The opening of the Alabyano-Baltic tunnel was repeatedly delayed. They decided to disclose the reason for the delays only now: last year the Tarakanovka River suddenly poured into the tunnel and prevented the work from being stopped for five months.
According to Sergey Chebotarev, head of the complex design department of NPO Cosmos LLC, the interchange at the Sokol metro station is the most difficult project in the construction of tunnels not only in Russia but also in the world. A similar underground structure of three tunnels laid under each other exists in the United States, but in our country it is further complicated by the fact that the Alabyano-Baltic tunnel also runs under the existing metro line. From the ceiling of the tunnel no more than five meters to the Zamoskvoretskaya subway line. The main requirement for designers is that metro structures should not rise or fall by more than 20 millimeters due to work.
Scheme
The expansion of Bolshaya Academic Street is in full swing. It will become wider in two lanes and will acquire pockets for public transport on the site from Priorov Street to Dmitrov highway. The road will pass near residential buildings, so noise screens will be installed along it. In addition, the prefecture of the CAO promised to put soundproof windows to all residents of nearby houses.
Changes await the street of the People's Militia. A traffic light at the intersection with Marshal Tukhachevsky Street will be removed, and a tunnel will be built instead. True, in this way the turn from Marshal Tukhachevsky Street to the left will be eliminated, drivers will have to turn right and turn around after 500 meters, but the absence of a traffic light will significantly relieve the intersection.
Moscow
A large academic will be expanded into two lanes, and under the street of the militia there will be a tunnel
The remaining sections of the chord have not yet been designed, so it’s too early to talk about when these plans are being implemented, but Sergei Chebotarev said that the construction of each of the sections will take no more than a year and a half. Competitions are underway to identify designers, and projects will, at best, be ready at the end of next year. So it’s worth waiting for the full launch of the first Moscow chord no earlier than 2015.
The chord system will become an alternative to moving through the center, the TTK and the Garden Ring. Speaking about its advantages over the Fourth Ring, Chebotarev emphasizes that the chord is not a new highway, but a network of existing roads with reconstructed junctions from which the traffic lights complicating the movement will disappear.
Verdict
Sergey Nastin, editor:
