The Crimean Bridge ( rus, Крымский мост, r=Krymskiy most, p=ˈkrɨmskʲij most), also called Kerch Strait Bridge or Kerch Bridge, is a pair of parallel bridges, one for a four-lane road and one for a double-track railway, spanning the
Kerch Strait
The Kerch Strait, uk, Керченська протока, crh, Keriç boğazı, ady, Хы ТӀуалэ is a strait in Eastern Europe. It connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, separating the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea in the west from ...
between the
Taman Peninsula
The Taman Peninsula (russian: Тама́нский полуо́стров, ''Tamanskiy poluostrov'') is a peninsula in the present-day Krasnodar Krai of Russia, which borders the Sea of Azov to the North, the Strait of Kerch to the West and the ...
of
Krasnodar Krai
Krasnodar Krai (russian: Краснода́рский край, r=Krasnodarsky kray, p=krəsnɐˈdarskʲɪj kraj) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai), located in the North Caucasus region in Southern Russia and administratively a part of t ...
in Russia and the
Kerch Peninsula
The Kerch Peninsula is a major and prominent geographic peninsula located at the eastern end of the Crimean Peninsula, Ukraine.
This peninsula stretches eastward toward the Taman peninsula between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. Most of the ...
of
Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
. Built by the Russian Federation after the
annexation of Crimea at the start of 2014, the bridge cost
₽
The ruble sign, , is the currency sign used for the Russian ruble, the official currency of Russia. Its form is a Cyrillic letter Р with an additional horizontal stroke. The design was approved on 11 December 2013 after a public poll that took ...
227.92 billion (US$3.7 billion) and has a length of , making it the
longest bridge in Europe
and the longest bridge ever constructed by Russia.
In January 2015, the multibillion-dollar construction contract for the bridge was awarded to
Arkady Rotenberg
Arkady Romanovich Rotenberg (russian: Аркадий Романович Ротенберг; born 15 December 1951) is a Russian billionaire businessman and oligarch. With his brother Boris Rotenberg, he was co-owner of the Stroygazmontazh ( ...
's
Stroygazmontazh
Stroygazmontazh (), also called the S.G.M. Group, is an infrastructure construction firm that operates in Russia primarily via its subsidiaries, specializing in the creation of oil and gas transportation systems. The company was founded in 2008 wi ...
. Construction began
in February 2016. The road bridge was inaugurated by Russian President
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
on 15 May 2018. It opened for cars on 16 May and for trucks on 1 October.
[ The rail bridge was inaugurated on 23 December 2019 and the first scheduled passenger train crossed the bridge two days later. The bridge was opened for freight trains on 30 June 2020. A record amount of traffic, totaling 36,393 cars, was recorded on 15 August 2020.
The bridge was named the "Crimean Bridge" after an online vote in December 2017, while "Kerch Bridge" and "Reunification Bridge" were the second and third most popular choices, respectively.
On 8 October 2022, an explosion occurred on the roadway leading from Russia to Crimea, starting a large fire and causing parts of the road bridge to collapse,] with repairs ordered to be completed by end of July 2023.
History
Pre-annexation proposals and attempts
Kerch railway bridge
Proposals to build a bridge across the Kerch Strait were considered from the early 20th century onward.
During World War II the German Organisation Todt
Organisation Todt (OT; ) was a civil and military engineering organisation in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, named for its founder, Fritz Todt, an engineer and senior Nazi. The organisation was responsible for a huge range of engineering projec ...
built a ropeway
Ropeway may refer to:
Cable transport
* Cableway, or cable transport, a broad class of transport modes that have cables
* Aerial lift, a means of cable transport in which cabins, cars, gondolas, or open chairs are hauled above the ground by mean ...
over the strait. Finished in June 1943, it had daily capacity of 1,000 tonnes. Construction of a combined road and railway bridge started in April 1943, but before it was finished, retreating German troops blew up the completed parts of the bridge and destroyed the ropeway.
In 1944, the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
constructed a railway bridge across the strait. This bridge, not designed as permanent, was marred by design and construction errors, and was destroyed by flowing ice in February 1945. A proposal to repair it was quickly dismissed and the remnants of the bridge were dismantled, with permanent bridge designs envisaged instead.
Soviet proposals
In 1949 the Soviet government ordered the construction of a two-tier combined road-rail bridge (two road lanes on the upper tier and two rail tracks on the lower tier) with 40 m clearance below, connecting Yeni-Kale with Chushka Spit, but in 1950 the construction was halted and a ferry line was created instead.
A different version of the fixed link, the Kerch waterworks project («Керченский гидроузел») was developed since the mid-1960s, proposing a system of dams and bridges across the strait. The project was not implemented due to a lack of funding and the collapse
Collapse or its variants may refer to:
Concepts
* Collapse (structural)
* Collapse (topology), a mathematical concept
* Collapsing manifold
* Collapse, the action of collapsing or telescoping objects
* Collapsing user interface elements
** ...
of the USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
.
Negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian governments
Although the idea of an international bridge linking Ukraine and Russia survived the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
, the two countries failed to finalize the project. Former Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov
Yury Mikhailovich Luzhkov ( rus, Ю́рий Миха́йлович Лужко́в, p=ˈjʉrʲɪj mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ lʊˈʂkof; 21 September 1936 – 10 December 2019) was a Russian politician who served as mayor of Moscow from 1992 to 2010 ...
was a vocal advocate for a highway bridge across the strait, expressing hope that it would bring the Crimeans closer to Russia, both economically and symbolically. Similar hopes were expressed by pro-Russian authorities in Crimea, who hoped that the bridge would contribute to either a "revival of the Silk Road
The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...
" or to a multinational road along the Black Sea coast.
Construction of the bridge was reconsidered by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in 2006, and the then-Transport Minister of Ukraine Mykola Rudkovsky stated that he expected the bridge to be a "net positive for Crimea" as it would allow "every tourist visiting Russian Caucasus to visit Crimea as well". The issue was discussed by prime ministers of both countries in 2008, and a Transport Strategy of Russia, adopted in that year, envisaged the construction of the Kerch Strait bridge as a high priority issue for the development of the Southern Federal District
The Southern Federal District ( rus, Ю́жный федера́льный о́круг, Yuzhny federalny okrug, ˈjuʐnɨj fʲɪdʲɪˈralʲnɨj ˈokrʊk) is one of the federal districts of Russia, eight federal districts of Russia. Its territor ...
's transport infrastructure in the period 2016–2030, with design to be created by 2015.
In 2010, Ukrainian President
The president of Ukraine ( uk, Президент України, Prezydent Ukrainy) is the head of state of Ukraine. The president represents the nation in international relations, administers the foreign political activity of the state, condu ...
Viktor Yanukovych
Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych ( uk, Віктор Федорович Янукович, ; ; born 9 July 1950) is a former politician who served as the fourth president of Ukraine from 2010 until he was removed from office in the Revolution of Di ...
and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev ( rus, links=no, Дмитрий Анатольевич Медведев, p=ˈdmʲitrʲɪj ɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲɪtɕ mʲɪdˈvʲedʲɪf; born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician who has been serving as the dep ...
signed an agreement to build a bridge across the Kerch Strait,[Azarov creates group for bridging the Kerch Strait](_blank)
, Kyiv Post (9 August 2010) and Russia and Ukraine signed a memorandum of mutual understanding on the construction of the bridge on 26 November 2010. A 2011 study by the Ukrainian government announced preliminary preference for a route between Cape Fonar and Cape Maly Kut. Had that project been accomplished, it would have meant construction of a bridge link, with of adjacent roads and of adjacent railroads.
The shelving of the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement in November 2013 led to increased interest in the construction of a bridge between Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
and the Taman Peninsula
The Taman Peninsula (russian: Тама́нский полуо́стров, ''Tamanskiy poluostrov'') is a peninsula in the present-day Krasnodar Krai of Russia, which borders the Sea of Azov to the North, the Strait of Kerch to the West and the ...
of Russia,[«Автодор» приступает к подготовке проекта моста через Керченский пролив Читайте далее](_blank)
Vedomosti
''Vedomosti'' ( rus, Ведомости, p=ˈvʲedəməsʲtʲɪ, ) is a Russian language, Russian-language business journalism, business daily newspaper published in Moscow.
History
''Vedomosti'' was founded in 1999 as a joint venture between ...
(14 February 2014) and an agreement on the construction of that bridge was signed as a part of the 17 December 2013 Ukrainian–Russian action plan. In late January 2014, the Ukrainian and Russian governments decided that a new joint Ukrainian–Russian company would be commissioned to handle the construction of the bridge, while the Russian state enterprise Russian Highways (Avtodor) would become responsible for the bridge in the long term.
It was decided a special working group would determine the location and set the technical parameters. The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine estimated that construction would take five years and cost between $1.5 and $3 billion. In early February 2014, Russian Highways (Avtodor) was instructed by the First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia
A First Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, commonly referred to as the First Deputy Prime Minister, is a member of the Russian Government. The First Deputy is to be proposed by the Prime Minister, and approved by the Pr ...
to work on a feasibility study to be published in 2015.
In the following months, as relations between Ukraine and Russia deteriorated, bilateral negotiations over the bridge collapsed, yet Russia claimed that it expected the December 2013 deals to be honored, and on 3 March prime minister Dmitry Medvedev
Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev ( rus, links=no, Дмитрий Анатольевич Медведев, p=ˈdmʲitrʲɪj ɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲɪtɕ mʲɪdˈvʲedʲɪf; born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician who has been serving as the dep ...
signed a governmental decree to create a subsidiary of Avtodor to oversee the project. A contest for the engineering survey of the bridge project was announced by that subsidiary on 18 March, but by that time the premise of the contest, which still referred to 2013 agreements, was already outdated. In April 2014, following Russian annexation of Crimea the Ukrainian government gave Russia six months' notice of its withdrawal from the now-defunct bilateral Kerch Bridge agreement.
After 2014 annexation and start of construction
Following the Russian invasion and annexation of Crimea in March 2014 amid a sharp deterioration in Ukrainian-Russian relations, Russia declared it would unilaterally build the Kerch Strait bridge to connect the Russian mainland with the annexed Ukrainian peninsula. The project was strategic, an instrumental part of Russian plans to integrate the newly annexed territory into Russia. The project aims to shift Crimean dependence on Ukraine and reduce Kyiv's leverage, remove Moscow's reliance upon inadequate sea and air links for supplying the peninsula, and allow Russia to independently supply Crimea, whose economy has become dependent upon significant subsidies from Moscow. The bridge has a symbolic purpose: it is meant to show Russia's resolve to hold Crimea, and as a "physical" attachment of Crimea to Russian territory.
The announcement that Russia would build a road-rail bridge over the strait was made by the Russian President
The president of the Russian Federation ( rus, Президент Российской Федерации, Prezident Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is the head of state of the Russian Federation. The president leads the executive branch of the federal ...
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
on 19 March 2014, just one day after Russia officially claimed Crimea. In January 2015, the contract for construction of the bridge was awarded to the SGM Group, whose owner Arkady Rotenberg
Arkady Romanovich Rotenberg (russian: Аркадий Романович Ротенберг; born 15 December 1951) is a Russian billionaire businessman and oligarch. With his brother Boris Rotenberg, he was co-owner of the Stroygazmontazh ( ...
(reportedly a close personal friend of Putin) was internationally sanctioned in response to the Russian military's involvement in Ukraine. SGM typically constructed pipelines and had no experience building bridges, according to BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
.
The construction of the Kerch Bridge took place without Ukraine's consent. The Ukrainian government has actively condemned Russian construction of the bridge as illegal because Ukraine, "as a coastal state with regard to the Crimean Peninsula", did not give its consent to such construction, and called on Russia to demolish "those parts of that structure located within temporarily occupied Ukrainian territory". Sanctions were introduced by the United States and the European Union against companies involved in the construction.
Since December 2018 the United Nations General Assembly has repeatedly condemned the construction and opening of the bridge as "facilitating the further militarization of Crimea" and "restricting the size of ships that can reach the Ukrainian ports on the Azov coast". Russia, on the other hand, asserted that it "shall not ask for anybody's permission to build transport infrastructure for the sake of the population of Russian regions".
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...
in February 2022, Ukrainian plans and calls for the "destruction" of the bridge have risen, bringing criticism and talks of guaranteed protection of the bridge from Dmitry Peskov
Dmitry Sergeyevich Peskov ( rus, Дмитрий Сергеевич Песков, p=pʲɪˈskof; born 17 October 1967) is a Russian diplomat and the press secretary for Russian President Vladimir Putin.[Kremlin Press Secretary
The Kremlin Press Secretary or officially Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation (Russian: ''Пресс-Секретарь Президента Российской Федерации'') is a senior official in the Presidentia ...]
.
2022 explosion
On 8 October 2022 a major explosion occurred on the bridge, forcing portions of the Crimea-bound road segment to collapse and causing several oil tanker wagons on the rail section to catch fire. Vladimir Konstantinov
Vladimir Nikolaevich Konstantinov (russian: Владимир Николаевич Константинов; born March 19, 1967) is a Russians, Russian-Americans, American former professional ice hockey player who played his entire National Hocke ...
, Chairman of the State Council of Crimea, attributed the explosion to a Ukrainian attack. Limited traffic resumed on the remaining lines shortly afterwards.[ Russian authorities ordered repairs to be complete by July 2023.
]
Design
After the annexation, Russian officials looked at various options for connecting Crimea to the Russian mainland, including a tunnel, but eventually settled on a bridge.
The bridge spans the Strait of Kerch
The Kerch Strait, uk, Керченська протока, crh, Keriç boğazı, ady, Хы ТӀуалэ is a strait in Eastern Europe. It connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, separating the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea in the west from ...
between the Taman Peninsula
The Taman Peninsula (russian: Тама́нский полуо́стров, ''Tamanskiy poluostrov'') is a peninsula in the present-day Krasnodar Krai of Russia, which borders the Sea of Azov to the North, the Strait of Kerch to the West and the ...
of Krasnodar Krai
Krasnodar Krai (russian: Краснода́рский край, r=Krasnodarsky kray, p=krəsnɐˈdarskʲɪj kraj) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai), located in the North Caucasus region in Southern Russia and administratively a part of t ...
and the Kerch Peninsula
The Kerch Peninsula is a major and prominent geographic peninsula located at the eastern end of the Crimean Peninsula, Ukraine.
This peninsula stretches eastward toward the Taman peninsula between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. Most of the ...
of Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
.
The Russian government's draft resolution of 1 September 2014 required the bridge to have four lanes of vehicle traffic and a double-track railway.
An official video from October 2015 contained a CGI concept of the bridge design, annotated with various measurements. It showed a four-lane, flat deck highway bridge running parallel with the separate two-track railway. The main span over the Kerch Strait shipping channel would have a steel arch support, wide with a clearance above the water to allow ships to pass under. There would be three segments: from the Taman Peninsula to Tuzla Spit is ; across Tuzla Island is ; and from Tuzla Island to the Crimean Peninsula is ( total).
The final concept was a major change from the initial project considered in late 2014, which had envisaged construction of two bridge links (parallel road and rail bridges between the Taman Peninsula and the Tuzla Spit and a double deck road-rail bridge between Tuzla Island and the Kerch Peninsula) and a causeway
A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet Tra ...
on Tuzla Spit. This design was scrapped, the causeway being deemed too risky to rely on given the instability of the Tuzla Spit.
The official reason for abandonment of a double deck bridge in favor of two continuous parallel structures was that the latter solution allows for less massive spans and for simultaneous construction of both bridges (rather than having to construct one level of bridge first before starting the second one), an important consideration given demands by the Russian government that road and rail links be operational quickly. The "Tuzla route" was preferred over shorter variants (starting at Chushka Spit
__NOTOC__
The Chushka Spit (russian: Коса Чушка) is a sandy spit in the northern part of the Strait of Kerch
The Kerch Strait, uk, Керченська протока, crh, Keriç boğazı, ady, Хы ТӀуалэ is a strait in ...
), in particular because doing otherwise would have interfered with the still operational ferry line, to the effect of worsening transport communications between Russia and Crimea.
The bridge was built by Stroygazmontazh Ltd (SGM), which had never before built a major bridge. Because of the risk of sanctions, no international insurance company was willing to underwrite the potential $3 billion loss. It was insured instead by a small Crimean company.[
The geology of the Kerch Strait is difficult: it has a ]tectonic fault
In geology, a fault is a Fracture (geology), planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of Rock (geology), rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust (geolo ...
, and the bedrock is covered by a layer of silt.[ About 70 ]mud volcano
A mud volcano or mud dome is a landform created by the eruption of mud or slurries, water and gases. Several geological processes may cause the formation of mud volcanoes. Mud volcanoes are not true igneous volcanoes as they do not produce lava ...
es have been found in the area of the strait.[ More than 7,000 piles support the bridges; these piles have been driven up to beneath the water surface.][ Some of the piles are at an angle to make the structure more stable during earthquakes.][
Some experts expressed doubts that the construction was safe, given the tectonic and sea current conditions in the strait.]
Construction
Preliminary work on the bridge began in May 2015. More than 200 bombs and a few airplanes (including an Ilyushin Il-2
The Ilyushin Il-2 (Russian: Илью́шин Ил-2) is a ground-attack plane that was produced by the Soviet Union in large numbers during the Second World War. The word ''shturmovík'' (Cyrillic: штурмовик), the generic Russian term ...
and a Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk
The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk is an American single-engined, single-seat, all-metal fighter and ground-attack aircraft that first flew in 1938. The P-40 design was a modification of the previous Curtiss P-36 Hawk which reduced development time an ...
) from the World War II era were found in the area during pre-construction clearance. Three temporary bridges were built, to facilitate access (independent of weather and currents) for main construction. By October 2015, the first of the temporary bridges had been constructed, connecting Tuzla Island
Tuzla Island (, , crh, Тузла; from Turkish language, Turkish "tuzla" – salty, saline, literally: ''saltpan'') is a sandy islet in the form of a Spit (landform), spit located in the middle of the Strait of Kerch between the Kerch Peninsu ...
and Taman Peninsula
The Taman Peninsula (russian: Тама́нский полуо́стров, ''Tamanskiy poluostrov'') is a peninsula in the present-day Krasnodar Krai of Russia, which borders the Sea of Azov to the North, the Strait of Kerch to the West and the ...
.
Main construction started in February 2016. The first piles were installed in early 2016, and in April 2016 the first pillar of the road bridge was constructed. The foundations of the road bridge were completed in August 2017. The two shipping channel arches (over the Kerch–Yenikale Canal) were lifted into position in August and October that year.
In October 2017, National Guard of Russia
The National Guard of the Russian Federation (russian: Федеральная служба войск национальной гвардии Российской Федерации , translit = Federal'naya sluzhba voysk natsional'noy gvard ...
Director Viktor Zolotov
Viktor Vasilyevich Zolotov (russian: Ви́ктор Васи́льевич Зо́лотов; born 27 January 1954) is the current Director of the National Guard of Russia (Rosgvardiya) and a member of the Security Council of Russia.
Zolotov is ...
announced the formation of a new "maritime brigade", intended to protect the bridge as part of Russia's Southern Military District
200px, Headquarters of the district at 53 Pushkinskaya Street / 43 Budenovsky avenue, Rostov-on-Don
The Southern Military District (Russian: Южный военный округ) is a military district of Russia.
It is one of the five military ...
. In December 2017 all road pillars and spans were completed, by April 2018 asphalt concrete was laid onto the road bridge, and after some examination the road bridge was deemed ready for operation.
On 15 May 2018, the road bridge was officially unveiled. President Vladimir Putin led a convoy of trucks, driving one himself, across the bridge in an inauguration ceremony. The bridge was opened for non-truck vehicle traffic on 16 May 2018[ and for trucks on 1 October.]
The construction of the rail bridge continued. In June 2018 pile installation was finished, and in July 2018 deployment of the rail tracks started.
In October 2018, the Russian Taman Road Administration reported that when one of the railway spans was being lowered into place, it tilted and fell into the sea. This occurred in the sea section between Tuzla Spit
__NOTOC__
Tuzla Spit or Kosa Tuzla (russian: Тузлинская коса, Коса Тузла, uk, Коса Тузла) was a long narrow peninsula or sandy spit in the eastern part of the Strait of Kerch which extended from Фотога ...
and Tuzla Island
Tuzla Island (, , crh, Тузла; from Turkish language, Turkish "tuzla" – salty, saline, literally: ''saltpan'') is a sandy islet in the form of a Spit (landform), spit located in the middle of the Strait of Kerch between the Kerch Peninsu ...
. In November 2018 the installation of the railway pillars was completed.
On 24 March 2019 the bridge's press center reported completion of construction of railway spans, and on 18 July it reported completion of the bridge's rail tracks. In October 2019, the opening for freight trains was postponed until 2020, the official cause was a delay in the construction of the connecting railroad caused by the discovery of an ancient site on the Kerch Peninsula. Sale of train tickets across the Kerch Strait started in November 2019. On 18 December 2019 the rail bridge was deemed ready for operation, and President Putin formally opened the bridge on 23 December. The first scheduled passenger train crossed the bridge on 25 December 2019, while the bridge was opened for freight trains on 30 June 2020.
The rail bridge design provides the ability to install an overhead railway electrification system
A railway electrification system supplies electric power to railway trains and trams without an on-board prime mover or local fuel supply.
Electric railways use either electric locomotives (hauling passengers or freight in separate cars), ele ...
"whenever such decision will be made", requiring no rebuilding of the bridge's structures. Pending electrification, the rail bridge is served by diesel locomotive
A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving whee ...
s.
Строительство Крымского моста (Росавтодор) 14.jpg, Construction of supports and installation of the first spans of the railway bridge from the side of Kerch. At the same time, the construction site is backfilled and the assembly of the bridge arches begins.
Строительство Крымского моста (октябрь 2015) · 2.jpg, Сonstruction of the bridge pillars
Строительство Крымского моста (Росавтодор) 7.jpg, Asphalting the finished section of the road bridge from the side of Taman. On the opposite side, construction work is underway to connect the temporary ramp with the bridge.
Строительство Крымского моста (Росавтодор) 2.jpg, Concrete casting and asphalting of the overpass spans on Tuzla Island
Tuzla Island (, , crh, Тузла; from Turkish language, Turkish "tuzla" – salty, saline, literally: ''saltpan'') is a sandy islet in the form of a Spit (landform), spit located in the middle of the Strait of Kerch between the Kerch Peninsu ...
Строительство Крымского моста (Росавтодор) 13.jpg, Completing the assembly of arches on the slipway and preparing them for transportation and installation on fairway supports
Монтаж железнодорожной арки Крымского моста (август 2017) · 1.jpg, The installation of the railway arch in August 2017
Строительство Крымского моста (Росавтодор) 1.jpg, The installed arches of the bridge and the process of sliding the spans of the road bridge to the arch
Opening of the Crimean bridge (2018-05-15) 16.jpg, The road bridge on 15 May 2018. The rail bridge – under construction at the time – is visible on the left.
Operation and impact
On Crimea and Russia
The road bridge, opened in 2018, quickly overtook the Kerch Strait ferry as a preferred route of communication between Crimea and Russia. In its first 12 hours of operation the bridge broke the traffic record of the ferry, which had been established in August 2017. After the bridge was opened for trucks in October 2018, truck transportation via the ferry virtually ceased. After the first full year of operation (May 2018 – May 2019) the road bridge had served three times more traffic than the Kerch Strait ferry had served in the whole of 2017.
Since the road bridge is free of charge, in contrast to the ferry, it is claimed that users of the bridge saved more than 16 billion rubles. The bridge is said to have contributed to an increase of the number of tourists visiting the Crimea, with bridge traffic peaking in the summer months – on 5 August 2018 the bridge broke a single-day record for car traffic, with 32,000 vehicles crossing the span, followed by over 33,000 vehicles on 12 August that year and over 35,000 a year later. The long roadway with few diversions occasionally becomes congested, with long traffic queues.
A fall in the price of retail goods in Crimea, which was expected to occur after the opening of the road bridge, did not happen. According to the local Russian administration, this situation persists because large retail groups are not operating in Crimea due to either risk of being sanctioned or because they deem Crimea a "logistic dead end", although there were expectations that the opening of the rail bridge would eventually contribute to a decrease in price of certain goods.
On Ukraine
The Russian bridge crosses the sole access point for ships travelling to and from Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
's eastern port cities, including Mariupol
Mariupol (, ; uk, Маріу́поль ; russian: Мариу́поль) is a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is situated on the northern coast (Pryazovia) of the Sea of Azov, at the mouth of the Kalmius River. Prior to the 2022 Russian i ...
and Berdiansk
Berdiansk or Berdyansk ( uk, Бердя́нськ, translit=Berdiansk, ; russian: Бердя́нск, translit=Berdyansk ) is a port city in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast (Oblast, province) in south-eastern Ukraine. It is on the northern coast of the ...
through which Ukraine exported steel and agricultural products. Following completion of the bridge various restrictions were imposed on Ukrainian shipping which affect their operating costs, which Ukraine and others alleged was part of a creeping hybrid blockade of Ukrainian ports in the Azov Sea.
These restrictions, including Russian inspections of ships, had risen sharply since the bridge opened in May 2018, some being forced to wait for three days before being allowed through. Additionally, due to the height limits of the main span of the bridge ( above sea level) the Ukrainian maritime authority said many ships are too big to pass safely under the bridge. The bulk carrier ''Copan'' (deadweight tonnage
Deadweight tonnage (also known as deadweight; abbreviated to DWT, D.W.T., d.w.t., or dwt) or tons deadweight (DWT) is a measure of how much weight a ship can carry. It is the sum of the weights of cargo, fuel, fresh water, ballast water, provi ...
17,777 tons) solved this problem by cutting off the top of her mast. On 26 October 2018 ''The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'', citing Ukrainian sources, reported that the bridge had reduced Ukrainian shipping from its Sea of Azov ports by about 25%.
In November 2018 the area near the bridge became the site of the Kerch Strait incident
The Kerch Strait incident was an international incident that occurred on 25 November 2018 in the Kerch Strait, during which the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) coast guard fired upon and captured three Ukrainian Navy vessels after they ...
, in which the Russian navy claimed that three Ukrainian vessels entered Russian territorial waters. Russian forces seized the vessels and arrested their crews. During this time, passage through the Strait was blocked by a large cargo ship, placed under the bridge to prevent passage of other craft. In response, Ukraine declared martial law
Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory.
Use
Marti ...
in some regions of the country for 30 days.
Archaeology
Part of a large Greek terracotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, a ...
statue was found at the Crimean Bridge construction site, during underwater digging near the Ak-Burun Cape. According to archaeologists, this is a unique finding, since it is the first of its kind found in the northern Black Sea area.
In popular culture
Russian film director Tigran Keosayan
Tigran Edmondovich Keosayan ( hy, Տիգրան էդմոնդի Քեոսայան, russian: Тигран Эдмондович Кеосаян; born January 4, 1966) is a Russian film director, actor and television presenter of Armenian origin. He is a ...
made a romantic comedy
Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...
film about the construction of the bridge called ''The Crimean Bridge. Made with Love!
''The Crimean Bridge: Made with Love!'' (russian: Крымский мост. Сделано с любовью!, Krymsky most. Sdelano s lyubovyu!) is a 2018 Russian state-funded film directed by Tigran Keosayan.
Plot
The Crimean Bridge is bein ...
''. It was officially released in cinemas in Russia on 1 November 2018.
Gallery
File:Крымский мост вечером с подсветкой.jpg, The Crimean Bridge at night
File:Крымский мост (Росавтодор) 1.jpg, Traffic on the Crimean Bridge, view in direction of Kerch
Kerch ( uk, Керч; russian: Керчь, ; Old East Slavic: Кърчевъ; Ancient Greek: , ''Pantikápaion''; Medieval Greek: ''Bosporos''; crh, , ; tr, Kerç) is a city of regional significance on the Kerch Peninsula in the east of t ...
File:ЖД Крымский мост.jpg, Train crossing the Crimean Bridge
File:Крымский мост (Росавтодор) 6.jpg, The Crimean Bridge in May 2020. The infrastructure of the Port of Taman is visible in the background.
File:Crimea Bridge.jpg, A ship passing under the Crimean Bridge
File:Арки Крымского моста 21 декабря 2019 года.jpg, Aerial view of the Crimean Bridge
Explanatory notes
References
Further reading
*
External links
Security cam video of bridge explosion, 8 October 2022
{{2014 Crimean crisis
2018 establishments in Russia
2018 establishments in Ukraine
2019 establishments in Russia
2019 establishments in Ukraine
Bridges completed in 2018
Bridges completed in 2019
Buildings and structures in Kerch
Buildings and structures in Krasnodar Krai
Cross-sea bridges in Europe
Kerch Strait
Rail transport in Krasnodar Krai
Railway bridges in Russia
Railway bridges in Ukraine
Road bridges in Russia
Road bridges in Ukraine
Russia–Ukraine border crossings
Transport in Crimea
Transport in Krasnodar Krai