“The Pace is Impressive and Encouraging” – the Results of the Inspection Committee’s Visit to the Chusovskoy Bridge

“The picture has changed dramatically: more than 600 people and 130 specialty vehicles are involved in the facility construction. The pace is impressive and encouraging. The schedule signed between the concessionaire and the ministry is very tight. But, as we can see, it is being met”, summed up Viktor Plyusnin, Head of the Infrastructure Committee of the Regional Legislative Assembly, after a joint inspection visit of Andrey Alyakrinsky, Minister of Transport of the Perm Territory, and Deputies of the Legislative Assembly to one of the largest construction projects in the region – a new bridge across the Chusovaya River under construction by JSC Stroytransgaz.

The construction site is spread over more than 9 km – this is the length of the new bridge together with the entrances.

Today, the construction of two onshore and one channel supports has been completed at the facility; in parallel, work is underway on 10 more supports. The third stage of launching has been completed – from the left to the right bank, the span structure of the bridge has been launched over 97 meters, up to the future third support. The total length of the bridge span structure will be as long as 1,506 meters.

Maxim Smagin, Head of the Perm Territory Project Implementation Directorate of JSC Stroytransgaz, emphasized that this project is one of the top-priority projects for the company. “We understand its high importance not only for the residents of the region, because the bridge is part of the Moscow–Kazan–Perm–Khanty–Mansiysk–Surgut–Tomsk transport corridor. In addition to the launching, we are currently working on the entrances to the bridge: from the side of Palnikov, in the near future, we plan to complete a conjugation of the overpass with the embankment, perform asphalt-coating, in order to subsequently switch traffic flows to the new overpass.
We are also building supports near Tsimlyanskaya Street. Soon, we are planning to erect all the supports necessary for the future interchange, to mount span structure beams. Next year, we will proceed to building a reinforced concrete slab, connect the overpass with new entrances, and start traffic. Besides, by the end of this year, we plan to complete the construction of all 14 supports of the future bridge structure and fully launch the span structure from the left bank to the right bank up to the 5th support. At the same time, launching will begin from the right bank,” said Maksim Smagin.

The new Chusovskoy bridge is currently one of the largest and most "expensive" projects being implemented in the Kama Region in the format of public-private partnership. According to Dmitry Makhonin, Governor of the Perm Territory, the facility is of particular importance for the residents and for the development of the regional economy, therefore, its construction must be completed on time. “The bridge is important to everyone – summer residents, population of the Upper Kama Region, and residents of the northern part of the region – everyone is waiting for traffic jams to disappear at this section of the entrance to Perm. Our task is to make people's lives more convenient and comfortable as soon as possible,” said the Head of the Region earlier.

Following the results of the visit, Andrey Alyakrinsky, Minister of Transport of the Perm Territory, noted that the work schedule previously signed by the general contractor is being fulfilled. “The pace of work is confident. We hope that it will not slow down in the future. We plan to start traffic across the new bridge in 2022. Besides, as instructed by Dmitry Makhonin, Governor of the Perm Territory, an institution subordinate to the Ministry of Transport – a Directorate of Road Concessions – will be established to control the progress of construction within the next 1.5 months. It will be headed by Aleksandr Valentinovich Solomatin, Deputy Minister of Transport. He has been in charge of this project since last year and will stay in charge of it under the patronage of not only the Ministry of Transport, but within the framework of the new powers of the subordinate organization’s head. Subsequently, it will control work at large transport infrastructure facilities underway in the region in the format of public-private partnership,” pointed out the Minister.

According to Roman Vodyanov, Deputy of the Legislative Assembly, the decision to establish the structural unit is important for work quality control. “The implementation of such major projects for the region as the Chusovaya River bridge construction requires close attention. All work must be performed with high quality, within the allocated budget, and on time. Therefore, extra control over the construction of significant projects is an important step of the regional government,” said the Deputy. 

Now, the builders are scattered across all construction sites: some work is underway in the blank production (production of casing pipes for bored piles, production of supports for process bridges and platforms), some – in the port of Levshino, and another part – at the production base adjacent to the construction site. The main forces are concentrated on the bridge – more than 90 people are carrying out road work and reconstruction of utility systems, other workers are involved in the construction of an overpass in the Tsimlyanskaya Street.