This is a ring road between the city of Usolye-Sibirskoye and the village of Telma in the Angara region. Today, almost 20 thousand vehicles pass through these two settlements, including heavy ones. This is almost double what was normal for the route in its previous version. On the city’s narrow streets, hampered by traffic lights and pedestrian crossings, drivers sometimes waste up to two hours of their time and accidents are not uncommon.
– The new section of the highway will increase the capacity to 30 thousand vehicles per day. At the same time, it will significantly increase the level and safety of road traffic. Traffic flows will be separated by an axial barrier fence. “This measure will help eliminate the most dangerous type of road accident – wrong-way collisions,” said Nikolai Reinet, head of the administration of the Baikal region.
The project was included in the Comprehensive Plan for the modernization and expansion of the main infrastructure until 2024, approved by the Government of the Russian Federation. According to this plan, in Russia, as part of the implementation of the federal project “Communication between centers of economic growth”, 12 large city ring roads were built, that is, almost 400 kilometers.
Road workers consider the object itself to be unique and complex at the same time. In addition to a large number of engineering structures, the transfer of pipeline and oil pipeline branches, electrical and utility networks, archaeological studies were carried out along the route.
Excavations in the area of the ancient human site near the town of Malta began in 2020. Rescue work affected 39 thousand square meters, which were within the highway construction zone. More than 160 people participated in the scientific research. These are employees and students of Irkutsk State University, residents of the Usolsky district, who carried out excavation work under the supervision of specialists.
– According to the results of three years of archaeological rescue work, more than 178 thousand objects of finds from six levels of cultural deposit have been recorded. They all belong to different eras of the Stone Age. These are mainly stone products, tools and remains of fauna that were hunting prey of ancient man. The work carried out at the Malta 3 site allowed scientists to discover that 21-23 thousand years ago there was a tundra in this place, where mammoths, rhinoceroses and bison lived, the meat and skins of which were used by local residents. comments on the results of archaeological research Ekaterina Lipnina, doctor of historical sciences, director of the research center “Baikal Region”.
Overlooking Usolye-Sibirskoye, without exaggeration, is the construction project of the decade in the Irkutsk region. After all, such large facilities have not existed on federal highways for 80 years. The project was launched in August 2019. The length of the new section of the federal highway R 255 “Siberia” is more than 42.7 kilometers. The facility includes six transport interchanges, three of which are two-level, and 12 engineering structures.
– The road corresponds to the 1st technical category: two lanes for vehicles in each direction. The new section of the route is three kilometers shorter than the existing one. A highway of such magnitude had not been built in our region since the middle of the last century. Of course, over the course of five years we have gone through many difficult situations, but the financing of the project was almost completely confirmed from the beginning. Rosavtodor’s decision to support road construction organizations during the pandemic and sanctions pressure through advance payments for government contracts of up to 50 percent made it possible to offset the increase in prices for materials and equipment. Of course, there are nuances. The concept of parallel import of cars, mechanisms and original spare parts has arrived. Delivery times have also increased: up to 120 days. But all our services fulfilled the assigned tasks,” says Sergei Tomshin, general director of the main contractor of the project, Trud JSC.
Sergei Tomshin: Such major road construction has not been carried out in our region since the middle of the last century. Photo: Inna Okhotina
“It was important for us to deliver the road not only on time, but also with excellent quality, which is why we constantly worked, together with Uprdor Pribaikalye, the project client, to improve the technical characteristics of the facility,” adds the boss. engineer – first deputy general director of JSC Trud “Yuri Kibirev.
How it all began, what technical solutions were used during the execution of the project, will be told by those who, with their work, have brought the long-awaited end closer over these five years. Vitaly Kuchko, head of the road construction section of the Usolsky subsidiary of JSC Trud, recalls that 4 million cubic meters of roadway were poured at the base of the road and almost 400 thousand cubic meters of earth were used to replace wetlands. along the route. . During the construction of the ring road, road workers carried out a major reconstruction of communications.
– We move high voltage power lines of 110 and 10 kW overhead lines, with a total length of 740 linear meters, cable communication lines of about 2000 linear meters. On the Usolye-Sibirskoye-Belorechenskoye section, pressure sewage, water supply and heating networks were rebuilt. Together with our partners Transneft-Vostok, we moved two branches of the main pipeline of 720 and 1000 mm, as well as an ethylene pipeline from the Sayanskkhimplast company,” recalls Alexander Votinov, chief engineer of the Usolsky branch of JSC Trud.
The construction of the route helped to significantly expand the catalog of archaeological finds. Photo: Inna Okhotina
The cement and soil base layer provided for in the ring road construction project is a rigid pavement that provides a high bearing capacity of the base. It has a number of advantages over traditional foundations made of stone materials: it has high strength, resistance to water and frost.
– On the Usolye bypass, the new road surface looks like a pie. 22 centimeters is a cement soil base, then there is 16 centimeters of porous asphalt mixture and the top layer is five centimeters of crushed stone mastic asphalt concrete, which also contributes to the longevity of the road, says Pavel Fedorov. deputy director of production of the Usolsky subsidiary of JSC Trud.
It should be noted that for 10 years now JSC Trud has created its own bridge division, so, in fact, 90 percent of the work here is carried out independently, without the participation of subcontractors.
– On this site we built five bridges over the Telminka, Biliktuyka, Kartagon and Tselota rivers. The bridges are built on piles driven with monolithic bars. Five flyovers were built on natural foundations with retaining walls. Two of them pass through railways, including the Trans-Siberian. Two metal pedestrian crossings were built in the area of the Bolshaya Elan and Neftekhimik settlements. Each is equipped with elevators for people with reduced mobility. In the area of the Bolshaya Elan crossing, 1,395-meter noise barriers were installed to protect local residents from the noise impact of the federal highway, says Pavel Chebotarev, deputy director of bridge construction at the Usolsky subsidiary of Trud JSC.
Let us add that the new highway will allow transit transport to be removed from populated areas. And it will be a continuation of the Angarsk bypass. The entire stretch from Malta to Irkutsk will be four lanes. To ensure safety, six transport interchanges, two covered pedestrian overpasses, four bus stops, 28 kilometers of outdoor lighting lines, 64 kilometers of fences and 532 traffic signs will be installed here. Road workers also applied 57 thousand square kilometers of road markings with thermoplastic.
– 600 people worked every day in the construction: workers, engineers, technicians and machine operators. During the period of greatest activity, up to 700 people worked, including 100 boys from the Baikal student construction team. Workers came from all over Russia, but traditionally more than half were local residents of nearby cities: Usolye, Angarsk, Tulun. 230 teams were used. This job is a source of pride for any road worker; something like this happens once in a lifetime,” says Evgeniy Ragozin, director of the Usolsky subsidiary of JSC Trud.
Finally, we will add that the construction of the ring road became part of the large-scale project of the international transport corridor “Europe – Western China”, which Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin called a priority. •
By the way
The builders timed the completion of work on the site to coincide with Road Builder’s Day, which in 2024 fell on October 20. The facility will be put into operation after the conclusion of the Rostransnadzor commission and a thorough inspection of the route to ensure the safety of its operation.
Accent
“The new stretch of highway will increase capacity to 30,000 vehicles per day.”
Advertising, JSC “Trud”, TIN 3812035570
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