When will the construction of the Kerch bridge be completed. Energy bridge and railway

Crimean bridge(Kerch Bridge) - a combined road and rail bridge from the Taman Peninsula to the Crimea through Kerch Strait.

Project and characteristics

According to the project, the beginning of the route runs along an already existing dam 5 km long and along the island of Tuzla. The next section of the bridge after the island crosses the Kerch Strait, at the same time it goes around the southernmost cape of Kerch Ak-Burun from the side of the bay and comes ashore in the area of ​​​​Cementnaya Slobidka, not far from the mouth of the Dzhardzhava River. Thus, the construction is carried out away from the port and ferry, does not affect their work.

The bridge includes a four-lane highway capable of providing passage for up to 40,000 vehicles per day at an estimated speed of up to 120 km/h. For cars, transport links to Crimea across the bridge are free.

In 2019, it is planned to launch the Kerch bridge railway with two tracks, on which up to 47 pairs of trains (design load), both freight and regular passenger, can pass daily. The speed for passenger trains is 120 km/h, for freight trains – 80 km/h. The railway, along with the highway, should ensure a stable turnover and passenger transfer.

Navigable arched spans 227 m long and 35 m above the water are provided to preserve navigation in the Kerch Strait.

Construction of the Kerch bridge

The concept of the bridge between Taman and the Crimean peninsula was worked out by January 2015.

Since February 17, 2015, the only contractor for the construction of the facility has been STROYGAZMONTAZH LLC (in March, a subsidiary of SGM-Most was approved), the design part is carried out by CJSC Institute Giprostroymost-St. Petersburg. Before the start of work, about 600 hectares of land and water were cleared, more than 700 explosive objects of the middle of the 20th century, which remained after the battles, were recovered.

Access roads, production sites, mobile concrete units, working bridges and camps are being created in the summer of 2015, in parallel, soil testing and environmental monitoring are being carried out.

By the end of September 2015, the first working bridge to Tuzla had been tested, access to the bridge was provided for vehicles, and a month later, navigation buoys were installed in the Kerch Strait.

In December 2015, the slope from the side of Kerch was strengthened.

The active phase of construction and, at the same time, the equipment of access to the bridge from two sides, has been underway since February 2016. The second and third temporary working bridges are under construction.

The construction of pile foundations for the bridge supports on land began on March 10, 2016. The first support of the bridge on Tuzla (according to the project - support No. 173) was completed on April 12, 2016. By the end of May, more than 1,000 piles had been driven into the base of the bridge.

The stage of installation of spans delivered from Voronezh started on June 9 from Taman; a few days later, construction work began in the water area. Since August 2016, the main navigable supports have been installed, arch spans are being assembled.

By September 1, exactly 100 supports were installed, by September 13, the temporary auxiliary infrastructure for bridge construction was fully created on each side and on Tuzla Island. By September 21, the first sea support was built; by September 24, a section of the future road was created - a plate on Tuzla.

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The railway bridge arch was installed at the end of August, a dry cargo ship and a landing ship passed under it.

The installation of the road arch was completed by October 13. In November, the spit and Tuzla Island are connected by road spans.

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On February 5, 2018, work began on the construction of sea spans for the railway.

March-April 2018, work was carried out on the equipment of the bridge motorway: noise screens were installed, lighting, asphalting and installation of an automatic traffic control system, installation of lighting.

Signs traffic installed on the Crimean bridge in May 2018.

You can follow the further progress of work on the official website of the Kerch bridge.

Deadlines for the completion of the Kerch bridge

Highway through the Kerch Strait - May 16, 2018 (according to the plan - December 2018).

Railway bridge - 2019.

Overview video: Construction of the Crimean bridge

Opening of the Crimean bridge

The highway of the Crimean bridge was opened for transport ahead of schedule - from May 16, 2018. The day before, the solemn opening of the bridge by Vladimir Putin and bridge builders took place: a trip across the bridge in a KamAZ truck took 16 minutes.

A memo for the first drivers passing through the Crimean bridge appeared on the official website. For a photo report about the first drivers who crossed the bridge, see the Tourist page. RU.

Map of the bridge across the Kerch Strait

Detailed interactive map the project website presents spherical panoramas of the construction site, the nearest important transport hubs are marked, specifications bridge. Visual materials are updated every month, which allows you to follow the construction of the Kerch bridge almost in real time.

Viewpoint of the Crimean bridge

The coordinates of the observation deck on the Crimean Peninsula are 45°19′28″N 36°28′24″E. On foot near the Kerch fortress. By public transport, you can get to the Nizhny Solnechny microdistrict, then you have to walk about 1.5-2 km.

From the mainland, excursions are planned to the observation deck near the Monument to Soviet Paratroopers (the memorial is known as the "Lender Cannon"), coordinates - 45°12′2″N 36°36′58″E.

How to get to the Crimean bridge

The Crimean bridge is already fully marked on Yandex maps. The A-290 highway passes through it, buses pass by.

On the Crimean bridge on google-panoramas

Video about the project

Video about the construction of the Kerch bridge, 2018, turning on the backlight

Image copyright RIA Novosti Image caption 63-year-old Rotenberg was engaged in judo in the same section with Vladimir Putin as a child

On January 30, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev appointed the open joint-stock company Stroygazmontazh, controlled by Russian businessman Arkady Rotenberg.

By transport crossing, we mean a road-rail bridge with a length of about 19 kilometers, of which the overwater section will take about six kilometers (for comparison: the longest sea bridge in the world over Jiaozhou Bay in China has a length of 42.5 km).

The cost of the work is estimated at 228.3 billion rubles (about $3.3 billion at the current exchange rate).

Experts do not rule out that the price will increase along the way, as is usually the case with large construction projects.

In total, it is planned to allocate 416.5 billion rubles for the development of the transport infrastructure of Crimea until 2020.

State Duma deputy from the LDPR Roman Khudyakov called on everyone Russian officials"give 10% of your salary to the construction of a bridge for the Crimea." Whether his proposal also applies to Duma members, Khudyakov did not specify.

In a new reality

During World War II, the Germans built a bridge across the Kerch Strait, along which the Soviet delegation returned from the Yalta Conference, but the following winter it collapsed under the pressure of ice blown from the Sea of ​​Azov by the wind, and they did not restore it.

In 1999, the idea of ​​building a bridge, tunnel or dam across the Kerch Strait was discussed with the authorities of Crimea, then an autonomous republic within Ukraine, by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.

The transport problem sharply worsened after the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014. President Vladimir Putin gave the corresponding order to the government on April 18.

The existing ferry service cannot cope with the flow of passengers and cargo. Last summer, waiting in traffic jams on both sides of the strait took several days.

No tender

There was no official tender for the work. According to reports, the final decision was made at a meeting with the prime minister on January 20.

In an interview with the Kommersant newspaper, Rotenberg said that he had previously discussed the issue personally with Vladimir Putin.

It was originally planned that the bridge would be built at the expense of public and private investments, but at the end of July last year, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak announced that only the state would act as an investor.

A single customer, controlling the deadlines and quality of work, will be the specially created Department of Federal Highways "Taman" of the Russian Federal Road Traffic Agency.

According to Rotenberg, the Ministry of Transport considered more than 70 proposals, but the public is aware of only one alternative candidate - Stroytransgaz.

In August, the owner of Stroytransgaz, Gennady Timchenko, expressed his readiness to take on the project "if they trust and entrust it," and assured that there were resources for this, but in early December he refused, explaining that he "did not want to take reputational risks."

"This is a very risky story, I'm afraid to take it and fail," he told the Interfax news agency.

Influential figure

63-year-old Rotenberg was engaged in judo in the same section with Vladimir Putin as a child. He graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Physical Education, worked as a coach, in the early 1990s he acted as a sparring partner of the future president in training.

Currently, he is the owner or a major shareholder of several banks and companies involved in the construction and supply of oil and gas equipment.

In particular, the structures of Rotenberg participated in the construction of the ground part of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, the Dzhubga-Lazarevskoye-Sochi gas pipeline and the Moscow-Petersburg toll road through the Khimki forest.

The personal fortune of a businessman expert opinion is about a billion dollars.

March 20, 2014 Rotenberg, along with some others Russian entrepreneurs, considered close to Vladimir Putin, fell under US sanctions in connection with the events around Crimea. On July 30, the European Union included him in its sanctions list.

On September 23, 2014, the Italian authorities seized his property in the amount of about 30 million euros.

On October 8, the State Duma adopted in the first reading the so-called "Rothenberg law", according to which the losses of Russian citizens from the confiscation of their foreign property can be compensated at the expense of the state.

"Black label"

In an interview with Kommersant, Rotenberg admitted that participation in the construction of the bridge means for him final isolation from the West, "a black mark both in his personal life and in business," but said that he was not afraid of this, since all his assets are concentrated in Russia , and he is not going to leave: "I've already been everywhere."

According to the entrepreneur, long before the sanctions, he began to gradually transfer business to his son and was preparing to retire, but considered the Kerch project a worthy crowning career, because over the years he began to think "about what he would leave behind" and wants to make "a contribution to the development of the country ".

The Stroytransgaz company, established in 2007, is one of the largest construction contractors in the oil and gas sector, ranking 35th in the world, but has not previously dealt with bridges.

According to Rotenberg, he hopes to cooperate with some Turkish and South Korean firms, but in general, due to sanctions, construction will have to be carried out using domestic materials and technologies and previously purchased Western equipment.

Experts point out that, for example, some steel grades needed for the construction of bridges are not produced in Russia.

Rotenberg agrees that there will be problems, but he assures that they are solvable.

"My personal opinion: nothing will end quickly. They are pressing from all sides - and now it's definitely not the final. Don't think that I care a lot," he said in response to a Kommersant question about sanctions.

Bridge or tunnel?

Since the Sea of ​​Azov is a joint water area of ​​Russia and Ukraine, according to international maritime law, the construction of the bridge requires the consent of Kyiv, which, given the current circumstances, is unlikely to be given.

“There are legal regulations that say that we will have to coordinate the construction of the bridge with Ukraine, since this is a general navigation zone in the Sea of ​​Azov. There are legal regulations that, in my opinion, cannot be completely overcome today. at least time,” Sergey Aksyonov, head of the pro-Russian Crimean administration, told a press conference in December.

Some experts have previously pointed out that it would be better to build not a bridge, but a tunnel, for which coordination with Ukraine is not required.

Rotenberg remarked to this that laying a tunnel is technically much more difficult, and he would not have undertaken such a project, and the legal side of the matter is the problem of the state, not his.

The head of the Legislative Assembly of Sevastopol, Aleksey Chaly, proposed the development of a ferry service as an alternative to the bridge, emphasizing that to double the capacity it would take only five powerful ferries worth about seven billion rubles each, while the main "gate" of the crossing did not want to be Kerch, but his native city.

Expert opinions

Dmitry Shevchenko, Deputy Coordinator of Environmental Watch for the North Caucasus:

There are bridges in the world that are more complex from an engineering point of view. The strait is narrow and, in principle, it is possible to build a bridge. The only thing is that there are unstable soils, the bottom of the strait is composed of sand deposits, in order to get to the bedrock, serious efforts will be required. Of course, it will be insanely expensive. Especially considering, for example, the experience of building Olympic venues in Sochi, when prices increased three to five times during the construction process.

No one builds such complex facilities in two or three years. It is possible, at best, to conduct high-quality geological surveys and prepare a feasibility study and project.

The area of ​​the Kerch Strait is quite complicated both from a geological point of view and from a climatic point of view. This is a zone of constant storms. The Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov freezes in cold winters, and then the removal of ice begins. We'll have to somehow protect the supports.

Naturally, we are concerned about the environment. It is good that the variant of the dam with a gap for the passage of ships has been discarded. This is the cheapest option, but ecologically completely unacceptable, because it will significantly disrupt the water exchange between the Azov and Black Seas. The Sea of ​​Azov is already in critical condition due to the abundance of pollution. Plus disruption of the migration route for fish and marine mammals.

The bridge in this regard, of course, is better. But, given the unstable soils and serious drilling operations over the course of several years, the construction may cause irreparable harm to the ecosystem of the Kerch Strait and the shallow Taman Bay adjacent to it. We are seriously concerned about this.

There have been no public discussions and hearings, as well as an environmental review, so far.

So far, no action has been taken on our shore, but from the other side, according to rumors, something is already happening. I think that Crimea, most likely, will be made the main springboard for construction, because there is practically no public activism there now, the FSB is working seriously. Accordingly, it is much more difficult to control something and force contractors to comply with environmental legislation.

Elena Yurchenko, an migrant journalist from Kerch, currently lives in Kyiv:

People need a bridge, relatives of very many Kerch, Feodosians and Yalta residents live in the Kuban, but at the genetic level, the residents of the city have developed distrust in this topic. For as long as I can remember, every election we heard promises to build a bridge.

Local residents believe that an unsuccessful option was chosen - through the Tuzla Spit, for which Ukraine and Russia argued for a long time. This is sand washed over by the current, which is constantly in motion, it is unrealistic to drive a pile there.

The fortress of Kerch, where the exit of the bridge should be located, is a fortification monument of the end of the 18th century. What are they going to do with him, it's scary to think.

There are few building materials in Crimea, which is what the Crimean authorities say. Russia can bring everything by sea, but the Crimean ports are under sanctions. This is a serious thing, any ship that is seen there will be blacklisted in all ports of the world. No serious shipowner will agree to this.

Igor Fedik, expert columnist for the Defense Express agency (Ukraine):

In view of the sanctions that have been introduced and are being introduced due to the aggravation of the situation on the territory of Ukraine, the Russian Federation will not have access to credits and loans, and there will also be no access to new technologies. We see this in the example of other projects, including the development of gas fields in the Arctic.

The legal aspect of this problem should be considered after the economic, technological and environmental. But even today we can say that it is a priori unrealistic to obtain the consent of Ukraine. Will the Kerch bridge become some kind of bargaining chip? I do not think that the Ukrainian leadership will agree to this.

Grigory Trofimchuk, First Vice President of the Center for Strategic Development Modeling (Russia), an expert in foreign and domestic policy, defense and security:

It is clear that what is happening in the east of Ukraine is only the beginning of large and lengthy processes. Figuratively speaking, we are on the verge of the Hundred Years' War between the former fraternal peoples. At the same time, Crimea cannot exist without a connection with the Russian Federation.

China is unlikely to get involved there. As for the builders from Turkey, I also doubt it. Is that the builders from North Korea could connect.

Concerning Russian organizations, then these will be companies that have nothing to lose. If sanctions have been imposed on Rotenberg for a long time and there is no hope that they will be lifted, his company may well work and earn money on the construction of the Kerch bridge.

There should be a clear and simple project, as happens in war, that is, a bridge without any frills. There should be a breakdown by terms, and under these terms, funding in the required amount should be provided. The corruption component should be absolutely excluded.

In semi-military conditions, the army will have to keep the construction guard. There must be divers, too. And then the bridge will have to be seriously guarded.

In my opinion, the most correct approach on the part of Kyiv would be to get involved in long-term trading and, accordingly, to receive something for its consent. Although there is no guarantee that they will legally agree, and a month after the surrender, some support will not be undermined by someone unknown.

Will never be built, since this place is located at the junction of two tectonic plates, Roman Bessmertny, representative of Ukraine in the tripartite contact group in Minsk, said on March 19 on the air of the Shuster LIVE program. The agency reported topnews.ru. Experts and journalists hold different points of view. /epochtimes.ru/

“There will be no bridge there. Will not! The Russians will drive these piles for more than a decade. Today, everyone knows that it is impossible to build a bridge at the junction of these two plates (tectonic - editor's note), because they are moving all the time. And we live this fairy tale. The answer is simple, it lies on the surface. Why wasn't the bridge built? Because it can't be built there!" - quotes the words of the Immortal Ukrainian TV channel "112".

According to the diplomat, only one person developed a plan with "real credible mechanisms for building a bridge there." He is the Minister of Construction of Nazi Germany Albert Speer. “If you want, take these documents from the archives,” he said.

The bridge will be completed in 2018

According to the plan, the construction of a bridge with a length of 19 kilometers across the Kerch Strait will be completed in 2018. The cost of the project is 228 billion rubles.

The bridge will connect the Crimean peninsula with mainland Russia. It is assumed that the bridge will be crossed by railway and motor roads with a daily capacity of up to 47 pairs of trains and 40,000 cars. An arched span of up to 227 meters in length and 35 meters in width is planned for the passage of ships. The highway should open on December 18, 2018, Railway— in 2019.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the construction of a bridge across the Kerch Strait a symbol of the unity of Russia and Crimea, as well as a "historic mission" that was sought but failed to be realized over the past century. “Our predecessors understood the significance of this bridge crossing between the Crimea and the Caucasus and have long sought to implement this project,” he said. The culprits of the delay in the construction of the bridge, Putin threatened to "hang after summing up the results of the construction." The general contractor for the construction of the bridge is the Stroygazmontazh company of Arkady Rotenberg.

Livejournal journalist denied Bessmertny's opinion

Journalist Yurasumy publishing house Livejournal considers it possible to build a bridge across the Kerch Strait. He noted that in San Francisco, located a few dozen kilometers from the San Andreas fault in California, bridges are being built and solve problems for the region. For example, the Bay Bridge is 3,000 meters long and similar in purpose to the Kerch Bridge. New technologies are used in the construction of such bridges, the journalist noted.

At the same time, construction is not carried out on the San Andreas fault itself, since the speed of plate movement is up to 4 cm per year. Therefore, all routes passing through it are subject to constant repair.

The journalist published a tectonic map of the Crimea, compiled in 1985 by the Yuzhmorneftegeofizika trust. According to it, the docking of tectonic plates in the Crimea takes place far from the Kerch Strait at a distance of 200 kilometers, and the boundaries of the fault are several tens of kilometers from the strait.

1 - boundaries of structural-tectonic elements; 2 - zone of accretion of sediments of the Black Sea depression: a - ancient, b - modern; 3 – large tectonic sutures; 4—allochthons (numbers in circles): 1—Mountain Crimea, 2—Western Caucasus; 5 - Ukrainian shield; 6 – lines and fragments of time sections; I - West Black Sea depression, II - Arkhangelsk ridge, III - East Black Sea depression, IV - North Black Sea uplift, V - East Black Sea uplift. Photo: livejournal.com.

According to the journalist, in tectonic terms, the bridge may be threatened by an earthquake similar to the Crimean one in 1927. On the southern coast of Crimea, its strength was 6 points. The earthquake in Kerch did not bring destruction or casualties. Nevertheless, it caused collapses in the vicinity of Sevastopol, in the houses of which cracks appeared.

Opinion of Ukrainian experts

Building a bridge across the Kerch Strait is a difficult task, according to specialists from the Ukrainian Institute of Electric Welding. Paton. According to them, the seabed of the strait is a chain of mud volcanoes covered with a layer of silt up to 50 meters thick. Under the influence of currents, silt washes islands or creates gullies, which is dangerous for the foundation of the bridge, experts say.

This is not the first attempt to build a bridge across the Kerch Strait

Nicholas II, Stalin, Hitler, Yanukovych tried to build a bridge across the Kerch Strait. Nicholas II was prevented from realizing his plan by the first World War. Stalin's attempts to build a bridge ended in failure due to the outbreak of World War II. Hitler planned to use the bridge to transport troops and equipment to India. Albert Speer developed a plan for its construction, and in 1943 its construction began.

Bridge across the Kerch Strait in 1944. Screenshot.

The debate about the need for construction was quite active, and flared up with renewed vigor in 2014 due to the events that became the reason for the return of Crimea to Russia. Not only engineers and builders, but also a huge number of couch analysts joined the debate about the possibility of building a bridge across the Kerch Strait. “They prophesy trouble for us,” as it was sung in the famous penny from an old Soviet film. We were assured that it was impossible to build a bridge, it was impossible, no one would succeed ...

But few of the couch experts of a wide profile (who know everything from geology to the strength of materials) know that more than 70 years ago a structure was already built in the Crimea, about which there is not much information, but which played an important role in the history of the peninsula. It turns out that the Kerch bridge was already built once - during the Great Patriotic War, in 1944, and its construction lasted exactly 150 days.

The military necessity of a bridge from the Crimea to the Kuban

It was planned to build the Kerch Bridge back in the 1930s, but the outbreak of the war prevented the implementation of what was originally planned. An interesting fact we can assume that the project was eventually developed by the German invaders for the uninterrupted movement of rail and road transport through the Kerch Strait. Hitler himself ordered the Minister of Armaments to carry out the construction.

The unusually active movement of the Germans on the Kerch Peninsula in 1942 could not go unnoticed by Soviet aviation, but it was strictly forbidden to bomb warehouses and ready-made structures in this area - the Soviet government hoped to complete the construction begun by the Germans, freeing Crimea from the Nazis soon.

Themselves the Germans abandoned capital construction work, and the bridge was not built, creating only a cable car, which was used in 1943 as a crossing. Almost 1,000 tons of cargo could be transported daily with its help.

In April 1944, it became clear that the defeat of the Nazis in the Crimea by the Red Army was inevitable. Retreating, the Germans almost completely destroyed the half-finished bridge structure. But already Soviet engineers and builders managed to restore the structures blown up by the Nazis and complete the bridge across the Kerch Strait in 1944, connecting the Kuban and Crimea.

The bridge across the Kerch Strait, built almost extreme conditions wartime, was a full-fledged engineering structure. It contained two draw spans, and its length was 4.5 kilometers.

Soviet engineers built a bridge according to a German project in 1944

It was decided to rebuild the bridge across the Kerch Strait even before Kerch itself was liberated from the German invaders. They took as a basis designs, developments, equipment and building materials abandoned by the Germans. Further, Soviet engineers developed a project railway bridge, which was supposed to consist of 115 pieces of 27-meter reliable spans.

The navigable fairway was equipped with a two-span turning mechanism, which had a length of 110 meters and had the ability to turn 90 degrees. This was necessary in order to be able to pass ships of very different carrying capacity in both directions at once. At the same time, the construction of the western and eastern railway lines of approaches to the bridge was underway.

Having carefully studied known facts about ice drifts and the latest geological research, it was decided to build a bridge in the direction of the spit Chushka-the village of Opasnaya. Moreover, the entire front of the main work was divided into two stages: the direct launch of the bridge and its strengthening, including with ice cutters.

Already in November 1944, the first train was launched across the bridge. But the second stage of work was not completed, and the bridge could not sufficiently withstand the extreme winter conditions. The winter of 1944-45 turned out to be disastrous for the structure, besides, by this time, other lines were the main directions for delivering supplies to the front, so much less attention was paid to the Kerch Bridge.

As a result, from February 18 to February 20, 1945, most of the supports were destroyed by ice fields, resulting in an accident. By this moment, the role of the project has been played, and the benefits that it has brought throughout its existence are colossal. And although in 1945-46 a plan was developed to build a permanent bridge, the project was considered expensive, and the bridge was not restored.

The publication was prepared based on the materials of the blog http://tov-tob.livejournal.com/127847.html - we express our gratitude for such interesting material and illustrations!!!

Russia built the Crimean bridge! Hooray!

In our time and under the circumstances, it is necessary to understand how necessary the bridge across the Kerch Strait was. The construction of a bridge from the mainland of Russia to the Crimea depends on the convenience and comfort of movement not only for Crimeans, but also for numerous guests of the peninsula in different time of the year. The bridge was awaited by both the Crimeans and the whole of Russia! We can say that the rise of a tourist destination directly depends on the construction of such a structure.

There were many arguments and exhortations that Russia would not be able to build a bridge across the strait and connect Crimea with the mainland. Someone scared with a high price, someone with difficult construction conditions, someone with geology, someone with ice drift ... However, the Russians are different in that they are used to overcoming difficulties and responding to the most global challenges! Looking back, it is clear that exploration, research, negotiations with investors, the search for contractors - all this turned out to be within the power of Russia. Having overcome all problems and sanctions, ahead of schedule by six months, and provided round-the-clock, year-round and all-weather direct road communication between Crimea and the mainland! Next in line is the railway bridge, which is being built in parallel with the road.

How the Nazis built a bridge across the Kerch Strait March 29th, 2018

The idea of ​​building a bridge across the Kerch Strait appeared long before Ukraine and Russia became separate states. In 1944, one of these projects even managed to be realized. But just three months later, this embodied dream collapsed in the truest sense of the word.
In the spring of 1943, Hitler gave the order to start building a road bridge across the Kerch Strait for the subsequent invasion of Iran through the Caucasus.

However, the Germans still managed to connect the two banks, and they built a road through the Kerch Strait.

Only not iron, but cable. In the summer and autumn of 1943, with its help, 500-800 tons of cargo were transferred daily. In 1943, the Germans built a cable car, on June 14 it was opened. Also, preparations were made for the construction of a road bridge. During the retreat, the cable car was partially dismantled, and part of it was blown up. In 1944 Soviet troops restored the cable car and used it to support the offensive.

In the same year, the cable car was dismantled and relocated to the Carpathians.

Before the retreat, the German troops almost completely destroyed this structure. But as soon as Taman was liberated, and troops landed in the eastern part of the Crimea, Soviet engineers again took up connecting the two banks of the Kerch Strait. To restore the road, equipment from one of the industrial cable cars operating in Georgia at that time was used. Although, in fact, the cable car across the strait needed not only to be restored, but to be rebuilt. And this construction was not easy: the sea was constantly stormy, the construction rafts were rocked so that the soldiers were tied to them with ropes so that they would not be washed away by the wave. Once a raft with people was carried away to the Sea of ​​Azov. They were searched for several days, half-dead were rescued. To protect people from enemy fire, boats cruised along the construction site and placed smoke screens on the windward side. Smoke corroded eyes, interfered with work, but there was no other way out.

In February 1944, the cable crossing over the Kerch Strait began to operate again. Its length was 5100 meters, 150 freight trolleys worked on it. True, the daily productivity of the Soviet railway was only 300 tons, but for several weeks the cable car was the only means of delivering goods to the Crimean coast.

After the liberation of Crimea, the Kerch cable car was not used. Oney was remembered again in the autumn of 1944, when Soviet troops captured the northeastern slopes of the Carpathians. The cable car was ordered to be dismantled and installed on one of the hard-to-reach passes. But while the cable car was dismantled and delivered to the Carpathians, the need for it had already disappeared: the advancing troops had gone far ahead by that time.

German troops used cable cars wherever there was at least a temporary need. They were deployed where it was impossible or impractical to deliver military cargo with the help of pack animals or porters. Large cable cars were mounted by German troops not only in the Crimea, but also in the Caucasus (near the Marukh pass), in the Murmansk region.

During the liberation of Crimea, large stocks of metal structures and equipment, brought by the Germans and left during the retreat, were found on the coast of the Kerch Strait. It was a sin not to take advantage of such wealth - they decided to start building a railway bridge across the strait, planned before the war. This bridge was badly needed by the advancing army, so the builders were in a hurry. The first pile was driven on April 24, 1944, and on November 3, 1944, the first train from Krym station to Kavkaz station passed over the bridge. The commission that accepted the object noted that "the team ... overcame all difficulties and completed the work of the first stage in 150 days, having achieved a pace of work of more than 30 m of the bridge per day." The works of the second stage, which included, in particular, the replacement of temporary wooden supports with permanent metal ones, as well as the construction of 116 ice cutters, were to be completed by January 1, 1945.

However, it was not possible to meet these deadlines, and a disaster occurred.

For the first time, the British seriously thought about the possibility of building a bridge across the Kerch Strait. At the beginning of the 20th century, following the successful construction of the Indo-European telegraph, the British government set out to build a railway along the same route - from England to India through the Crimea and the Kerch Strait -. But the project did not come to fruition - there were problems with financing.

In 1903, Nicholas II became interested in the idea of ​​building a bridge. The best Russian engineers were involved in the work, but the First World War prevented the implementation of plans. The next attempt was made already in the Soviet period, in the 30s. It was planned to build a railway from the south of Ukraine - from Kherson through the Crimea, along the bridge across the Kerch Strait and then along the entire Black Sea coast Caucasus to Poti. Domestic factories could not cope with the production of all the parts necessary for the construction of a giant bridge, so they were ordered in Germany. But soon the Second World War began, and Hitler took over the construction.

During the unusually frosty winter of 1944-1945, a very thick layer of ice formed in the Sea of ​​Azov. In February, a sharp warming came, and the ice fields moved into the Black Sea, right on the bridge. The ice floes were fired from guns from the shore, bombed from airplanes, thrown from the bridge supports with thick packages - all in vain. Under the pressure of ice, 50 of the 115 pillars of the bridge collapsed, dragging the spans with them. This happened on February 18, 1945 - the bridge lasted only a little more than three months. Oddly enough, but in this case, Stalin did not take any repressive measures. According to legend, the Soviet dictator said: “We will not punish. It's my own fault."

After the end of the war, the question of building a new bridge on the site of the collapsed bridge was considered. Deputy People's Commissar of Communications Gotsiridze, presenting the project to Stalin, declared as the last argument: "This, Comrade Stalin, will be the tsar-bridge," to which he replied: "We overthrew the tsar in 1917." And instead of the bridge, a ferry crossing was built.

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