Excavator without archaeologists. Garbonical defenders demand to stop concreting the Vologda River embankment

In Vologda, a project for the reconstruction of the embankment of the VI Army from the bridge of the 800th anniversary to Gogol Street is being implemented. The result of work should be a continuous concreting of the green banks of the Vologda River. The residents themselves learned that the workers reached the embankment that the workers were planned: there were no announcements, warnings and discussions. Architects and city defenders claim that the reconstruction is illegal and deprives the embankment of historical landscapes.

Concrete shore without descent to water

The design documentation for the reconstruction of the Vologda River embankment was developed back in 2013. The development of the coastal security project was engaged in the Vologodavtodor company. In 2018, according to the Federal Target Program (FCP) “Development of the Water Facilities of the Russian Federation in 2012–2020”, 265.2 million rubles were allocated for the improvement of the embankment. The only participant appeared for the reconstruction competition - the Vologda construction company Magistral. In the end, she got in a row.

The project of reconstruction of the embankment is divided into two phases - coastalization and improvement. Now the contractor is working at the first stage - it was on him that funds were allocated from the federal budget. Coastal intensification involves total concreting of the river coast, the destruction of the green landscape and subsequently - the restriction of access to the river. The design documentation states that after concreting the embankment will be sure to be landscaped - we are talking about a pedestrian path and lanterns. At the same time, coastal is not even provided for by descent to water.

Close -defenders and architects doubt the advisability of rolling the embankment to concrete. In particular, the architect Lev Anisimov told 7x7 that there is no risk of destruction of the coast on gentle slopes at all:

- Studies have shown that the river did not change the configuration of its channel for hundreds of years, this means that there is no tendency to blur the coast (except for the part where the river changes the angle of current). Strengthening is required only in the zone of the steep coast. Where a gentle shore, it is absolutely pointless.

According to the project, it is planned that the entire area of ​​the embankment with a length of 2.8 kilometers with gentle, straight and steep slopes will be rolled into concrete. This issue has alreadybeen raised in a group of local architects, city -defenders and residents of the city of Urbanvologda. In early April, an interview was published there with a candidate of geological sciences, an assistant professor of the Vologda State University (VOG) Anatoly Trufanov. The expert said that monolithic concreting will cause an increase in groundwater level and landslide processes. Later, the information was confirmed by other specialists.

According to the graduate of the program “Architects of the Russian Federation” Lev Vladova, today's project does not have the right to exist. He talked about this in one of the video statements published in the group "Urbanvologda". The city defenders connected the problems of specialists from other cities to discuss the problem of the network, where the governor Oleg Kuvshinnikov was spreading on the network, about the embankment of “Gundy Gundy Critics”.

City defenders indicate that the provisions of the project violate the rules of land use and development of the city of Vologda . At the same time, some Vologda people believe that if the coastal is not fulfilled, then the embankment will be an unclean space with garbage and bushes - the city administration often also uses this argument. The city defenders want to tell the Vologda people about more gentle methods of improvement and about the uselessness of the work ongoing work.

"The whole city of Vologda will be flooded"

Concreting threatens the preservation of cultural heritage monuments, city -defenders are sure. The threat is that water with precipitation enters the ground and is naturally taken into the river. The concrete slab will block the output of precipitation, which is why the level of groundwater can rise. At the same time, the foundation of the church of Dmitry Prilutsky, erected in 1651, is in the ground. The architectural monument is threatened by the flooding of the surrounding area. According to the restorer Alena Sidorova, cracks have long appeared on the church building. At the same time, when the river was torn, precipitation in the period of March and April fell into the ground.

- The fact that the church must be monitored is not news for restorers. It is not clear how the foundation will behave if the coast is now put concrete, ”Sidorova“ 7x7 ”told.

There are several such monuments along the highway, and some of them have long been concerned with specialists. And the progress of the foundation caused by a change in groundwater regime can lead to collapse. Coastal work should include the construction of a special system that replaces natural drainage. According to the conclusions of the Vologda hydrogeologists , in the case of the embankment, this is not provided. Trufanov explained this question in the aforementioned interview:

- Initially, the levels of groundwater on the Left Bank of Vologda were close to the day surface, and this is well known to the Vologda refiner and builders. The construction of a reinforced concrete monolithic slab is actually the creation of a barrage for soil water unloading into the river. This will lead to the underground of groundwater, the activation of suffusion and subsequent landing processes.

At one of the city -protective workshops dedicated to the problem of the reconstruction project of the embankment, the professor and candidate of architecture Alexander Malinov spoke . He confirmed fears about the drainage system:

- What is happening now? The whole city of Vologda will be flooded. There were closed holes for water. How can you work without restorers and research? Now the drainage system has been plugged. Water will appear in the basements everywhere, there will be a capillary suction. The buildings will begin to evaporate water through the walls.

"The project does not have a mandatory section"

Along the Vologda River embankment there are nine regional monuments and five federal cultural heritage sites. Each of them has a territory approved by a separate order. According to the Law “On Cultural Heritage City Heritage (Monuments of History and Culture) of the Peoples of the Russian Federation” (No. 73-ФЗ), if any work crossing this territory is underway, then the project documentation should include the section “Measures to ensure the safety of the monuments”. This section is agreed with the Monument Protection Committee and undergoes a separate examination.

So far, the design documentation takes into account only the “cultural layer of the Zarechny part of the city of Vologda of the XV - XVII centuries” (a monument of archeology), and there is no talk of architecture monuments, despite the fact that many of them are in unsatisfactory condition. This section should be developed in relation to 13 monuments, urban defenders say. Alena Sidorova raised this issue at a meeting of the round table “River Time. Problems of reconstruction of historical embankments on the example of the city of Vologda ":

- The project does not have a mandatory section on ensuring the safety of cultural heritage objects in relation to architectural monuments (there is a corresponding section only in relation to the archeology monument), although the territory of the work is associated with land plots within the boundaries of the territories of the corresponding monuments.

Olga Simukhina, Deputy Chairman of the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of the Vologda Region, replied that the section “Measures to ensure the safety of monuments” can only be requested only when the areas of work crosses the territories of cultural heritage (OKN). According to her, the areas in the coastal zone are not related to the territories of the window.

The absent section was to calculate the load and evaluate the permissibility of work. According to the project, the contractor had to install the piles for the lower stop using a hydraulic press. And in fact, throughout the embankment, these piles were driven in the usual way, as a result of which tiles fell off on one of the shores in the “firewood” cafe in the basement. It is not known how this procedure influenced the churches of the 17th century, but Simukhina during the meeting refuted fears on this score:

- In April 2019, monitoring the state of the window located on the embankment of the VI Army was carried out. The deterioration of the state of objects in connection with the coastalization work during the audit was not recorded. There are no grounds for suspension of work and amending the project. These works do not distort the historical open species of the city of Vologda and do not violate the perception of the most valuable objects. The threat of the safety of the window located along the embankment is currently absent.

"Work is performed at monstrously low level"

The territory on which work is underway falls into the zone of archaeological heritage. The archaeologist should follow the procedures, but all excavation work was carried out in the winter. Conducting full -fledged research, while the soil is perzed, is almost impossible. During the month of the winter, 2.8 kilometers were torn, and then the flood came and began to wash off this soil. If you go along the embankment now, you can see the remains of clay ceramics and bricks, which immediately fell into the river in the spring.

- There is a section in the project that prescribes archaeological observations. The section is made extremely poorly, but archaeological work is not carried out even according to him. How much I was on the embankment, the excavator always worked unaccompanied by archaeologists. Although the law should be full -fledged archaeological supervision, which involves a lot of procedures, ”Lev Anisimov told 7x7.

The embankment concreting project was ordered and agreed upon during the leadership of the city administration Evgeny Shulepov in 2013. Three years later, the official was elected State Duma as a deputy. In the winter of 2019, the deputy admitted that if we are talking about projects of this kind, then even only public hearings alone. But this remark about the need to adjust the project as a result did not affect anything.

Vologda people achieve a reaction from the authorities. The project did not go through a wide public discussion, and this caused protests, pickets and rallies among citizens. The city defenders developed the website of Vologdarek.rf, created the VKontakte groups. Vologda architects, ecologists and hydrogeologists have joined the community advocating the project.

- We advocate for the stop of work, a change in the method of coastal, and for discussion with residents of the city of the landscaping project. Concreting of three kilometers of the coast of Zarechye kills picturesque species of green Vologda and destroys the ecosystem. In addition, work is performed at a monstrously low level, ”Olga Smirnova, coordinator of the city -protection movement“ Real Vologda ”, told 7x7.

Minus three green meters

While work is underway, the city defenders are monitoring the activities of the contractor LLC Magistral. Such violations as driving piles, discharge into the construction garbage river, as well as exceeding the lower and upper marking of the groter, have already been recorded. The lower emphasis should not be visible from the water, and the upper one was also planned below the slope by 70 centimeters. The contractor overestimated both marks and deprived the embankment of about three meters of greenery, activists say. Later, the mayor of the city of Vologda Sergey Voropanov instructed to dismantle the upper part of the stone sketch. The next day, the city defenders noticed how workers remove concrete slabs, and then fill new ones. Olga Smirnova explains:

- Only a number of plates of 2.5 meters were removed. This does not make the weather. Lower grillage is overstated.

The struggle for the embankment

It was originally planned that the coastal is completed by August. Now the work is suspended due to the weather: due to prolonged rains, the water level exceeded the grillage. Vologda residents want them to be heard. The architect Nadezhda Snigirev explained “7x7” that now that almost all of concrete is flooded, the urban residents insist on dismantling.

The working group has prepared ideas to adjust the project. City defenders are confident that their proposals will allow you to preserve the embankment of modern and green. Experts are asked to abandon the existing technology of coastal reinforcement (according to them, the concreting method is outdated 50 years ago), restore landscaping, organize safe descents to the water and comply with the requirements of urban planning and environmental protection norms and legislation on the protection of cultural heritage objects.

In early August, the first open project workshop was held in the Union of Architects “What should the Vologda embankment be become?”. Specialists, together with active Vologda, prepared an alternative technical task to strengthen the banks of the Vologda River.

The Vologdarek.rf website has been conducting a chronology of the struggle for the embankment since August 2018. Activists organized meetings with the mayor, round tables , held meetings of the public council, sent letters to the governor. On July 24, a rally “For the Green Embankment” was held , which came about 1000 people.

Activists prepared a public task for the development of the Vologda River embankment based on the results of several discussions, namely, a design workshop from caring Vologda architects and a series of Vorkshopes from the Vologda administration.