Putin promised to St. Petersburg a park on the Neva embankment better than Zaryadye, and now he ordered to complete the court complex here

Buried billions

On the New Year, December 29, Vladimir Putin not only held a meeting with Alexander Lukashenko in his hometown, but also signed an order that puts the cross on the long -standing dream of Petersburgers on the creation of a city park near the Neva embankment between the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Strelka of Vasilyevsky Island. On the same day, on the basis of this order, the Presidential Affairs Management (UDP) entered into a contract for adjusting the project development project - for the return of the buildings of the Supreme Court.

The Russian BBC Russian Service, which reported the cancellation of the Park project promised by the guarantor in the election campaign of Alexander Beglov, drew attention to the appearance of this document. Smolny immediately made a refutation , assuring that the project of the Park "Cups of Buyan" is still relevant and "is in development." At what stage, who performs this work, at whose expense and in what volume they did not open. But they promised:

There will be a fountain, a publicly available underground parking and an underground passage. So, one must understand that the leadership of the cultural capital is now the main city park.

Background

The move of the Supreme Court to St. Petersburg was initiated by Vladimir Putin in 2012. The site on the banks of the Neva for the construction of the judicial quarter of the UDP received a year later. It was seized from VTB, which had permission to build the territory with an elite housing with an encumbrance in the form of a dance palace of Boris Eifman (Putin promised to build a theater since the 1990s to Baletmeister). The bank was paid from the budget 11.9 billion - compensation for an unrealized project and reimbursing the costs of stripping the territory from the Soviet buildings of the Applied Chemistry Institute, which was developing chemical weapons and missile fuel.

However, until recently, about 90 thousand cubic meters of construction waste and 690 thousand cubic meters of infected soil remained on the territory of the former gypsum.

The announced international competition for the best concept of the judicial quarter was won by the architect Maxim Atantz, but UDP for no explanation of the reasons took the project of the workshop of Yevgeny Gerasimov. Initially, it was assumed that the theater, court buildings, and housing for judges would be built on the site. However, in the spring of 2019, the concept changed: only the Dance Palace remains on the Petrograd side, the court buildings are transferred to the Smolny Council, and housing for judges-to Okhtu. Such a decision was explained exclusively by respect for the will of Petersburgers, who had long advocated for creating a gypch of the city park on the site.

The concept of a grandiose park - with an amphitheater for open -air productions, art galleries, concert and lecture venues - Governor Alexander Beglov showed Vladimir Putin (the presentation successfully coincided with the election campaign). The president approved the idea, noting that it could turn out "better than Zaryadye."

Subsequently, however, the governor lost the championship to the president himself: “It was the idea of ​​Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. He was written by the inhabitants of St. Petersburg. Like, the territory in the historical center of the city can be used more reasonably than to build a complex of buildings for the Supreme Court and housing for its employees there. Vladimir Vladimirovich arrived at the observation deck, from where an amazing panorama opened on the arrow of the Vasilievsky Island, the Hermitage, two bridges - Big Cupids and Birzheva, ”Beglov recalled .

-The president watched for three or four minutes and says: "Well, come on, show the project." Then he asks: “Why are you doing so?

It is necessary to push the territory from one bridge to another. And even wider. " He took the felt -tip pen and drew the whole thing, especially noting the place for the future park. Then he added after a short pause: “Now it seems good. Something must be done with the pit. Do not fall asleep, since they dug up. A concert hall may well be accommodated. Look for a solution. Consult with residents, they will tell you. ”

The pit, indeed, did not fall asleep. And they continued to dig, clog piles, pour concrete ... Mixing the execution of the contract on the public procurement website, the “new” recorded the acts of acceptance of work all subsequent years. Of the 35.7 billion (at 30%advances), they managed to pay the general contractor-the Presidential Administration-12.2 billion. With the actual fulfillment of obligations, only 2.7 billion managed.

Pre -election card

During all this time, the Basic Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 2016 on the construction of a complex of service and residential buildings of the Supreme Court and the Palace of Dance on this place has been canceled. The government of St. Petersburg also issued any documents indicating the change of the fate of this territory. The requests that the “new” sent to the UDP and Smolny - about the specific steps taken to implement the decision announced by Putin to give this territory to the city park - remained unanswered. What added arguments to skeptics, which initially saw in this story a trump card presented by Beglov for the elections.

Alexander Beglov himself first announced that the buildings of the Armed Forces and housing for judges would be built on the Smolny Embankment, on the site of the "garden on the Neva". This garden, with an area of ​​2.85 hectares, was excluded from the list of green spaces of public, despite the fierce protests of the townspeople. Then the understanding came that the site was crowded, and they found another place for the judicial housing - through the Neva, on Okhta.

In 2020, a couple of weeks before the elections, the governor again remembered the park near the arrows of the Vasilievsky Island, announcing that the “unique concept” would be selected for him according to the results of the international competition. His organization cost 90 million, won the tandem of the St. Petersburg Bureau Studio-44 Nikita Yavein and West 8 (Netherlands). The competitive task proceeded from the availability of the Palace of Dance on the territory of the only capital structure, and the park covered 9.9 hectares. At the same time, the pit and piles of the court complex did not go anywhere.

To the Neva - sideways, to the bushes - front

In the fall of 2019, construction projects were divided into two stages. The first is the Dance Palace with its underground parking and the building of the engineering and technical unit. The second is the buildings of the courts and the residential complex. The division made it possible (if it reaches the fulfillment of the president’s promise) to build the judicial part of the project in another place. The process of preparation for the “divorce” with judicial is reflected in two contracts for the adjustment of the design documentation (dated November 29, 2019 and December 20, 2021, aggregate 185 million). The second is very much like a document, drawn up retroactively: an impressive volume of design work is required not only to do, but also to coordinate with different departments in 10 days - until December 30. At the same time, the customer is obliged to pay it no later than the day before the end of the financial year, that is, right on the day of acceptance. And in the appendix to the December contract it is generally stipulated that the start of work is October , and they are allotted for three months.

But under the curtain last year, court buildings are again returned to the original place - to where Putin promised Megapark. This is reflected in the terms of reference to the third contract for the adjustment of the project (another 273 million). This contract was concluded on December 29, 2021 - on the basis of the president’s order from the same date.

According to the documentation of the contract, the buildings of the Supreme Court are returned to the Petrograd side. But not to the spot that was assigned to him by the initial project, but to the people standing out for residential buildings for judges. The terms of reference are ordered to put the buildings of the Supreme Court "on the foundation previously executed for the placement of the residential complex."

The question is "What, is it possible?" - Try it yourself to set business management, it did not answer the request of the “new”.

And the park would now be more correct to call a square. 5.7 hectares remain free from development (with a total area of ​​the site of 9.9 ha). At the same time, according to the terms attached to the contract, only 2.6 hectares are allocated to “parks, gardens, squares, boulevards”. And they still need to accommodate 4 children's physical education sites with an area of ​​375 to 800 square meters. m, bicycle paths and a walking alley (1380 p.), silt sites and drives, ponds and a fountain complex.

In fact, the promised park will be comparable to the district square and will be almost three times less than the metropolitan charge (13 hectares), which threatened to surpass.

For comparison - the area of ​​gardens and parks existing in the center of St. Petersburg:

• Petrovsky Park - 29 ha

• Aleksandrovsky Park - 14.7 ha

• Summer garden - 11.7 ha

• Mikhailovsky garden - 10 hectares

• Smolny's stalling garden - 7.6 hectares

Where and how the judges will live

Apparently, in order for the judges to get to work in a state of extreme landscaping, they were determined to live on the other edge of the city - the Sverdlovsk embankment on Okhta. Where and so eternal traffic jams. As, however, on the Petrograd side. So the path in both directions is nervous.

One hope for a pacifying view of the Smolny Cathedral is exactly opposite it, on the other side of the Neva, and two sites were allocated under 4 residential judges up to 10 floors high. For judges, 600 apartments will be built. Each house has an underground parking for 436 cars, in built-in premises-a grocery and non-food store, a bar for 20 seats and a cafe for 30, household services (laundry rooms, the repair of clothing and shoes, etc.). The territory of the residential complex will be fenced, and inside the recreation areas, children's playing and sports grounds, as well as places for storing bicycles, will be equipped. Each apartment should be “equipped with furniture, televisions, office equipment, household appliances, textile windows, flooring (carpets), dishes, kitchen equipment, cleaning equipment and bedding”.

Everything is thought out to the smallest detail. Here are just the approved plan for the planning of this territory, without which it is impossible to take up the design of houses. Yes, and the sections allotted for them are still in the ownership of the city - so it is not clear on what legal grounds the management of business concludes contracts for their development.

Petersburg is not a pity

In February 2020, meeting with Putin, the governor stated that the project of the city park near the arrows of the Vasilievsky Island will be implemented in 2–2.5 years. Recognizing that the undertaking is not cheap (the necessary investments were estimated at 6 billion rubles), the mayor pushed the mayor for unprecedented the scale of the idea: “Thanks again from all the inhabitants ... Even in Soviet times, no one could afford ...”

“For the federal budget, this is not so harmless,” the president nodded, but agreed generously. “It’s not a pity for Peter.”

In fact, it was “not sorry” to continue to pour billions into the pit and a pile field. According to the BBC, since 2017, this construction is carried out by the company SK SEGFAL LLC, affiliated with entrepreneur Evgeny Prigozhin. Earlier, that the related structures are engaged in the selection of subcontractors and personnel for this construction was also reported by the Kommersant newspaper. And it was the “segment” - as an organization “actually operating” on the construction site - in 2018, the regional department of the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection in 2018. The audit was carried out at the statements of citizens - after a scandal with attempts to remove the soil from the construction site to a landfill, not intended for waste of this hazard class.

The news of the return to the building by the judicial complex of the territory promised under the city park caused a reaction in the city, which is difficult to retell without the use of non -normative vocabulary. General refrain: “They lie how they breathe ... even in such a case as the organization of the park, they could not help but lie”, “The elections have already passed, they promise something else.”

The main trouble is that Petersburg irrevocably loses a chance to a worthy completion of the only undeveloped section of the main city space near the surface of the Neva. Could be a worthy ensemble with a park. And we get a wretched monument in vile time.