OREANDA-NEWS. Work is continuing in Nizhny Novgorod on the construction of the new Bor Bridge framework. A new split-level junction that will provide increased traffic capacity on the motorway approach to the site is also being built in the nearby village of Neklyudovo. Work is being carried out by local construction firm Mostootryad 1, a branch of Mostotrest, and is moving along ahead of schedule. Mostotrest began construction in November 2013, immediately after the signing of a state contract.

The large-scale project was commissioned by the Nizhny Novgorod Main Directorate for Highways State Public Institution. It includes the construction of a number of bridge structures and road approaches and is due for completion in the first half of 2017.

Nizhny Novgorod Governor Valery Shantsev chaired an offsite meeting on the Bor alternate bridge on 19 May that was attended by Deputy Governor Anton Averin, Minister of Transport and Highways of the Nizhny Novgorod region Aleksandr Gerasimenko and the Director of the Main Directorate for Highways, Yevgeny Vasiliev. “Bor Bridge is growing before our very eyes. Sometimes it seems that our construction workers are magicians,” Shantsev stated at the meeting. “Almost all the supports on the alternate bridge have been erected. Now we have to step up and install the engineering networks in the construction area before the year is out.”

The central part of the project is the new 1.5km two-way bridge across the Volga, which runs parallel to the existing road-rail bridge. Right- and left-bank approaches with a total length of 7.3km are also being built (including expanding the highway to Tolokonstevo to four lanes), as are two 80-metre floodplain bridges and a 79.3-metre bridge across the Vezloma River (on the left tributary of the Volga).

As of the time of writing, 16 supports on the left- and right-bank overhead crossings have been completed, concrete beams have been mounted to six superstructures of the right-bank overhead crossing, and 13,576 cubic metres of concrete mix have been laid down in the deep foundations and support bodies (45% of the total volume, according to the construction plans). Ten of the fifteen planned supports at the Nekludova flyover have been erected and filling work has begun on the new junction; two of the four supports on the bridge across the Vezloma River are under construction. Additionally, deep foundations have been laid down for one of the two floodplain bridges. Mostotrest engineers have equipped all the construction sites with solid bases to protect them from flooding; new waterfront structures and access roads to the floating bridge that opened on 8 May of this year have been completed (the floating bridge that operated in the construction zone of the new bridge has been shifted 30 metres downstream). Work has also begun on the construction of stream flow structures across the Volga, slipway areas and roll-out piers for the assembly of arched bridge spans.

Work on the alternate bridge is being carried out by Mostotrest engineers using the most up-to-date technologies. The new roadbed is being laid down taking into account the increased loads from growing transport flow. Traffic has not been affected by construction works and is running as normal.

The Bor alternate bridge will carry traffic to Kirov, while the old Volga (Bor) bridge will carry one-way traffic in the opposite direction. This will help solve traffic problems both in Nizhny Novgorod and in the region as a whole - especially in the northern districts. The new bridge crossing will be part of the R-159 Nizhny Novgorod-Shakhunya-Kirov highway and significantly increase the traffic capacity of the road section between Nizhny Novgorod and Bor.