Moscow City Government, July 29, 2015
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin looked over the reconstruction of Bolshaya Akademicheskaya Street between Priorova Street and Dmitrovskoye Motorway.
“The city is in the middle of a large road construction programme. During five years we have upgraded an unprecedented number of roads, about 400 kilometres, over 100 utility, overpass, elevated section and underpass projects. In addition to traditional interchange construction and road upgrades, we are starting on the North-East and North-West expressways,” Mr Sobyanin noted.
Bolshaya Akademicheskaya Street will be upgraded completely by late 2015, he said. This project will also include landscaping with about 7,000 trees and shrubs planted in the surrounding grounds.
“We are currently standing at the beginning of the North-West Expressway, its first section: the core that includes the Alabyano-Baltiysky tunnel and Bolshaya Akademicheskaya Street. These projects are very complicated,” Mr Sobyanin added.
This road junction is among our most complicated road projects, he noted. “Nevertheless, I believe that we’ll be able to complete the tunnel (underpass) and Bolshaya Akademicheskaya Street before the year is out and finish the core, this section of the North-West Expressway that will eventually connect with the first section of the North-East Expressway, then go to the Businovskaya interchange and the new road to Sheremetyevo Airport. We’re creating an additional transport route that is expected to reduce traffic congestion quite a bit on the Third Ring Road, the Moscow Ring Road (MKAD), and will also connect city districts,” he added.
The city started upgrading Bolshaya Akademicheskaya Street in October 2012. Before that, this four-lane street wouldn’t be able to handle the required capacity of the North-West Expressway. Under this project, the carriageway will be widened to six lanes, the same as inside the Alabyano-Baltiysky tunnel which is now under construction A 442-metre long underpass will be built under Mikhalkovskaya Street. The trams running on this street will run above the unfinished underpass. Side roads and turnarounds will be included for U-turns. In all, 6.3 kilometres of roads will be upgraded here.
The upgraded Bolshaya Akademicheskaya Street will feature three pedestrian underpasses with lifts for people with disabilities. A total of 7,735 sound resistant window panes will be installed to make life more comfortable for local residents.
The project is to be completed in December 2015.
“Construction is in full swing, and this project is already 80 percent complete,” said Andrei Struk, Deputy Director General for Production at the company Mosto-Trest (Bridge Trust).
Traffic capacity on Bolshaya Akademicheskaya Street will increase by 30 percent, and traffic will improve in the Koptevo, Timiryazevsky and Aeroport districts. A high-speed lateral route will link Dmitrovskoye and Leningradskoye motorways.
The North-West Expressway is a new high-speed route that will pass through northern and western Moscow districts from the Dmitrovskoye to Skolkovskoye motorways. It will link such major routes as the Skolkovskoye, Mozhaiskoye, Rublyovskoye, Zvenigorodskoye, Volokolamskoye, Leningradskoye and Dmitrovskoye motorways.
A road linking the North-West and North-East expressways will be built near Dmitrovskoye Motorway, handling outbound traffic towards Sheremetyevo Airport or Yaroslavskoye Motorway.
We estimate that the 30-kilometre route will reduce traffic congestion on certain central streets, the Third Ring Road, the MKAD and nearby radial routes by about 15 percent. Inter-district travel time will be reduced by about ten percent.
Currently, the following sections of the North-West Expressway are being built or upgraded:
— Bolshaya Akademicheskaya Street is being upgraded;
— An underpass between Alabyana and Baltiyskaya streets (Alabyano-Baltisky tunnel) is under construction;
— A section between Leningradskoye Motorway and Prospekt Marshala Zhukova is being upgraded, and a bi-level underpass is under construction at the intersection of Narodnogo Opolchenya and Berzarina streets;
— Vyazemskaya, Vitebskaya streets and Skolkovskoye Motorway are under construction;
— The Setun River bridge and Ryabinovaya Street section is being upgraded;
— Generala Dorokhova Street is being upgraded between Aminyevskoye Motorway and the MKAD;
— Ryabinovaya Street is being upgraded;
— An interchange is under construction at the intersection of Aminyevskoye Motorway and Generala Dorokhova Street;
— Dmitrovskoye Motorway is being upgraded, and an interchange is under construction at 3rd Nizhnelikhoborsky Proyezd.
In 2011-2015, the city built about 400 kilometres of roads, including those due to be opened by the end of 2015. This is 140 percent more than in 2006-2010 when 168 kilometres of roads were built. In all, 112 artificial road facilities, including overpasses, underpasses and bridges, as well as 139 pedestrian overpasses and underpasses, have been built. This is much more than over the previous five years.
Eight outbound routes have been upgraded, and 150 kilometres of designated transit lanes and 350 bus lay-bys built. This has made it possible to improve the surface transit system considerably.
Ten MKAD interchanges have been built and upgraded.