Where does the money go, to which cities?

The crisis did not stop any of the large-scale Russian construction projects. Estimates are frozen in anticipation

More than a year ago, we conducted a small study to determine which of the global construction projects in Russia are the most expensive and how much time the state needs to implement these projects (see New, No. 69 of September 18, 2008 - Big ...

More than a year ago, we conducted a small study to determine which of the global construction projects in Russia are the most expensive and how much time the state needs to implement these projects (see New, No. 69 of September 18, 2008 - Big Money Accelerator). It turned out that estimates are growing year by year, while the implementation deadlines are constantly moving, and not a single large-scale undertaking has been completed. Now it has been a year since the crisis, the domestic economy is falling, there is a deficit in the budget, investment programs are being curtailed. However, the “construction of the century” bypassed this sad process. None of them are frozen. The only thing we had to give up so far was the good tradition of annual increases in declared expenses.

The press service of the directorate for the construction of the Ring Road (KAD) around St. Petersburg told us that it is still planned to spend 128 billion rubles. Earlier, by the way, it was announced that the amount would be indexed to inflation, but so far the figure has not changed - perhaps the reason for this is the fall in prices for projects, perhaps the builders will be able to meet the stated amount. The federal government has already promised to allocate the necessary money, and by 2010 the inhabitants of St. Petersburg will probably be able to drive on their own ring road. The situation is the same with the dam , which since Soviet times they have been trying to build to protect the Northern capital from floods. It is still planned to spend about 90 billion rubles to complete the long-term construction.

No news from Sochi either. For the long-awaited Sochi Olympics-2014 , namely, for the construction of sports facilities and infrastructure, as before, it is planned to spend a total of 314 billion rubles. Budget funding has not changed so far, and as for private investors, many of them, on the one hand, have been most seriously affected by the crisis and today are exclusively busy with normalizing the situation with their own debts, but, on the other hand, no one has yet refused and demanded a review of previously concluded contracts. It is understandable: if the economic situation changes for the better, then you can always finish what you started, if not, then the state will be forced to do it: international prestige should not suffer no matter how much the budget deficit is.

However, a significant drop in demand for the construction of new facilities led to a drop in the cost of many projects, including the largest ones. According to Natalya Modina, a representative of the Roads of Russia organization, which is building the Moscow-St. Petersburg highway , the cost of construction has decreased by 17%: “Prices for building materials and labor are only falling during the crisis. Especially significantly reduced the cost of materials. As construction becomes cheaper, so do projects.

However, not all construction sites are subject to seemingly obvious economic laws. Take, for example, the Fourth Transport Ring in Moscow . It, without any discounts, will become the most expensive highway in the world. Last year, we made a comparison with the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland and calculated that our ring would cost about twice as much, about 540 billion rubles. They were mistaken: the next edition of the estimate exceeded the wildest expectations. The latest official figure is 8.9 billion rubles for each kilometer, or 660 billion for the entire journey.

However, the final estimate can be even worse. For example, the construction of the first section of the ChTK, 4 kilometers long, cost the Moscow government 66.6 billion rubles, or about 16 billion rubles for each kilometer. In fairness, it should be noted that this is one of the most expensive sites, the construction cost of which included the creation of 460 thousand m2 of road surface, 18 flyovers, two multi-level surface parking lots, 40 km of railway reconstruction, etc. But after all, the entire capital is permeated with communications of various kinds - and there are no simple sections in it ...

In practice, construction always turns out to be much more expensive than it was indicated in the cost of the project. For example, . in 2004, the Moscow-St. Petersburg highway was promised to be rebuilt for 150 billion rubles, a year ago - for 180 billion According to Natalia Modina, Federal State Institution “Roads of Russia”, “to this section (15-58th kilometer), i.e. to Solnechnogorsk, the concession agreement was signed in July, the figures have not changed since that time. The total cost of the project is about 66 billion rubles, of which the state allocates 23 billion.

Let's do the calculations. The entire route from Moscow to St. Petersburg is more than 600 kilometers, while more than a third of the planned amount is spent on the head section of 43 kilometers. Of course, you need to take into account that the closer to the capitals, the more expensive the land and construction. And the purchase of land for construction is the most costly item in road construction. In addition, the Moscow-St. Petersburg highway will have 10 lanes at the exit from the capital, 8 lanes on the territory of the Moscow and Leningrad regions, and 6 lanes on the territory of the Novgorod and Tver regions. Despite all these factors, most likely, it will be extremely difficult for builders to meet the planned 180.7 billion rubles.

There is also a money vacuum cleaner in Russia, designed to somehow relieve the tense traffic in the most densely populated part of the Motherland, the Central Ring Road (TsKAD) . The idea of ​​the Central Ring Road appeared in 2004. It is supposed to be laid along the contour of the roads already existing in the Moscow region, hence the non-circular shape, for which the future route was called both the “ring with a hernia” and the “square ring”.

According to initial estimates, the budget of the Central Ring Road was to be at least 231 billion rubles. total investment for 520 kilometers of rectangular roundabout. It was planned that half of the funds would come from the investment fund, and the rest - from private investors and from the budget of the Moscow region - in a word, two-thirds of the funds would be provided by the state. In 2008, the governor of the Moscow region, Boris Gromov, said that the cost of the Central Ring Road would be about $17 billion (more than 500 billion rubles), and the construction would take 5-6 years. Thus, you will have to spend more on a near-capital ring than on the St. Petersburg Ring Road and the road for traveling from St. Petersburg to Moscow combined.

Recently, rumors have spread that in the near future the Central Ring Road may not be started due to funding problems, but the Central Ring Road OJSC reassured us, explaining that “the project has not been suspended. And now the route is being designed in accordance with the previously approved design schedules.” We were told at the Federal State Institution “Roads of Russia” that at the moment the project is estimated at about 650 billion rubles.

It is impossible not to recall the creation of a bridge that will connect Vladivostok and its neighboring island Russky . There is little time - you need to make it before 2012, the date of the APEC summit, and the work ahead is very difficult: a bridge more than three kilometers long with a record-breaking central cable-stayed span (1104 m) will have to withstand winds up to 58 m / s, seismic activity up to 8, 1 point, temperature up to -31 degrees. The total cost of the project is 49 billion rubles. And the crisis is not terrible here: in the regional budget, as Novaya Gazeta has already said, social spending is strictly sequestered, but not spending on the bridge.

Do not interfere with the implementation of megaprojects and corruption scandals. What are the sensational stories with the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theaters worth (again, these two magical cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg, where state funds are especially willing to go).

Let's start with the Big. In August 2003, a contract was signed between the federal state institution "Directorate for Construction, Reconstruction and Restoration" and CJSC "Kurortproekt" for the design of the second stage of restoration and reconstruction of the complex of buildings of the Bolshoi Theater of Russia in the amount of more than 98 million rubles. According to additional agreements to the contract, this amount amounted to 164 million 329 thousand rubles. In August of this year, investigators of the Moscow Department of the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation opened a criminal case on the fact of unreasonably spent funds for the restoration of the Bolshoi Theater. Representatives of the Accounts Chamber reported that the cost of reconstructing the Bolshoi Theater had grown 16 times. It happened something like this: from 2003 to 2009, the directorate in favor of the Kurortproekt closed joint-stock company three times paid for the same work on the design and preparation of working documentation for the project of the second stage of reconstruction, restoration and technical equipment, initially 98 million rubles (plus 58 million for the preparation of working documentation), then under additional agreements about 362 million (including about 26 million for the preparation of working documentation) and then more than 497 million for the preparation of working documentation. And so on.

And what? The investigation goes on as usual, and the construction goes on as usual. The general contractor has changed, budget financing has been saved. It is planned that the premiere in the restored theater will take place no earlier than 2011.

The Mariinsky Theatre, in turn, has been in need of a second stage for a long time. The project was approved in 2003, and suddenly in 2008 the construction was frozen, since the future building, as it looked in the project of Dominique Perrault, in whose work 400 errors were found during the examination, was recognized as a "monster", in the words of the Minister of Culture Avdeev. The new project was developed by the architects of OAO Design Bureau for High-Rise and Underground Structures (St. Petersburg) together with Diamond & Shmit (Canada). The future building still cannot be called ideally suited to the face of the city, but it satisfied the Ministry of Culture and decided to continue construction. In August of this year, when more than 8 billion rubles had already been spent on the project, talks began in the Russian government about additional funding for the construction of the second stage of the theater. According to the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, the project is unlikely to need less than 18 billion rubles. It will not be completed until the end of 2011.

In general, even if in some cases the crisis helped us forget for a while about the problem of constant and unjustified price increases for projects, the problem has not disappeared. Oil broke through $80 a barrel last week. Additional revenues appeared in the budget. Those who want to master them raise their heads.