OREANDA-NEWS. Transstroymekhanisatsiya and Avtodor complete signing of long-term agreement to construct the 517km- 544km section of the M-4 Don Highway (bypassing Novaya Usman and Rogachyovka).

The project plan includes 16 complex engineering structures, such as junctions and interchanges.

Transstroymekhanisatsiya, a Mostotrest subsidiary, and Avtodor the state-owned company have signed a long-term investment agreement for the construction, maintenance, repair, and overhaul of the 517km- 544km section of the M-4 Don Highway in the Voronezh region (bypassing Novaya Usman and Rogachyovka) which runs from Moscow via Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don, and Krasnodar to Novorossiysk.

The project will be implemented within the framework of a long-term investment agreement, which will run for 23 years. The total construction cost is RUB 17.3 billion (including VAT). The project envisions a RUB 1.9 billion (including VAT) investment from the contractor, which will be repaid during the operations phase in accordance with the approved schedule. The construction period under the agreement is between 2014 and 2016. After the construction work is completed, TSM will be responsible for the maintenance, repair and overhaul of the M-4 Don road section between 517 km -544 km while the agreement is in force.

During the first part of the contract, TSM specialists will construct a 29 kilometre stretch of the new category IA four-lane highway with a 6m wide median strip. Included in the construction are two multilevel interchanges, five underpasses and nine flyovers (462m and 697m in length, respectively), and two pedestrian crossings (163m in length). TSM will also install 21 culverts totalling 946m in length to handle surface drainage of the road. The designated speed of traffic is up to 150 km/h.

The M-4 Don federal highway which is over 1500km long (Moscow-Voronezh-Rostov-on-Don-Krasnodar-Novorossiysk) connects the central and northern regions of the European part of the country with the North Caucasus, the Black Sea coast, and the port of Novorossiysk. In May 2010 the M-4 “Don” road was transferred to the trust management of Avtodor. Large-scale reconstruction work is currently underway on this road, as a result of which the whole M-4 “Don” highway will be of category 1 standard by 2019. Following the opening of new high-speed segments bypassing residential areas in Tula, Voronezh and Lipetsk regions, 918,172 km of the M-4 “Don” highway were classified as category 1B, 101,135 km as category 1A and 100,629 km as category 1C.