the Kerch Strait - will be combined (road and rail). To this decision, the Ministry's specialists came after studying all the proposed options.

Designers created 74 projects, differing in cost, the length of the access roads. There are among them options for building a tunnel from the points of Tuzla and Chushka. Experts in the field of bridge construction considered all the possibilities, but noted that the tunnel will cost more than the bridge, and it will have to be built longer. The term of erection of the combined bridge across the strait is 3.5 years. There are options for building a transport corridor from the port "Caucasus", other points. A photo of one of the projects gives an idea of a two-level combination of roads and railways.

The most promising projects

Specialists of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation and the interdepartmental commission carefully studied all the projects of the bridge transition between the Caucasus and the Crimea. The most promising were the 4 variants from the 74's. Each of them has a different length of the bridge across the Kerch Strait:

1. "Northern" - the route from Cape Lanari to the m. Small angle, its length is 10.3 km.
2. "Zhukovsky" - the bridge from Zhukovka to the Spit Chushka, length - 6.3 km.
3. "Enikalsky" - a bridge in a narrow section of the Straits 5.7 km long.
4. "Tuzlinsky" is a transport passage from Ak-Burun to Tuzla spit, length is 11.7 km.

Cost of projects

Initially, the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation announced the minimum amount of 50 billion rubles needed to build an automobile bridge between Taman and the Kerch Peninsula. Russian President Vladimir Putin specified and completed the task: to build a combined transport transition (road and rail).

The variant of addition to the bridge in the form of a tunnel along the bottom of the strait is being worked out. The total cost of the entire construction will be specified until the middle of the autumn of 2014, as well as the length of the bridge across the Kerch Strait. By that time, engineering and survey work is to be completed, which are successfully being carried out in the area of future construction.

According to calculations of specialists, the cost of building a bridge can exceed 300 billion rubles. About 84 billion rubles from the total amount will be spent on preparatory work. The cost of the project and the entire construction increases with the study of the natural features of the strait, its geological structure and the location of objects of history, culture and archeology in the Kerch Peninsula.

The bridge in the Kerch Strait

The bridge project from Tuzla spit to Ak-Burun m., Selected by the interdepartmental commission, involves the construction of a railway and a highway over it. Two rail tracks will be laid and a four-lane highway will be built. Further along the spit the railway will go not under the road, but next to it. Over the base of the spit, separate automobile and railway crossings will be built. In the case of the construction of a transport corridor, the Tuzla project requires the shortest rail and road entrances (36 and 38 km respectively). The peculiarity of the option, which includes the Tuzla spit in the orbit of the bridge, is the savings in the construction of access roads.

"Tuzla variant"

The scythe of Tuzla and the dam are in the south of the strait, in its widest range. The construction in this part differs significantly from the project of the route connecting the port "Kavkaz" in the east and the spit Chushka in the west:

1. "Tuzla variant" provides for the construction of the longest transport corridor. Under the project, the length of the bridge across the Kerch Strait will reach 11.7 km.
2. Areas will be used for the construction of all related infrastructure, including warehouses and other premises.
3. There will be an opportunity to protect the Scythian burial mounds and other sights that are rich in terrain from the impact of large-scale earthworks.
4. Builders will try to bypass the unusual natural objects of Kerch and Taman peninsula - mud volcanoes.

Natural features of the Kerch Strait

The construction of the transport corridor will begin after the completion of geological, hydrological and other studies in the area of the bridge construction. Tectonic conditions are complex here, economic activity has an appreciable effect on the ecosystem. The planned work should not damage the navigation and fisheries resources of the strait. In the projects the designers tried to take into account the main natural characteristics and conditions of the water space that separates Taman and the Crimea. The Kerch Strait (general indicators):

• Origin - tectonic;
• Length - 45 km;
• Width - from 4,5 to 15 km;
• Depth - 5-15 m;
• The extreme point of the Kerch Peninsula is Ak-Burun;
• The extreme point of the Krasnodar Territory is the Tuzla metro station;
• The climate is moderately continental.

Kerch Strait - the oldest transport corridor

The city of Kerch was founded by Greek settlers in the middle of the VI century BC. E. Here are found the ruins of the ancient settlement of Panticapaeum, the capital of the Bosporan kingdom. The Strait area in ancient times was called the Cimmerian Bosporus for its similarities with the Bosporus between the Black Sea and the Aegean (Mediterranean Sea). The western part of the strait is washed by the Kerch Peninsula of the Crimea (Tauris). In the east is the Taman Peninsula. In the vicinity of Kerch, Scythian burial mounds, ancient fortifications, fortresses, other monuments of history and culture were found.

The communication between the western and eastern shores existed in ancient times. The Cimmerians could drive their herds through the shallows that connect the Azov and Black Seas. The width of the Kerch Strait allowed traders and fishermen to cross boats. The city of Kerch is listed as a UNESCO heritage site as the territory along which the Great Silk Road ran. The Kerch Strait was also part of a road called "from the Varangians to the Greeks". At its bottom, partially submerged ancient Greek cities, fragments of warships of the Ottoman Empire were found.

History of the bridge (1903-1953)

In the early twentieth century, the British government planned to build a railway route from England to the Crimea, a bridge across the Kerch Strait, to open the way to the Caucasus, to India. There was not enough money to implement the project. Emperor Nicholas II in 1903 also dreamed that the Russian state would build a bridge across the Kerch Strait between Kerch and Taman, but the plan was prevented by the war of 1914. During the Great Patriotic War, the North Caucasus region and the Crimea became the scene of fierce battles between Germany and the USSR. German troops built a pontoon bridge across the Kerch Strait, but the Fuhrer in the spring of 1943 demanded the erection of a 5-kilometer permanent.

The idea of a bridge crossing the German architect Albert Speer Fascist invaders did not have time to implement. After the expulsion of the Nazis from Taman and the Crimea, Soviet engineers revived the German project, the builders used the metal structures and equipment left by the Nazis. At the end of April 1944, piles were started to be installed, and in the first days of November of the same year, the first train departed from the station "Crimea" towards the Caucasus. In February 1945, the bridge collapsed under the pressure of ice blocks, which the wind and waves were driven from the Sea of Azov. In 1953, the ferry service began to operate , linking Taman and Kerch.

Unrealized bridge projects

After the collapse of the USSR, the question of the transport corridor across the Kerch Strait was repeatedly raised in Russia and Ukraine. Since 1991, about 20 projects have been developed, in the discussion of which the presidents of Ukraine and Russia took part. In 2004, the ferry servicing the ferry were replaced, and the negotiations entered a protracted phase. Work on the project revived in 2010, when a change of power took place in Ukraine. At one of the presentations, the construction parameters were announced: the length of the bridge is 4.2-4.4 km, and the financing is 24 billion rubles. For Euro 2012, the transport crossing was to connect the Caucasus and the Crimea, but its construction was postponed again. A bridge across the Kerch Strait was planned to be erected on the eve of the Sochi Olympics. Then the interstate commission opted for the shortest "northern" version (from the metro Lantern to the Maly Kut metro station). The project was not left to paper.

Krasnodar Territory - Crimea

When creating a new bridge crossing, the existing ferry across the Kerch Strait (the port "Caucasus" - the port "Crimea") will operate. The season of 2014 promises to be "hot." To get to Crimea for rest, Russians travel by rail to Krasnodar or Anapa. From the capital of the Kuban or from the Black Sea coast continue the way by bus to the port "Caucasus", then follow the ferry to the port "Crimea". Another option for the delivery of passengers is on catamarans from Anapa to the Kerch port.

Kerch bridge: look into tomorrow

According to experts, there are no obstacles preventing the construction of a new transport passage. Russian specialists in the field of geology and hydrology conducted necessary surveys of the coast and measurements of the Kerch Strait. Preference was given to the variants of the route, named "Zhukovsky" and "Tuzlinsky". In assessing these projects, many factors were taken into account, including the preservation of sights on the banks of the strait. The bridge will connect two popular resort regions in need of development. The economy of the peninsula Crimea will receive a significant addition to the transport infrastructure necessary for the development of production, seaports, communications, tourism and agriculture.