Bridge crossing over the river. Oku on the Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod - Kazan expressway | Stroyproekt Institute JSC

The M-12 Vostok is an 805 km long expressway from Moscow to Kazan. The construction of the M-12 is provided for in the comprehensive plan for the modernization and expansion of the main infrastructure until 2024 as part of the construction of the Europe—Western China international corridor. The entire highway category is I-B. The number of lanes is 4-6. The construction is divided into 9 stages. Stroyproekt designs stages 0, 2, 3, 4 with a total length of 335 km.

The bridge crossing over the Oka River is being built as part of the 4th stage (km 224 — km 347) of the construction of the M-12 expressway on the border between the Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod regions near the city of Murom. The bridge crossing is the only cable—stayed bridge in the future M-12 Vostok Moscow— Nizhny Novgorod—Kazan highway, connecting the banks of the Oka River in the Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod regions.

The bridge crossing over the Oka River is designed to be 1377.6 m long. The superstructures are steel—reinforced concrete with a prefabricated monolithic slab. The 80- and 92-meter-high H-shaped pylons with vertical posts are connected by a spacer decorated with decorative elements. The color solutions of the highway, at the suggestion of the Customer, are based on the corporate color scheme of Avtodor Group, which is reflected in the architecture of the bridge crossing.

During the development of the design documentation, mathematical modeling of safe navigation of vessels was performed on the TRANSAS NTPro 5000 navigation simulator. Based on the results, conditions have been determined that ensure the following safe navigation conditions: the left-bank support should be located on the shore and should not fall into the riverbed; the safest location of the channel support corresponds to a span of 250 m. Thus, the optimal scheme of the bridge crossing with a combination of cable-stayed and girder systems was determined. Superstructures on both the riverbed and floodplain parts are steel—reinforced concrete; supports are on drilling piles; the total consumption of reinforced concrete is about 30 thousand m3, metal — about 7 thousand tons Plus 380 tons of shrouds made using monostrend technology.

The fourth stage of the M-12 Moscow — Nizhny Novgorod — Kazan became an effective experimental site in several important areas: For the first time in the practice of domestic bridge construction, during the construction of a monolithic channel support pylon on the Oka River, sliding formwork technology was used on the M-12, in which the processes of reinforcement, concreting, concrete maintenance and formwork movement were carried out continuously. This decision made it possible to reduce the time by more than 2.5 times: from 10 to 5.5 months. In addition, the cable-stayed system of the new bridge near Murom consists of more than half of domestic components, taking into account technologies, installation equipment and software products, the volume of import substitution exceeds 70%.

The bridge project also serves as an example of responsible design: when developing the architectural concept, it was necessary to take into account the nearby Murom Bridge, recognized in 2013 as the most beautiful bridge in Russia. The architectural solution of the new bridge is characterized by laconicism, constructive clarity, simplicity of composition, thoughtful construction technology and acceptable economic parameters. The bridge has 2 vertical double-column pylons, whose outlines fit well into the surrounding landscape. The unusual elements of the bridge between the pillars of the pylons create the image of an ellipse-shaped "portal" through which cars will move. The adopted architectural solutions create a seamless image of the structure from any point of observation, while the new bridge harmoniously combines with the Murom Bridge.

The construction of the most significant facility of the fourth stage, the unique cable—stayed bridge across the Oka River, is ahead of schedule: to date, the installation of all 17 bridge supports has been completed and the cables have been installed. The channel span of the bridge was closed at the end of May 2023. The state customer of the Civil Code Avtodor noted the highest construction rate at the fourth stage among all the construction stages of the M-12 according to the results of 2022. The launch of the entire fourth stage is scheduled for September 2023, almost a year ahead of the contract deadline.