New toll sections will appear on the federal highway by the end of the year

New toll sections will appear by the end of the year on the Moscow-St. Petersburg and M4 Don highways. The corresponding order was signed by Dmitry Medvedev. According to experts, the innovations will increase traffic speeds, but will significantly increase the cost of travel on the highway, which will create additional burden on free alternative routes.

New toll sections will appear on the Moscow-St. Petersburg and M4 Don highways. An order to this effect was signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday. On the Moscow-St. Petersburg highway you will have to pay to bypass Vyshny Volochyok. A similar regime will operate on seven sections of the M4 Don highway. The selected sections will be paid for about a hundred years.

On toll sections of the M4 Don highway, in particular, through Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don, as well as Krasnodar to Novorossiysk, six lanes will be available. The length of the sections is from 22 to 90 km. As an alternative, motorists are offered a 26-kilometer free road. On the Moscow-St. Petersburg highway, the toll section that goes around Vyshny Volochek is 72 km long. There is a 73-kilometer public road for free travel. The cost of using the site varies everywhere. For travel on the road bypassing Voronezh, from December 20, the driver of a passenger car will pay 20 rubles at night, and 35 rubles during the day. They will charge 40 rubles for allowing small commercial vehicles through. at night and 70 rub. during the day. For trucks and large buses, travel will cost 100 rubles. at night and 120 rub. during the day.

In connection with the introduction of new toll sections on the M4 Don highway, additional burden will fall on alternative routes, the coordinator of the Blue Buckets movement, Petr Shkumatov, is sure. “The Moscow-St. Petersburg route is generally good, but there are several problem points there. The first is entering Moscow. The section from Solnechnogorsk to the Moscow Ring Road is almost constantly standing. The second section is Vyshny Volochek. The introduction of two sections of the new highway, even if they are toll, will, of course, dramatically improve the situation. As for the M4 Don, now travel on it does not exceed 400 rubles. But the introduction of new toll sections will, of course, increase travel fees by a significant amount. Most likely, it will be 600–700 rubles. People will start moving to free plots, to free alternatives,” noted Mr. Shkumatov.

Investments in the construction of new sections of the route will pay off faster if the adjacent territories are developed, Sergei Zege, associate professor of the Department of Bridges and Transport Tunnels at MADI, is convinced. “Investments are useful and they provide great economic benefits. But this is not due to payment, but due to the development of adjacent territories. The paid basis allows you to compensate for operating costs, and these are quite significant costs. The construction of toll roads is necessary in order to separate local traffic and transit. Local residents use the local network, and transit travelers use toll roads. This meets the conditions for the rational use of the road network,” explained Sergei Zege.

The operation of toll sections should begin this year.

Let us note that, according to the regional government, in the Rostov region the not yet built 34-kilometer eastern bypass of Aksai, designed to relieve Rostov from the north and south, will be tolled. The new road with four lanes will begin in the area of km 1071, will go along the floodplain zone to the Don River, and will cross it approximately 3 km from the current Aksai Bridge - upstream. Then, across the Aksai River, you will pass the city itself, pass between the villages of Bolshoy Log and Rekonstruktor and enter the federal highway in the area of the turn to Novocherkassk.

Sergey Ivanov

"Don" will speed up the flow