The Moscow bridge (Kiev) is one of the four automobile bridges of the capital of Ukraine, connecting the two banks of the Dnieper in the northern part of the city. Built according to a unique project of architect A.V. Dobrovolsky and engineers G. B. Fuchs, E. A. Levinsky, B. M. Grebnya, B. S. Romanenko.
Description
The Moscow bridge (Kiev), whose photo captivates with its peculiar lightness and elegance, is the first cable-stayed bridge in the Soviet Union. This is a whole complex with a length of more than 9 km, consisting of approaches to flights across the Dnieper and Desenka, roads on Trukhanovy Island, exits to the Dnieper Waves recreation center, and parking lots.
Kiev (history): Moscow bridge
Having recovered after a devastating war, in the 1950s and 1960s, Kiev was growing rapidly. There was a need to build new bridges across the Dnieper. The river in the city limits is wide, with numerous sleeves, shallows, backwaters, tributaries. This made it difficult to design a massive structure.
In 1966, the general plan for the development of the capital of Ukraine was adopted, involving the construction of at least seven large bridges. After half a century, only 4 such structures are functioning in Kiev. One of them is the Moscow bridge.
The first in the USSR
Design work began in the late 60s. The designers had a non-trivial task to build spans in such a way that the racks supporting them did not interfere with navigation along the Dnieper. The architect Anatoly Dobrovolsky and the leading engineer, now Professor George Fuchs, settled on the cable-stayed structure. It involves supporting spans with cables, which allows you to abandon the supports in the riverbed.
In the Soviet Union there was no such construction experience. Designers had to develop a project from scratch - from appearance to the manufacturing process and the installation of each element.
Work began in 1971 and was carried out around the clock, in any weather, without interruption for five years. Today, the structure that adorned Kiev is history. The Moscow bridge, whose photo is impressive in size, was commissioned on December 3, 1976. In 1981, the team of authors for the development of the project was awarded the Prize of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
Specifications
The Moscow bridge connects the right-bank Podolsky and Obolonsky districts with the left-bank Dnieper (residential districts Voskresenka, Raduzhny, Troeschina). The complex consists of:
- cable-stayed bridge across the Dnieper (width 31.4 m, length 816 m);
- a bridge over the Desenka River (length 732 m);
- viaduct laid across Heroes of Stalingrad Avenue (length 55 m);
- driveways.
Design
Moscow bridge (Kiev) - a unique structure. The navigable part of the Dnieper, thanks to the one-pylon cable - stayed system, is free of supports, which allows ships to freely navigate. One tall pylon is located off the left bank. The right-bank part is a flyover with spans of 63 meters. A three-hundred-meter steel stiffness beam (the largest in the former USSR) in a cable-stayed run is supported by cables braided from steel ropes (20–40 in each cable). The total length of the ropes is 54.6 km.
The cables rest on an A-shaped pylon 119 meters high. The distance from the carriageway to the arch of the pylon is 53 meters. In the two legs supporting the pylon, there is one mounting shaft with iron stairs of 8 spans each. They converge over the arch of the tunnel. Inside there is a working area of about 10 m².
The Moscow bridge is decorated with a sculptural stylized image of the old coat of arms of Kiev (sculptors B. S. Dovgan and F. I. Yuryev). There is one balcony on each side of the coat of arms.
Unrealized ideas
The Moscow bridge is a highly efficient transport engineering construction. However, the designers considered several projects to make it not just functional, but with some zest. In particular, the construction of a panoramic restaurant at the top of the pylon was discussed. A similar facility was erected on a cable-stayed bridge in Prague and is very popular with tourists. However, the then head of the Ukrainian SSR, Vladimir Shcherbitsky, did not approve of the idea, motivating the decision by fighting alcoholism.
Another project was the construction of a spectacular sculpture on the top of the pylon - a boat in which the founding princes of Kiev are located. The sculptor Vasily Boroday made a sketch that Brezhnev and Shcherbitsky liked. It was ordered to establish the composition, but the technical embodiment of the idea was difficult to solve. At the highest point of the pylon, corresponding to the height of the 35-story building, strong winds blow. The design turned out to be unreliable. In addition, at this height, the sculptural composition is poorly distinguishable. As a result, the boat was installed in a park near the Dnieper. She became a symbol of the Ukrainian capital. And the pylon itself was decorated with a copper plate with the image of the coat of arms of Kiev.
Car traffic
Before the delivery, the Moscow bridge was tested for strength. 150 lanes loaded with sand drove into the lanes. Thus, the load created by the transport during busy hours was repeatedly exceeded. Tests conducted over two days proved the reliability of cable-stayed construction. 11/05/1983 the opening of the trolleybus line across the bridge. Route 29 connected the Voskresenka housing estate with the Petrovka metro station.
By the beginning of the 2000s, the flow of vehicles increased significantly. There were 3 transport lanes on each side, delimited by a two-meter dividing zone. In 2005, urban planners decided to remove the dividing zone, replacing it with an additional reversible strip. The idea was unsuccessful - accident rate increased significantly.
In order to minimize the number of accidents, the reverse strip in 2007 was replaced by a chipper. The free space and a slight decrease in the width of the stripes allowed to increase the number of traffic flows to four in each direction.
Name Magic
Why the bridge was called Moscow, do not even know the creators of the structure. Initially, it was supposed to be called Northern in accordance with the location on the city plan. Later they decided to name him in the spirit of the time - named after the Friendship of Peoples. However, shortly before acceptance it was ordered to give the bridge the name Moscow.
After gaining independence, the possibility of renaming to Severny, Troeshchinsky, or the bridge to them was discussed more than once. Stepan Bandera. In 2015, the Kyiv City State Administration held a public hearing about the renaming of the object in the bridge to them. George Fuchs, one of his designers. The relevant commission rejected the initiative.