Sobyanin says Kutuzovsky Prospekt northern alternate is almost complete

Moscow is wrapping up construction of the northern relief road for its Kutuzovsky Prospekt, being one of the major road projects.

“The main works are coming to the end on Moscow’s new outbound motorway — the northern relief road of Kutuzovsky Prospekt, which, of course, is a long-awaited event by hundreds of thousands of Muscovites and residents of the Moscow Region,” said Sergei Sobyanin when inspecting the motorway under construction.

Started in 2019, the construction project was run under a concession agreement that was concluded in 2014 by and between the Moscow Government and New Concession Company JSC. The private investment will total more than RUB 60 billion, thus marking the city’s largest concession agreement both in terms of construction costs and project scale.

The new six-lane road runs from the Moscow City business center and the Third Ring Road (TRR) to the interchange at the intersection of the Moscow Ring Road (MKAD) and Molodogvardeyskaya Street to project further towards the northern byroad around the city of Odintsovo, Moscow Region.

With the alternative route from the M-1 highway to Moscow City, excess mileage will be reduced by more than three kilometers, while the travel time will be less down to an average of 30 minutes.

The motorway’s total length, with exits and 17 artificial structures, is almost 22 kilometers, including primary traverse (with three overhead roads, an overpass across Minskaya Street and a bridge across the Moskva River) of about 10 kilometers. For the convenience of residents, engineers have created two underground pedestrian crossings — nearby Rabochy Posyolok and Fili stations of the first Moscow Central Diameter (MCD-1).

“Parapet painting, asphalt carpeting, road markings, installing of traffic signs, noise screens, lighting poles, and arranging connection to electric lines are at the final stage. Together with colleagues from the Department of Transport, we are testing traffic management software and hardware and a toll collection system. We are actively cooperating with our colleagues at the municipal service complex to improve the nearby area,” said Denis Yanev, Director of New Concession Company JSC.

In order to mitigate the impact of the future highway on the surrounding neighborhoods, workers have built a northern relief road along the MCD-1 railway tracks (the Smolenskoye line of the Moscow Railway). Almost 50 per cent of the route cover sophisticated artificial structures, such as:

— an overhead road for the main roadway from the MKAD to the Rabochy Posyolok station (1.96 km), which is one of the largest in Moscow;

— an overhead road for the main roadway across Rublyovskoye Highway and railway tracks (700 meters);

— a bridge across the Moskva River (330 meters);

— an overhead road at the junction with the main road running around Odintsovo (310 meters);

— an overpass across Minskaya Street (90 meters); and

— overhead roads/exits at the intersection of the MKAD and the Molodogvardeiskaya transport interchange, Kutuzovsky Prospekt, North-Western Chord and Shelepikhinskaya Embankment (more than 2.5 kilometers).

It is supposed to be a toll road featuring a Free Flow barrier-free toll system. The fare will be automatically debited from prepaid transponders. If there is no transponder, payment can be made after driving either via the Parking Lots of Russia mobile app or on mos.ru. The system will enable faster traffic and help avoid congestion of vehicles at payment points, which, in turn, will reduce harmful emissions.

Maxim Liksutov, Deputy Moscow Mayor for Transport, added that everything had been done for the convenience of motorists as they would be able to pay without a hitch and drive along the motorway all right.

“It is for the first time that we use such an intelligent toll collection system there with no barriers – there will be nothing there. Drivers will be able to pay through all city tools, such as the Parking Lots of Russia app, mos.ru, Yandex navigator, and Sberbank.Online. This will be the most advanced fare system in the world,” Deputy Mayor added.

Overpasses, a junction and a crossing: enabling connectivity with the city

To integrate the northern relief road of Kutuzovsky Prospekt into the city’s transport network, the Moscow Government is building adjacent facilities that will ensure the motorway’s connection with nearby streets.

These include an overpass across the MCD-1 tracks and the northern alternate route of Kutuzovsky Prospekt near Barclay Street, which was built in December 2022. Instead of the old 40-meter overpass, there is a 205-meter one, which will make driving over the future Kutuzovsky Prospekt northern alternate comfortable and safe, while locals will avail themselves of two underground pedestrian crossings near buildings 5, 2 and 9 on Barclay Street.

The municipality has also revamped Ivan Franko Street and the Starorublyovsky overpass — the project’s first stage was completed in December 2021, with the second one to be over in January 2023. The length of the Starorublyovsky overpass has tripled up to 240 meters to ensure a comfortable exit from Kutuzovsky Prospekt to Rublyovskoye Highway and the Kutuzovsky Prospekt northern alternate under construction towards the MKAD.

Workers continue building the road section from Gerasim Kurin Street to Ivan Franko Street, to be 2.1 kilometers long, with one traffic lane in each direction.

In January 2023, a 120-meter long pedestrian crossing was built across the MCD-1 tracks and the northern relief road of Kutuzovsky Prospekt near Polotskaya and Gvardeyskaya Streets to provide a new convenient and safe pedestrian connection between the Kuntsevo and Mozhaysky districts, which are home to approximately 300,000 people.

In 2019, specialists started construction of a traffic interchange at the intersection of the Kutuzovsky Prospekt northern alternate, Shelepikhinskaya Embankment and the TRR, to be completed in 2024. The project covers construction of 11.6 kilometers of roads (with one to three lanes in each direction), including four overhead roads, and two underground crossings for pedestrians to be arranged near buildings 2a, 3, 34 and 2 on Shelepikhinskaya Embankment.

In August 2022, workers started a project to create a road network along the Moskva River embankment in the section between Bolshaya Filyovskaya Street and the TRR, to be finished in 2024. The project envisages reconstruction of 3.9 kilometers of roads (with two lanes in each direction), including an overpass (215 meter long, with one lane in each direction) for drivers to get into the Sberbank City quarter (32 Kutuzovsky Prospekt).

Although the work in the adjacent areas is still in progress, traffic along the northern relief road of Kutuzovsky Prospekt will be arranged in full, as reported by Andrey Bochkarev, Deputy Moscow Mayor for Urban Planning Policy and Construction.

New road projects

In 2011-2022, Moscow built 1,241.1 kilometers of roads, or 20 per cent of the existing road network in all, in addition to 359 artificial structures (i.e., bridges, tunnels or overhead roads) and 291 off-street pedestrian crossings.

The action plan for 2023 encompasses construction of 106.2 kilometers of roads, 37 artificial structures and 19 pedestrian crossings.

The key projects also include construction of the Moscow High-Speed Diameter, plus sections of the Southern Rocade, the transport interchange at the intersection of the MKAD, Verkhniye Polya Street and Altufyevskoye Highway, the Varshavskoye Highway — Village of Andreyevskoye — Village of Yakovlevo road, and Dmitrovsky Overpass.