OREANDA-NEWS. Mostotrest has entered into a contract with SGM-Most, the company implementing the Kerch Bridge construction project. Total contract value: RUB96.9 billion including VAT.

Poised to become one of the biggest and most sophisticated engineered structures in modern Russia, The Kerch Bridge will be a combined road and railway bridge. Construction length of the bridge will be 19 km. The railway line will consist of two tracks, while Category 1B automobile road will have four lanes (two in each direction). The project is being implemented within a short timeframe: the automobile section of the bridge is scheduled for completion and entry into service in 2018, followed by the railway section in 2019.

Project challenges include difficult weather conditions, seismic activity and muddy bottoms in the area of construction. Reliability and durability of the bridge will be ensured through the use of materials with enhanced properties and corrosion protection of key structural elements.

Mostotrest will install most of the pillars and spans on the entire length of the road and rail bridges. In particular, Mostotrest will immerse pipes both off- and onshore; arrange bored piles, raft foundations and tower bodies; assemble and launch superstructures; fuse superstructures and install supporting elements. The project envisages construction of the bridge deck, including a leveling concrete layer, waterproofing, monolithic parapet and barrier fencing, expansion joints, as well as arrangement of the ballast bed on the Taman side. Execution will be subject to ongoing environmental control and monitoring.

The Kerch Bridge will provide a direct toll-free road link with the Crimea and Sevastopol, ensure uninterrupted rail service, increase tourist attractiveness of the region and investment attractiveness of the Crimea and Kuban, a steady trade turnover between the peninsula and mainland Russia, and boost economic development of the entire Southern Russia.

Mostotrest is a major, diversified infrastructure construction company, with established presence in all core and related market segments, and a participant in Russia’s first public-private partnership projects. According to EMBS Group, an independent industry consultancy, in 2014 Mostotrest held a 13.4% share of the total Russian transport infrastructure construction market.

Mostotrest’s core competences include construction and reconstruction of bridges, roads and other transport infrastructure facilities; provision of road maintenance, repair and operating services. In 2012, Mostotrest also entered a new segment: management of road concessions.

The company was established in 1930 as a developer of complex and oversized bridges.

Mostotrest is currently participating in implementation of a number of complex transport infrastructure development projects, such as construction of the Section 4 (km 208 – km 258) and Section 6 (km 334 – km 543) of the M-11 «Moscow – St Petersburg» Toll Highway, construction and reconstruction of the M-4 «Don» and M-9 «Baltic» highways, construction of Businovskaya Interchange in Moscow, Bor Bridge in Nizhny Novgorod and Voroshilovsky Bridge in Rostov-on-Don.