The Moscow Bridge in Kiev

The Moscow Bridge (Kiev) is one of the four automobile bridges of the Ukrainian capital, connecting the two banks of the Dnieper in the northern part of the city. It was built according to the 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 bewitches with its peculiar ease and elegance, is the first cable-stayed bridge in the Soviet Union. This is a whole complex of more than 9 km in length, consisting of approaches to flights through the Dnieper and Desenka, roads on the Trukhanova Island, exits to the recreation center "Dniprovskie Volna", parking lots.

Kiev (history): Moscow Bridge

Having recovered from the devastating war, in the 50s-60s, Kiev was rapidly expanding. There is a need to build new bridges across the Dnieper. The river in the city is wide, with numerous branches, shallows, creeks, tributaries. This complicated the design of a massive structure.

In 1966, the general plan for the development of the capital of Ukraine was adopted, assuming the construction of at least seven major bridges. After half a century in Kiev there are only 4 such facilities. One of them is the Moscow Bridge.

The first in the USSR

Project works were started in the late 60-ies. Before the designers there was a non-trivial task to build spans in such a way that the supporting racks would not interfere with navigation along the Dnieper. The architect Anatoly Dobrovolsky and the leading engineer, now Professor Georgy Fuchs, settled on the cable-stayed structure. It assumes the support of spans with the help of cables, which allows to abandon the supports in the riverbed.

In the Soviet Union, this experience of construction was not. Designers had to work from scratch to develop the project - from the appearance, to the technological process of manufacturing and mounting each element.

Work began in 1971 and was conducted around the clock, in any weather, without interruptions for five years. Today the building that decorated Kiev is history. The Moscow Bridge, whose photo is impressive in size, was commissioned on 3.12.1976. In 1981, the team of authors for the development of the project was awarded the USSR Council of Ministers Prize.

Characteristics

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 bridge over the Dnieper (width 31.4 m, length 816 m);
• Bridge across the river Desenka (length 732 m);
• Overpass, laid through the Prospekt Heroes of Stalingrad (length 55 m);
• Access roads.

Design

Moscow Bridge (Kiev) - a unique construction. The navigable part of the Dnieper, thanks to the single-propeller cable system, is free of supports, which makes it possible to cruise ships without hindrance. One high pylon is located at the left bank. Right-bank part is a flyover with spans of 63 meters. The three-hundred-meter steel stiffening beam (the largest in the former USSR) in the cable run is supported by cables woven from steel ropes (20-40 in each cable). The total length of the ropes is 54.6 km.

The guys rest on an A-shaped pylon 119 meters high. The distance from the roadway to the pylon arch is 53 meters. In two legs-supports of the pylon there is one assembly shaft with iron ladders in 8 spans each. They converge above the tunnel. Inside there is a working area of about 10 m².

Above, the Moscow bridge is decorated with a sculptural stylized depiction of the old coat of arms of Kiev (sculptors B. S. Dovgan and F. I. Yuryev). On each side of the coat of arms is one balcony.

Unrealized ideas

The Moscow Bridge is a highly efficient transport engineering structure. However, designers considered several projects to make it not just functional, but with a certain zest. In particular, the issue of building a panoramic restaurant at the top was discussed. Such an object was erected on a cable-stayed bridge in Prague and is very popular with tourists. However, at that time the former head of the Ukrainian SSR Vladimir Shcherbitsky did not approve of the idea, motivating the decision by fighting with drunkenness.

Another project was the construction on the top of the pylon of the spectacular sculpture - the boat, in which the founding princes of Kiev are. Sculptor Vasily Boroday produced a sketch that liked Brezhnev and Scherbitsky. It was given the order to establish the composition, but the technical embodiment of the idea proved to be difficult to solve. At the highest point of the pylon, corresponding to the height of the 35-storey building, strong winds are blowing. The design was not reliable. In addition, at this height, the sculptural composition is poorly discernible. As a result, the rook was installed in the park near the Dnieper. It 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.

Automobile traffic

Before delivery, the Moscow bridge was tested for strength. 150 lorries loaded with sand poured into the lanes. Thus, the load created by the transport during hours of intensive traffic was repeatedly exceeded. The tests, conducted two days, proved the reliability of the cable construction. 5.11.1983 the trolleybus line was opened across the bridge. Route 29 connected the residential Resurrection Rescue with the metro station "Petrovka".

By the early 2000s, the flow of motor vehicles had increased significantly. There were 3 transport lanes on each side, delineated by a two-meter separation zone. In 2005, city planners decided to remove the separation zone, replacing it with an additional reverse stripe. The idea was unsuccessful - the accident rate increased significantly.

In order to minimize the number of road accidents, the reversible strip in 2007 was replaced by a bump stop. The liberated space and a slight decrease in the width of the bands allowed to increase the number of traffic flows to four in each direction.

Name magic

Why the bridge was called Moscow, even the founders of the structure do not know. Initially, it was supposed to be called the Northern one according to the location on the city plan. Later it was decided to name it in the spirit of the time - the name of Friendship of Peoples. However, shortly before the acceptance, it was ordered to give the bridge the name Moskovsky.

After gaining independence, the possibility of renaming Severny, Troeschinsky, or the bridge to them was repeatedly discussed. Stepan Bandery. In 2015, the Kyiv City State Administration held public hearings on the renaming of the object in the bridge to them. George Fuchs, one of his designers. The profile commission rejected the initiative.