The upland and riverine parts of the city of Nizhny Novgorod are connected by the Myzinsky bridge, also called Karpovsky. This is a crossing across the Oka River and part of the Moscow-Ufa federal highway (M7).
General characteristics and uniqueness of the crossing
The bridge has an average size of 1006 meters with a width of 27 meters. The crossing capacity is also small - only 30 thousand cars per day.
This is the largest bridge in Nizhny Novgorod. The condition of the crossing is depressing. Even the construction of a bypass road did not reduce the number of cars at the crossing and, as a result, the load on the supporting structures.
Unique Soviet project
The construction project of the Myzinsky bridge can be called unique. In fact, this is an uncut beam made of individual elements made of reinforced concrete. Each such element weighs 60 tons, and all of them are glued together with epoxy resin (ED-20). Although before gluing the parts were connected by tensile reinforcement.
The construction of the crossing took 9 years, work began in 1972. Before the official opening, they conducted a series of tests, and in the last month of the summer of 1981, residents of the city already began to use the new bridge.
At that time, this construction technology was progressive, several more bridges were erected in the country along it. However, to date, none of them is in operation, except for Karpovsky, who is very worn out due to the huge load on the supporting structures.
The construction work itself can also be called unique. After mixing the resin and furyl alcohol, the resulting mixture was applied onto the bonded parts of the bridge manually. In principle, for this and a number of other reasons, the opening of the crossing was postponed all the time from 1979 to 1981.
Some interesting facts
The highest point of the bridge is 50 meters high. It was from this place that the local resident Kornilayev E. tried to jump twice.
The first time Eugene’s jump ended in a lot of injuries. In 2000, the “hero-jumper” attracted even Novgorod journalists to his jump. The incident occurred on July 25, rescuers arrived on the bridge, who did not allow the man to jump. Representatives of the Ministry of Emergency Situations called the brigade from a psychiatric hospital, and Kornilayev failed to set a record. Nothing is known about the further fate of this man.
Accident
Myzinsky bridge is one of the most dangerous in all of Nizhny Novgorod. The crossing is built on a slope, there are no chippers here, which leads to frequent accidents.
Until 2003, the situation was aggravated by the fact that in the middle there were tram tracks that were already dismantled. Although these measures did not significantly reduce the accident rate, as most often for heavy vehicles moving on a slope, the brakes simply fail.
In 2012 alone, 8 people died in accidents on the Karpovsky bridge, and a total of 22 accidents occurred.
In 2013, they tried to solve the problem by attracting higher forces. On February 1, the Myzinsky bridge was consecrated.
Modern realities
For a long time, local authorities did not want to acknowledge the existing problem and carried out minor, one might say, cosmetic repairs.
Later they decided to repair Myzinsky bridge, and authorities announced that 260 million rubles would be required. And, as a result, they increased the transport tax by 2.5 times. As a result, he became the highest in all of Russia.
In 2010, expansion joints were replaced, and other repairs were carried out.
Since 2016, the issue of repairing the crossing has been raised again. In 2017, 400 million rubles were allocated from the regional road fund.
In December, the repair of the Myzinsky bridge in Nizhny Novgorod begins without stopping traffic, only with a partial restriction. The enclosing structure is installed, the waterproofing is replaced, and the drainage system is repaired. The number of lighting devices is increasing.
Work on the installation of embedded parts is planned for the middle of this year. During the World Cup, all work will be suspended.
Last news
On the night of January 31 to February 1 of this year, another emergency occurred in Nizhny Novgorod. A deformation seam diverges on the Karpovsky bridge. Asphalt partially subsides in this place, a huge crevice appears.
Almost all of the city’s roads turn into a continuous traffic jam. At the same time, railway traffic is blocked, and there are no other ways to get from the Myza station to the Petryaevka station. But on both banks there are many industrial enterprises. How effective the repair will be, time will tell.