OREANDA-NEWS. Specialists from Mostotrest have completed the second stage of the reconstruction of the bridge across the Don River (at the 1061+ km of the M-4 Don Highway) in the Aksaisk District of Rostov Region. The reconstruction operations were commissioned by the state company Avtodor, and the bridge opened to traffic on July 1, 2015.

The large-scale reconstruction project was launched in 2012. The main objective of the project was the expansion of bridge capacity in order to ensure traffic safety for current traffic flows. The bridge over the Don River in Aksai is comprised of two parallel bridges and is part of the M-4 Federal Highway. The reconstruction project took place in two stages. During the first stage, specialists from Mostootryad-10 (the Rostov subsidiary of Mostotrest) dismantled the left bridge, which was constructed in 1964, and constructed a new bridge. The new bridge opened on November 1, 2014. The second stage entailed the repairs of the right bridge, which was constructed in 1995.

The reconstruction project also included a number of operations in setting up landslide protection structures that hold up the unstable right side of the Don, as well as the construction of approach roads to the bridge. In addition, wind deflectors and dampers were set up on the bridge superstructure in order to ensure aerodynamic stability. The road surface is equipped with automatic anti-icing covering.

After the completion of the reconstruction, the right bridge will accommodate traffic flows toward Krasnodar, while traffic moving in the opposite direction will be completely transferred to the left bridge.

The bridge is part of the Rostov-on-Don unified transport system and is of great significance to the transportation system of the eastern part of Russia and Rostov-on-Don. The Aksaisk Bridge accommodates traffic flows between territories of the Russian Federation, connecting industrial, cultural and social facilities located on both sides of the Don River as well as satellite cities with the regional center.

The length of each bridge is 1,227.7 m, including the bridge – 567.1 m and the approaches – 660.6 m. There are a total of six traffic lanes (three across each bridge).

The M-4 Don Federal Highway Moscow – Voronezh – Rostov-on-Don – Krasnodar – Novorossiysk is the main vertical axis of the Russian road system. The highway is of important strategic and defensive value, since it connects the central and northern regions of the European part of Russia with the North Caucasus, the Black Sea coast and the port of Novorossiysk. M-4 is part of the European routes Е-115, Е-592, Е-97 and Е-50.

In 2011, after a large-scale reconstruction project, M-4 Don became a four-lane highway across the entire stretch from Moscow to Voronezh.

In November 2013, new high-speed sections bypassing the city Voronezh and Tarasovsky Village (Rostov Region) were commissioned, meaning that over 900 km of the M-4 Don Highway met the IB rating, over 100 km met the IA rating, and another 100 km met the IV rating.