Video about construction of M-12 Highway, Phase 1 (April 2022)

Construction of the M-12 Moscow-Kazan-Ekaterinburg mega highway is progressing at full pace. Phase 1 is being delivered by Stroytransgaz Group. The road builders are working at the 74th kilometre out of 80km of the main route and on the 28th out of 29 crossing structures. Watch a new video from the ground.

The main route is being built on a 365 basis. The “road pie” is laid layer after layer to form the base of the future highway. At this point, work is being carried out at the 74th kilometre out of 80 km. Installed to design elevations is the road bed with a total length of 43.5 km, 25.1km of sand underlayer, and 16.5km of crushed stone and sand layer.

7,400,000 cubic meters of sand and 1,120,000 tons of crushed stone and sand mix have been used to construct the embankment since the start of the project.

The construction of the road bed never stops in the winter. It is carried out using measures to prevent freezing of material while being hauled and compacted. Snow and ice are completely removed from the surface before the work resumes after bouts of snowy weather.

Relocation of services located within the road construction envelope also continues without slowdown. To date, construction and installation works within the road boundaries have been completed on 90 out of 101 utilities. As of today, the following utilities are ready: 52 out of 55 communications networks, 12 out of 12 electricity networks, 3 out of 6 water and sewer lines, 7 out of 7 gas lines, 1 out of 4 reclamation systems, 2 out of 2 outdoor lighting systems, and 15 out of 21 railroad networks.

Crossing structures are also being built on a 3665 basis. Builders are currently working on the 28th of 29 planned features.

The pile foundations of all crossing structures at this phase will be completed in Quarter 2, 2022. To date, pile foundations for 17 crossing structures are already in place. Dynamic or static load tests are being carried out on the test piles of the remaining crossing structures.

Pile cap reinforcement and concreting of pillars is complete on 12 crossing structures and nearing completion on 2 more structures. Installation of pillars is complete for 8 crossing structures and continues on another 2. Superstructure beams are completely installed on 4 crossing structures. 2 more crossing structures will soon have their superstructure beams installed.

Concreting has been completed on all cattle passes, and construction facilities are currently being waterproofed.

The pedestrian underpass (Sta.142) has entered the phase of site preparation and building material delivery. All construction work on the pedestrian underpass (Sta.328) has been completed, the rough finish phase started.

The construction project has 3 fabrication bases built to completion: Annino, Uvarovo and Pokrov. 5 dormitories have been built and are already used to accommodate personnel.

4 asphalt concrete plants will be built at Phase 1 of the M-12 Highway project. 2 of these have been producing asphalt concrete since 2021, the other 2 are scheduled to start operating in May 2022. Each plant will produce 160 tons of asphalt concrete per hour.

About 1,800 personnel and 450 units of machinery are involved in the project on a daily basis.

Phase 1 of the M-12 Highway project will include 80 km of road construction from the intersection with A-108 Moscow Big Ring Federal Highway to the intersection with M-7 Volga Federal Highway. M-12 will be a Category 1 road with 4 lanes, 2 in each direction. The Project Owner is the Russian Highways State Company. The designer is GORKA Group.

The new M-12 toll highway which will connect Moscow with Kazan will be built without any delays due to sanctions on the Russian Federation. When asked about whether the sanctions would have an impact on the timing and progress of the construction project, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Marat Khusnullin said: “No, they won’t.” The new highway is planned to be built and opened to motorists in 2024.

According to Avtodor State Company Board Chairman Vyacheslav Petushenko, it will take 2 years to create an express automotive link between Moscow and Yekaterinburg through Kazan, i.e. M-12 highway. He also pointed out that this year there would be no issues with foreign-made equipment, but it is necessary to foster domestic production in this field in the future.

Construction of M-12 is part of the Integrated Highway Infrastructure Upgrade and Expansion Plan. The expressway will connect 5 regions such as Moscow, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, Chuvashia and Tatarstan. By choosing to travel on this expressway, motorists will cut journey time from Moscow to Kazan from 12 to 5.5 hours.

The Project execution implies, among others, the following results: increased use of Russian Federation transit potential and development of transport services export; increased economic efficiency of cargo and passenger transportation; promotion of social and economic development of the regions in the Project impact area; expansion of technologies and innovations import and export in construction and operation of
transport and storage infrastructure; increased foreign investments into Russia’s economy, etc.