Opening of the Crimean bridge

Photo from the website www.most.life
Photo from the website www.most.life

The longest bridge in Europe, having connected Crimea and Kuban, is open for motor traffic. 19 km through the Kerch Strait, four lanes, 20 minutes - and from the Taman Peninsula you can get to the Crimean. The legendary bridge was open personally by President Vladimir Putin, whose order in 2014 marked the start of the project. Two years was required for preparation, two years have passed since the moment when the first piles were clogged. And now work on the highway is completed, and even earlier than the deadlines. And now work on the highway is completed, and even earlier than the deadlines. Today, at half past five in the morning, the first cars and buses went by the bridge, the trucks will be started a little later.

The Crimean bridge became the longest in Europe. Its total length is 19 kilometers. Of these, 11.5 km run by land and 7.5 km - over the sea. The bridge begins on the Taman Peninsula in the Krasnodar Territory, passes along a five-kilometer dam and the island of Tuzla, crosses the Kerch Strait and overlooks the Crimean coast in the Kerch area.

I must say that the opening of this bridge had been waited for more than a century. The first plan to connect the Crimea and the Kuban was approved as far back as 1903 by Emperor Nicholas II. By 1910, all project documentation was ready and estimates had been drawn up, but the First World War prevented it. 

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Photo from the website most.life
Photo from the website most.life

During the Great Patriotic War, the Germans tried to build a bridge across the Kerch Strait, but in vain, and then the Soviet military, and they succeeded, but not for long. The Kerch railway bridge lasted only 4 months - from November 1944 to February 1945 - and was demolished by the drifting ice of the Azov Sea. The bridge was decided not to be rebuilt - an expensive item for the post-war budget. And in 1954 the ferry crossing was open, and the issue of the bridge construction was postponed indefinitely.

In addition to the unfavorable weather conditions characteristic of the Kerch Strait, there are seismically active areas. Therefore, the current bridge was tried to make the most durable. In the most dangerous places piles were hammered to a depth of 105 meters - this is the height of a 35-storey building. In all, almost seven thousand piles were used to build the bridge. According to the developers, they are able to withstand the tremors by force of nine points.

Total bridge capacity makes 40 thousand cars per day. The railway line is also connected with the motorway, they run in parallel. The first trains through the Kerch Strait are planned to be launched in early 2019.

 

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The photo from the website most.life
The photo from the website most.life

The fact that now from Taman to Kerch you may get in just 15-20 minutes, pleases not only local residents, but also numerous tourists, and everyone who passed this site in transit and was forced to spend a lot of time on the ferry crossing and the entrances to it. Besides, due to lower transportation costs, goods imported to the Crimea will become cheaper.

It is curious that the construction of the bridge proved to be beneficial not only for people. With the advent of construction in the water area, the number of dolphins increased. As experts say, this is due to the fact that there has proliferated plankton on the bridge supports, that plankton feeds the local bottlenose dolphins and common dolphins.

Those who followed the progress of construction are also interested in the fate of Kitty Mostik, the living symbol of this grandiose construction. A red-haired vagabond, who had gotten here as a kitten, spent two years side by side with the workers, taking up daily duty on the watch. During this time he became part of the team and the general favorite. And thanks to the Internet, Mostik became famous all over the world - almost 30 thousand people were subscribed to his account on the network. More information about this funny story can be found here.