Which island is connected to the mainland by an iron bridge. Secrets of the mainland - Sakhalin tunnel. Eight thousand meters under water

This long and mysterious story is six decades old. If the events of that distant time had taken shape differently, today, perhaps, we would have celebrated the anniversary of one of the most grandiose construction projects on earth. More precisely, under water.

According to the testimonies and recollections of eyewitnesses that have come down to us, everything began in the distant 1950. The Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers adopted a closed resolution on exploration work on the railway line from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Pobedino on Sakhalin Island with the construction of a tunnel under the Tatar Strait.

Shortly before the adoption of an important state decision in March 1950, the first secretary of the Sakhalin regional committee of the CPSU (b) D.N. Melnik was urgently summoned to Moscow. Lost in conjecture about such an emergency call to the capital, Melnik was received by Comrade Stalin himself. The leader's question literally stunned the party leader of Sakhalin: "How do you look at the construction of a railway from the mainland to Sakhalin? .." But for Stalin, Melnik's opinion turned out to be unconvincing. Moreover, the decision to build the tunnel was almost ready.

On May 12, 1950, a special construction subdivision of the Ministry of Railways No. 6 was created for the construction of a tunnel to Sakhalin. It is mainly equipped with professional metro builders. According to various sources, more than three tens of thousands of qualified specialists worked there. In 1951, three options were proposed for laying the tunnel: the first - from Cape Lazarev to Cape Pogibi. The second - from Cape Sredny to Cape Pogibi. And the third - from Cape Muravyov to Cape Ouangi.

In accordance with the approved plan, the tunnel was to begin at Cape Sredny and go from the mainland in the direction of Cape Pogibi. Along this route, the length of its underwater part was about 8 kilometers - the narrowest point in the strait.

Besides the economic one, the construction of the tunnel was also an important military object. The mainland-to-island highway was virtually invulnerable.

Eight thousand meters under water

At the end of the 80s of the last century, being in those places at one of the border outposts, I heard a story that a few years ago a lonely old man lived nearby, a former prisoner of one of the camps, who with his own hands hammered the rocky soil under the foundation of the future tunnel. He told the border guards about the myriad of people who worked in the construction. According to him, in the early 1950s, shortly before the planned launch of the underground railway, locomotives with special trains stood under steam, ready to set off. But they were not destined to move on their way. Suddenly, an order came from Moscow to cancel the planned launch of the tunnel, and the work was curtailed. Frankly speaking, it was hard to believe in the authenticity of this story. The old man died, and his memories retold by the border guards were perceived as the plot of a fantastic story. It didn’t fit in the mind: how was it possible to conceal such a grandiose construction? Even if we take into account that the work was eventually curtailed, something must remain on the surface ...

Frankly, the topic of building a tunnel to Sakhalin excited me. Bit by bit, I began to collect any information, at least somehow related to it. Over time, it became possible to recreate individual pictures of the events of half a century ago. However, it was not possible to find detailed documents of that time. According to one of the versions, it became known that the construction of the tunnel at the initial stage was carried out by prisoners. When the adits under the base were pierced, the metro builders began to work. According to another version, to connect the narrowest section between the mainland and the island of Sakhalin, a second secret tunnel was being built. Mine adits in the area of ​​Cape Lazarev were made to divert the eyes. The real tunnel is to be found elsewhere. There was also a third option for connecting the mainland and the island - through a bridge crossing.

Some of the researchers of the Sakhalin tunnel theme consider it a myth. In their opinion, after a detailed study of the terrain, it is not difficult to guess: all the work was just a preparation, a kind of platform for the construction of giant dams, from which it was supposed to throw a bridge connection to the island. The dams were actually built.

After my publications on this topic in the naval newspaper, the editorial office received a letter from A. Balakirev:

“... In 1932, the motor ship“ Sevzaples ”was built in Leningrad. It was conceived as a timber carrier, but during the war it was converted to transport steam locomotives from America to Vladivostok. In 1940, the ship was engaged in the delivery of narrow-gauge steam locomotives and carriages from Japan to the island of Sakhalin. I worked on it.

In 1950 we arrived in Vladivostok. I remember they put us in a factory. They installed very strong wooden cages, on which rails were laid across the vessel, but of the usual width (the Sakhalin ones are 22 cm narrower).

At Cape Churkin, four unusual types of wagons were loaded onto these rails. Having secured them, we set off. Already at sea, the crew of "Sevzaples" learned that these cars - power trains - had arrived from Zaporozhye. They were equipped with 2-4 very powerful electric diesels. The delivery point is Cape Lazarev.

A few days later we arrived at the scene. The pier was not yet ready, but a railway line was approaching its edge. Reloading the wagons to the shore turned out to be time consuming, but everything was thought out to the smallest detail. The captain's senior mate Anatoly Dekhta commanded the "people."

We managed to find one more eyewitness testimony. The author of the memoirs - V. Smirnov:

“I served as an emergency in Sakhalin together with my bosom friend Kostya Kuzmin. We had little education: Kostya had 4 grades, I had 5, but at that time it was a lot. Kostya was a driver. Once he went AWOL and was absent for almost a month, for which he received 7 years as a deserter.

And so in January 1951 I receive a letter from him. He writes that he got to the great construction site of the century, makes a hole in the narrowest part of the Tatar Strait. The test takes one day as for three and a half.

Kostya wrote that 20 dump trucks each drove backwards in turn into the tunnel and so drove about 10 kilometers.

Two years later, for good work, Konstantin was released and sent home.

In his last letter from home, he wrote that the construction site was closed, water poured into the tunnel and everyone died there. "

According to some reports, the construction of the tunnel in conditions of special secrecy was started back in the early 40s. Even a railway was brought up to Cape Lazarev. But when the war began, the railroad track was dismantled. The rails were allegedly sent to the western regions of the country to restore the highways destroyed by the Nazis.

Flying over the alleged construction site of the tunnel with the helicopter pilots of the border troops, I was personally convinced that the embankments from the railway track remained, although time did not spare them: they settled, the earth crumbled, overgrown with bushes. How much water has flowed under the bridge since then ...

By the way, it's time to remember one more revelation. Mikhail Kozlov once told it to me:

“I worked at the 220th hydrometeorological observatory of the Pacific Fleet. The head was Y. Kogan, a caperang. We worked on special work. Then it was a secret (they gave a nondisclosure agreement). So many years have passed now that it seems we can talk about it. So, we were at a test site near Cape Pogibi on Sakhalin. This is where the beginning, or rather, the beginning of the railway line (or road) began. A dilapidated pier with laid rails stood near the shore. Near the shore, on the south side of the pier, there was a prison camp. When I arrived there, the prisoners were no longer there, but the landfill servants lived (they brought them in in the spring, they took them away in the late autumn). To the north of the camp, about 100-150 meters away, the second camp was located. It was dilapidated, and there were 5-6 graves with wooden crosses nearby. A dirt road ran straight from the pier to the east and ended at a large clearing the size of a football field. Behind it, an embankment began in one railway track and stretched in the direction of the city of Aleksandrovsk. Perhaps the crews of the Priamurye and Transbaikalia steamers, sailing along the coast, will help to shed light on the secret of the tunnel ... "

In 1993, I had the opportunity to meet with a former military engineer who was directly involved in the construction of the tunnel. A gray-haired veteran who wished not to give his last name, with the rank of colonel, said that there is no myth about the existence of the tunnel. "The tunnel has been built!" - he pronounced these words firmly, proudly recalling that this event happened long before the laying of the tunnel under the English Channel. “Our predecessors were talented. And when it was necessary to defeat the fascists, and when to create such a unique structure. " According to the veteran, unfortunately, a fatal mistake was made in the project. Its authors were flattered by the fact that the distance between capes Lazarev and Pogibi is the shortest, somewhere around 9 kilometers. And they missed a very important detail - the current in this narrowest place is quite strong. The water began to seep into the tunnel little by little. The builders did their best to rectify the situation, but the available funds did not allow it to be done. As a result, the construction site was mothballed, and after the death of Stalin it was completely turned off. On this score, there was a special government decree of May 26, 1953.

Half a century later

The connection of the mainland with the island of Sakhalin was already remembered during the modern history of Russia. In the mid-90s of the last century, I had the opportunity to meet Anatoly Chen, a man who was hatching the idea of ​​building a highway to Sakhalin.

In 1998, he was the author of the project for the construction of a bridge in the Nevelskoy Strait. In the very place where a secret facility was erected half a century ago - a tunnel to Sakhalin. Even at that time, Chen was trying to "push through" his project in the highest state authorities. Here is just one of the responses to his appeal from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation:

“In accordance with the instruction of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation dated January 21, 1998, your letter with the project for the construction of a bridge in the Nevelskoy Strait (Sakhalin Region) has been reviewed by the relevant departments of the RF Ministry of Defense.

We believe that with the commissioning of a multipurpose bridge connecting about. Sakhalin with the mainland, costs will be significantly reduced and the time for transporting goods for national economic and military purposes will be reduced, the stability of transport links in the region will increase and the defense and economic problems of the Far East will be solved more quickly.

At the same time, the project for the construction of this transition requires a comprehensive examination and technical and economic calculations with the participation of all interested ministries and departments of the Russian Federation, for which it is necessary to make an appropriate decision of the Government of the Russian Federation.

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation supports this project in general and is ready to participate in it at the stage of a military-economic feasibility study of the construction feasibility. Special requirements of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for the construction of a multipurpose bridge crossing may be presented during the approval of the design assignment. "

Already at the beginning of this century, the leadership of the Ministry of Railways addressed the topic of connecting the mainland and the island of Sakhalin. Nikolai Aksenenko proposed to complete the construction of the tunnel. And former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov was a supporter of another decision - to build a bridge to the island.

Not so long ago, during a working trip to the Far East, Russian Railways President Vladimir Yakunin said that in the period from 2011 to 2013, the construction of a bridge from the mainland to Sakhalin will begin. The project is of a state nature. From the point of view of transport unity, improving the life and work of Russians who live on Sakhalin, the head of Russian Railways noted, he should have the right to life.

The story of the tunnel to Sakhalin is connected not only with the secrets of the past, but also with unexpected versions of the connection of the island and the mainland in the foreseeable future. Along with the resumption of tunneling and the construction of a bridge, opinions are expressed about the creation of a transcontinental highway from Europe, across Russia through Sakhalin, to the island of Hokkaido. This topic is actively discussed today by both experts and amateurs. One can argue with the opinion of the parties, but the fact of the need to connect the mainland with the island is real, and there is no mystery in this.

KHABAROVSK, October 29 - RIA Novosti. The decision on whether the railway crossing from the mainland to Sakhalin will become a bridge or a tunnel is planned to be made in November 2019, according to the website of the government of the Khabarovsk Territory on Monday.

Earlier it was reported that a railway crossing is planned to be built across the Nevelskoy Strait between the Khabarovsk Territory and Sakhalin. The construction of the crossing is included in the comprehensive plan for the development of the main infrastructure of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2024, but it is planned with additional financial support, confirmation of the forecast cargo base and financing from extra-budgetary sources.

According to the regional government, the issues of construction of the Selikhin - Nysh line were discussed at the public council under the Ministry of Industry and Transport of the region.

"To date, the analysis of the selected route of the railway route continues, a detailed study of the territory is underway to make sure that there are no unexplored communications, and the interests of the population are taken into account as much as possible. It is also unclear what the transition will be: will it become a bridge or a tunnel, it will be decided in November 2019. . The preliminary cost of the project is 540 billion, it is planned that construction will begin in 2021, "the statement says.

It is specified that the line will pass through the settlements of the Khabarovsk Territory and the Sakhalin Region: the villages of Yagodny, Lazarev, Pogibi, the villages of Tsimermanovka, De-Kastri and Nysh. The total length of the route will be about 585 kilometers.

It is also reported that with the construction of the crossing, there will be a need to adjust the second stage of the reconstruction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM), the load on which will increase. It is also necessary to provide the new railway line with power supply. It is possible to build a high-voltage transmission line with the integration of the isolated power systems of Sakhalin and Nikolaevsk-on-Amur.

The question of building a stationary ferry to Sakhalin has been repeatedly raised since the middle of the 20th century. The project of a tunnel between Sakhalin and the mainland was conceived back in the 50s of the last century, but then it did not work out. In 2007, the issue of connecting the banks with a bridge or a tunnel was raised again. In June 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted the importance of the transition for the residents of Sakhalin, and in September he indicated that the implementation of the project would significantly unlock the potential of the island's ports, but it is necessary to understand the volume of traffic. Design solutions for the construction of the transition to Sakhalin are being prepared by Dalgiprotrans specialists; in the summer they started work in the Ulchsky district of the Khabarovsk Territory.

The XX century was a time of incredible breakthroughs of mankind, innovative technical solutions that divided the world into 2 parts: the primitive past with wooden carriages and the digital future, to which the inventors were striving so much, bringing its discovery closer to discovery.

The USSR accounted for a large number of tremendous achievements of technical progress, often the country was in one or another industry "first in the world." However, there were large-scale projects in the Soviet Union classified as "secret", which for some reason could not be fully implemented, and they remained on the drawings or the initial stage of construction. One of these "construction projects of the century" was the tunnel to Sakhalin (photo and information about it - in the article).

The history of the idea and the first idea

The earliest mentions of connecting Sakhalin Island with the mainland by transport (not air) date back to the end of the 19th century. However, then the idea was quickly rejected due to the lack of the required amount of funds, as well as due to inexpediency from an economic point of view. The next time the topic on Sakhalin was raised at the turn of the 20-30s. of the last century, and again the idea was not crowned with anything. And so, at the beginning of 1950, they started talking about the crossing again, this time - in earnest, officially and in the very main office of the country.

Comrade Stalin

Iosif Vissarionovich personally came up with the idea. It was supposed to be a railway connection by erecting a bridge or a tunnel to Sakhalin. At about the same time, the first secretary of the Sakhalin Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) D. N. Melnik was urgently summoned from Sakhalin to Moscow. Of course, the diplomat collected all reports on the situation in the region and the ongoing work, but he did not know the real reason for such an urgent call. However, Comrade Melnik had nothing to worry about, because his presence at the meeting held on March 26, 1950 within the Kremlin walls had become a formality. The question of whether to build a tunnel or not had already been decided positively, and at that moment when Stalin had just thought about it.

The purpose of the meeting was to order the development of the project. And yet the question came from the mouth of the leader. After listening to Melnik's report, Joseph Vissarionovich asked: "What is your attitude to connecting Sakhalin with the mainland by rail?" The dumbfounded secretary, of course, knew what not to say, but nevertheless tried to hint to Stalin that construction would require colossal resources, both human and monetary. Needless to say, the leader perceived Melnik's answer as "unconvincing" ... Can you imagine what the regional secretary had to say to Stalin in order to be convincing, and at the same time carry his head on his shoulders? The question is rhetorical.

Mystery of the century

The practical part of the grandiose construction was not long in coming, and on May 5, 1950, the USSR Council of Ministers issued a secret decree on the construction of the Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Pobedino railway line, of which the tunnel to Sakhalin Island was to become a part. The secrecy was due not only to the fact that the implementation of such an idea in the 50s was on the verge of something fantastic, the secret also covered the strategic component of the construction site. Indeed, from a military point of view, the tunnel section of the highway would be a very profitable object, being an invulnerable "artery". In particular, the decree included a clause prescribing the mandatory construction of false landmarks for an imaginary tunnel within a radius of 50 kilometers from the construction of the present tunnel.

Project

Events developed very rapidly, and in September the USSR Council of Ministers approved the technical regulations for the design and construction of the Stalinist tunnel to Sakhalin with the adjacent railways. On the Sakhalin side, the project track length was 327 kilometers. The beginning of the tunnel was supposed to be in the area of ​​Cape Pogibi. While on the mainland it was planned to build a railway from Cape Lazarev to the station "Selikhin", which is near Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Accordingly, the tunnel itself was supposed to connect the points of the island and the mainland closest to each other, its length according to the project was about 10 kilometers. The cost of the grandiose construction was estimated at 723 million rubles. The deadlines for carrying out the work were set very severe. According to the plan, the first loaded train was supposed to pass through the tunnel at the end of 1955, and this despite the fact that detailed engineering studies, as well as geological surveys on the territory of the future tunnel were not carried out. However, in those days it was not customary to discuss orders from above, which means that the approved project had to be implemented on time, regardless of what human and material resources would be required for this.

Who carried out the construction, and in what conditions was the implementation

Let's go back a little. Literally a week after the secret decree was issued, on May 12, 2 divisions were created under the code names "Construction 506" and "Construction 507", with centers on both sides, in Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinsky and De-Kastri, respectively. To implement the construction and laying of the tunnel itself, a special division was formed, which was called "Construction No. 6 of the USSR Ministry of Railways".

The construction brigades, which were to lay out the railway tracks to the tunnel, consisted mainly of prisoners from the Gulag, while Construction No. 6 included military, parole, hired specialists, as well as engineers sent by assignment. Due to the catastrophically short time frame, the first stages of implementation began as soon as the prisoners were brought to the scene. The project had not yet been finalized, and sometimes the builders simply had nowhere to live. However, when housing and basic conditions appeared, it did not become sweeter. Everything was equipped, as if people were brought in for a week, and not for 5 years. Plywood, tent-type buildings, which often had leaking roofs, the lack of an adequate number of dining rooms, warm clothes, baths and washstands created the conditions of a real hard labor. Dirt and dampness in the barracks often led to the fact that workers fell ill with scurvy. Not surprisingly, as a result of all this, the mortality rate among prisoners was high.

What we managed to build

Stalin personally supervised the implementation of his idea, periodically calling from the Kremlin and reminding the construction managers of the timing and their personal responsibility. However, Joseph Vissarionovich was not destined to see the grandiose idea brought to life. year it became known about the death of the leader. By that time, about 120 kilometers of the railway had been built on the mainland side, at the site of the supposed beginning of the tunnel (Cape Lazarev), it was possible to dig the shaft of a mine, and an artificial island was poured at a distance of 1.5 kilometers from the coast. On the Sakhalin side, for almost 3 years, it was not possible to build even a kilometer of railway lines. This is due to worse working conditions than on the mainland. All that we managed to do was an unpaved road with the message "Die - Nysh".

The fate of the tunnel

Together with Stalin, the implementation of a large-scale project died, which, if successfully completed, could become one of the most significant world events of the 20th century. In 1953, a massive amnesty was announced, during which the Construction 506 division very quickly lost a significant amount of its workforce.

However, the main reason for the freezing, and subsequently the termination of construction, was the statement of the Minister of Internal Affairs L.P. Beria, which stated that the construction of large-scale projects, such as railways and enterprises, was not caused by the needs of the national economy. The USSR Council of Ministers approved the application, and on May 20 of the same year the construction of the Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Pobedino railway line was completely closed. The project collapsed with the same lightning speed as it was deployed.

Memories of the participants

The most famous published memory of the construction of the Sakhalin tunnel belongs to Yu. A. Koshelev. Then, during the implementation works, he was a young engineer sent out on assignment and was acting as a master of the main works. In his statement, Yuri Anatolyevich enthusiastically narrates about the large construction plans and is very sorry that the gigantic project has sunk into oblivion. He tells how, after Stalin's death, they wrote to Moscow, literally begging for permission for further work. And if there were about 12 construction brigades in the subordination of Koshelev, then how interesting it would be to read the memoirs of ordinary workers forced to live and work in inhuman conditions! Would they be just as happy to tell us about the "construction of the century"? Again a rhetorical question.

More than 60 years later

Today, communication between Sakhalin Island and the "mainland" is still carried out only by aircraft and a ferry. Of course, such funds are unlikely to cope with the transport load of the region. However, there is no evidence that the construction of the tunnel to Sakhalin will be resumed. There is only a project, according to which the connection of the island with the mainland will be bidirectional. There is no timeline for the implementation of this project.

Sakhalin MPs have asked the president to build a bridge between the island and the Russian mainland. They calculated that the crossing by 30-50% will reduce the cost of goods delivered to Sakhalin, increase the attractiveness of the region for tourists, help the development of the Far East and stimulate cooperation with the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The experts interviewed by "360" told what hinders the construction and how earthquakes, which are frequent in the region, can affect it.

The deputies considered the issue of addressing President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at a meeting of the Regional Duma. “The appeal to the president and the prime minister was prepared by the deputies of all factions together with the relevant ministries, showing complete unanimity on this issue, which is important for our region,” explained the speaker of the regional parliament. Andrey Khapochkin.

During his speech, Governor Oleg Kozhemyako noted that after the construction of the bridge, construction costs in the region will decrease by 30% - it is this share of the cost that is taken by the delivery of building materials to the island. According to him, the relevance of the construction of the crossing matured back in the 1930s.

“The importance of the bridge can hardly be overestimated. The construction of the bridge will help solve the problem of transport accessibility of the island region, which has been forming for decades, and in some cases reduce prices by up to 50%. The benefits will affect all spheres of the region's economy, ”Khapochkin added.

Over 15 thousand tons of flour, 300 tons of potatoes, 40 thousand tons of feed for animals and poultry and 500 tons of equipment are delivered to Sakhalin annually. However, due to weather, ferries do not operate for about 40 days a year, and supply disruptions often pose, for example, a threat to the operation of bakeries.

Russian Railways is currently re-equipping the Sakhalin narrow-gauge railway to the standard all-Russian gauge. Also, experts are engaged in design and survey work to determine what is better to build in the region: a bridge or a tunnel.

“The implementation of such a large-scale project will undoubtedly have a multiplier effect on all related sectors of the economy and spheres of state activity, and will lead to a significant increase in tax revenues,” said Deputy Chairman of the Regional Duma Alexander Ivashov.

The Kremlin has already commented on the appeal. Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the issue should be carefully discussed with experts. “I don’t think anyone can give an unambiguous answer to this question, because it’s a matter of economic expediency. And, of course, this issue should be preliminarily worked out by experts within the government, the cabinet of ministers, taking into account all the many aspects, ”the Kremlin spokesman emphasized.

Since 1973, the island has been connected to the mainland by the Vanino - Kholmsk ferry line. However, in winter, the Tatar Strait freezes over, and ferries cannot cope with the thick ice.

Sakhalin tunnel

For the first time, the idea of ​​building a tunnel through the Tatar Strait was put forward at the end of the 19th century. At that time, the population of the Far East was relatively small, and the idea was abandoned - no economic benefit was found in it. At the end of the 1920s, the Soviet government took up survey work, but that was all.

In 1950, Joseph Stalin proposed to build a railway to Sakhalin. As a result, they decided to build both a tunnel from Cape Lazarev to Cape Pogibi on the island, and a reserve ferry.

The length of the road on the island was supposed to be 327 kilometers with a branch to the ferry station, the tunnel part between the capes - 10 kilometers. On the mainland, the branch was supposed to reach the Selikhin station on the Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Sovetskaya Gavan section, also with a branch to a temporary ferry crossing.

The completion of construction was scheduled for the end of 1953, and the launch of the line in operation - at the end of 1955. Eight thousand GULAG prisoners, civilian workers and military personnel, freed from corrective labor, were engaged in the construction. After the death of Stalin and the amnesty of the prisoners, work on the project was stopped.

During construction in the Khabarovsk Territory, they managed to build 120 kilometers of the railway. A mine shaft was dug on Cape Lazarev, and an artificial island was poured 1.6 kilometers from the coast. In the Sakhalin region, they managed to carry out earthworks and cut down the forest, after the cessation of construction, a dirt road was laid there for the timber industry.

Resumption of work

In 2008, the Sakhalin authorities again raised the issue of transport links between the island and the mainland. According to experts, the cost of the work would be 350-400 billion rubles. In April, the project of a railway bridge across the Nevelskoy Strait to Cape Lazarev passed the approval stage. At the same time, Dmitry Medvedev instructed to work out the proposals for the timing and estimate the cost of the project.

A few months later, the experts responsible for the feasibility study concluded that the most profitable would be the construction of a bidirectional railway bridge and laying a branch to Selikhin station on the Baikal-Amur Mainline to Nysh station on Sakhalin with a length of 585 kilometers.

It was proposed to choose the transition from the mainland to Sakhalin from three options: a tunnel under the strait 12.4 kilometers long, a 16-kilometer embankment dam or a 6.6 kilometer long bridge.

In June last year, answering a question about the crossing during the Direct Line, Vladimir Putin said that the decision to start construction and the option of connecting Sakhalin with the mainland had not yet been made. However, in November, the presidential envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District, Yuri Trutnev, said that the construction issue was "practically resolved." And ex-Minister of Transport Maxim Sokolov said that the design of the bridge will begin in 2018, and its construction will start no earlier than 2021. The project cost was estimated at 540.3 billion rubles, half of the funds will be spent on the construction of the bridge. In terms of a kilometer of construction, the project will cost 3.5 times more than the crossing in Crimea.

"Business showed no interest"

Aleksandr Vasiliev, a member of the State Duma Committee on Transport and Construction, told 360 that Sakhalin deputies came to Moscow five years ago and talked about the importance of building a bridge. But in Russia there are many places where it is necessary to build the same important and complex structures - for example, across the Lena River in Yakutsk.

“The task is to make it not just a structure. It is important that the business that plans to use it can guarantee an increase in traffic. That is, so that the invested funds become returnable. Now there is a ferry going to Sakhalin, only bad weather prevents it - and [this] connection is almost year-round, ”the parliamentarian said.

With the Crimea, the situation was different: because of the active road traffic, the ferries simply could not cope, in addition, the question of the development of the territories was acute. And the willingness of investors and tourists to invest in the region was limited by the infrastructure framework. That is why the Crimean Bridge was number one on the list.

“Now, I think, there will be competition for such projects. For example, residents of Sochi are asking to build a direct road to Maikop, and not for hours across the coast and along serpentines. Therefore, in the situation with the Sakhalin bridge, you need to look at the rationale for the construction: will its appearance affect the development of the region, will it serve as an impetus for development, or it can be built when “extra money” appears, added Vasiliev.

In addition, the deputy reminded, the problem of road congestion is also observed in Central Russia. The President has already instructed to work out the options and unload federal highways in the next five to six years, leaving no more than 10% of problem areas. And this, again, implies the construction of overpasses, bridges and detours around cities.

“Therefore, here they will already decide who needs the bridge - the Yakuts or the Sakhalin people, for example. Whether the business will invest in the construction to confirm interest in the bridge and ensure its use. So far, business has not shown its interest, ”Vasiliev said.

Construction in five years

MADI associate professor Aleksey Ageev explained to "360" that at present, the construction of bridges is possible in almost any conditions. Science and technology have reached such a high level that there are "no obstacles" to construction.

“If the request of the deputies is satisfied, then together with the design and construction work, the construction would take at least five years. But this is very rough. Because design work will take a year, construction of supports and foundations will take at least two years, ”he said.

The expert explained that bridges are always needed if people live on the skeletons who are forced to get to the mainland and back using ferries and other floating facilities. If the island is large and densely populated, then the bridge will act as a catalyst for economic development, since it will reduce the cost of cargo delivery and speed up transport links.

“This is noticeable even when building bridges across rivers. And here is the island. Naturally, development will go up there, ”the expert concluded.

However, it is too early to talk about the exact cost of the project and the beginning of transport links. For example, a bridge between the Japanese islands of Honshu Shikoku, four kilometers long, has been designed since 1978, and built for 10 years. Its construction at prices at the end of 1995 was approximately $ 1.5 billion. “And here the project is much bigger,” concluded Ageev.

Survive earthquakes

Alexei Zavyalov, Head of the Laboratory of Continental Seismicity and Seismic Hazard Forecasting at the Institute of Physics of the Earth, Russian Academy of Sciences, also confirmed that bridges can be built "anywhere, at any level of seismic hazard." But when designing for all structures, it will be necessary to lay a high margin of safety so that the structure withstands not only those earthquakes that have already been recorded in the region, but also more serious ones. The same goes for storms and possible tsunamis.

In addition, he noted, one should not forget about the constant maintenance of the bridge. With regular checking of its structures for deformations, all data should be automatically recorded by the equipment. And the seismicity on Sakhalin is an order of magnitude higher than in the Crimea and the Black Sea coast. Therefore, the cost of the project per kilometer of travel will certainly cost more than in the Crimea.

After the impressive Crimean Bridge, erected in record time and becoming a real "construction site of the century", the construction of transport arteries throughout Russia did not stop. The next ambitious project is the construction of a bridge or tunnel road to Sakhalin. The need for it is caused, first of all, by the too high costs of delivering goods across the ocean, because of which life on the island is much more expensive than on the mainland.

If the government makes a positive decision, the start of work is scheduled for 2021 ",

The justification of these expenses raises doubts among experts. Some believe that it is advisable to build a bridge only if it is subsequently extended to Japanese Hokkaido. Thus, Japan will receive a direct overland access to European countries through the Trans-Siberian Railway, which will be beneficial for both the Japanese and Russian economies. This opinion was expressed by the head of the "Infoline-Analytica" company Mikhail Burmistrov.

On the other hand, as the associate professor of the department "Bridges, tunnels and building structures" of MADI Aleksey Ageev noted in an interview with Constantinople, "there are no unnecessary bridges." Despite the fact that the construction of a bridge to Sakhalin will be several times more expensive than to the Crimea.

There are completely different conditions, sizes, distances - everything is different, on a much larger scale. And in terms of construction time, everything is much more complicated and longer. This bridge will be built for at least 10 years. But this is normal practice. "

The expert considers.

Ageev cited the Japanese Akashi-Kaikyo bridge between the islands of Honshu and Shikoku as an example. Its length is only 4 km, and the length of the central span is 1990 meters. However, the design of the bridge alone took 15 years, and construction took another 12. The project cost was 500 billion yen, that is, more than 280 billion rubles. And this is without taking inflation into account - the Japanese bridge was being built back in the late 1990s.

In world practice, there are other examples of the construction of such bridges. For example, you can recall the Danish Great Belt Bridge with a length of almost 7 km and a cost of more than 21 billion Danish kroner (207 billion rubles).

Thus, the cost of the construction of the Sakhalin Bridge indicated by the specialists of Russian Railways and the timing of the project are quite consistent with world analogues (recall that the construction of the bridge itself requires 252.8 billion rubles).

In addition, at the beginning of such construction, there is a prospect of continuing it towards Japan, which, according to experts, will give a tangible positive economic effect. And of course, the overland road to Sakhalin will reduce the cost of delivering all kinds of cargo, as well as strengthen the island's geopolitical ties with mainland Russia.