pedestrians from Primorsky district

In preparation for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the city plans to create a pedestrian connection between Krestovsky Island and the Primorsky district, approximately in the alignment of Yakhtennaya Street. As an option, officials are exploring the possibility of constructing a pedestrian bridge or funicular. In total, St. Petersburg expects to receive ten transport facilities with a total value of more than 134 billion rubles for the World Cup. The city is counting on federal support in the amount of over 82 billion rubles, without which some projects will have to be abandoned.

One of the possible options for connecting with the new stadium on Krestovsky Island is considering the creation of a pedestrian bridge or cable car. “Two lines (of the cable car) will provide us with 10 thousand passengers,” Ruben Terteryan, head of the Center for Transport Planning, told reporters yesterday, RIA Novosti reports. According to Mr. Terteryan, the existing transport infrastructure of Krestovsky Island allows carrying 24 thousand passengers per hour, with the commissioning of the new Novokrestovskaya metro station in 2017, this figure will increase to 36 thousand people per hour.

As Kommersant was told by the Committee for the Development of Transport Infrastructure (KRTI), the city is considering the construction of a pedestrian bridge at the Yakhtennaya Street alignment as another option for pedestrian communication between Krestovsky Island and the Primorsky District. It is still unknown where the final crossing point will be on Krestovsky Island. The committee plans to decide which option will be implemented closer to the fall. So far, neither of these two projects has been included in the General Plan, so the design of neither of them has been carried out.

In total, in preparation for the World Cup, the city expects to implement ten new transport projects. This is the construction of a bridge in the area of Serny Island, the project of which was revived and frozen several times, with the accompanying reconstruction of the Admiral Lazarev and Pesochnaya embankments, as well as the subsequent construction of the continuation of the Makarov embankment with a bridge across the Smolenka River. The extension of the embankment should take place in three stages before the first quarter of 2018 from the 2nd line of Vasilievsky Island through Serny Island and Admiralsky Proezd to the WHSD. For the first two objects, design work has already been completed, which, due to its age, already requires adjustments. The second stage of the extension of the Makarov embankment is currently stalled due to unresolved property issues with the Almaz plant. The total cost of the projects is estimated at 17.6-18.6 billion rubles.

In the first quarter of 2018, the main passage along the Admiral Makarov and Pesochnaya embankments with access to Leontievsky Cape and Vasilyevsky Island worth 2.5 billion rubles should be commissioned. Design and survey work on the facility was carried out in 2007, however, they require adjustments, since new structures have appeared along the future route.

The city authorities have serious plans for the development of the metro by the time of the World Cup. In 2016, a section of the Frunzensky radius from the Mezhdunarodnaya to Yuzhnaya stations in Shushary should be commissioned, and the construction of a depot of the same name belongs to the same facility. At the beginning of 2017, city officials hope to complete the section of the Nevsko-Vasileostrovskaya line from the Primorskaya station to the Ulitsa Savushkina station, which includes the Novokrestovskaya station, which should be located near the stadium. The extension of the Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya line from the Prospekt Veteranov station to the Pulkovo station near the airport should appear in the first quarter of 2018.

All underground projects cost about 98.4 billion rubles. The only project out of ten that is already being implemented is the interchange at the intersection of Pulkovskoye Highway and Danube Avenue. It should be completed in the first quarter of 2017. The cost of the facility is 12.3 billion rubles, which the city and the federal budget will invest on a parity basis. Now the center has already allocated 2 billion rubles for this project, and so far these are the only federal funds for the city’s transport facilities that St. Petersburg officials have been able to agree on with the federal center.

The budget ratio for all above-ground projects, which the city authorities are counting on, is 50 to 50. For more expensive underground projects, the city primarily relies on federal funds: St. Petersburg is ready to take on 6% of the costs of constructing the metro in Pulkovo (of the total amount of 42 billion rubles) and 100% of the costs for the Frunzensky radius (31.4 billion rubles).

The cost of each of the listed projects is indicative, based on data on similar projects.

City officials are actively working with the feds to convince them of the need to fund each of the designated transport facilities. If it is not possible to receive the money that St. Petersburg is counting on in full, the city will set priorities. As they promise at Smolny, the final solution will definitely appear before 2015, so that all projects for which funds can be found can be completed in time for the World Cup.

Vlada Gasnikova

The stadium will be pulled in by a rope