Moscow’s new geometry: How road construction is changing the city
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Since 2011, the city has built over 1,007 km of roads, both completely new roads and rebuilt streets and motorways with new technologies.
The city has received about 100 km of new or rebuilt roads each year. The city’s road planning programme is designed to resolve major traffic problems such as eliminating bottlenecks, readjusting links between various city districts and making neighbouring districts more accessible. A large team of engineers is working on these projects. This mos.ru story looks at key projects that have been implemented in Moscow over these years.
From cloverleaf interchanges to flyovers
The heavily used Moscow Ring Road (MKAD) ranks among the capital’s main highways with over 1.3 million vehicles daily. So, the building or rebuilding of new interchanges is a high-priority for the city.
For many years, the city built cloverleaf interchanges between motorways and major avenues. From above, the ramps resemble the “leaves” of a four-leaf clover. But as traffic volumes increase this interchange design becomes overwhelmed. Thus, many major interchanges have been or are being replaced with flyover ramps to avoid scissoring traffic patterns and keep congestion to a minimum.
Seventeen new MKAD interchanges with a total of 150-km in road length. The new MKAD-Leningradskoye Motorway interchange provides convenient change access to/from the motorway towards St Petersburg. The MKAD-Volgogradsky Prospekt interchange makes quick work of entering/exiting the M5 Ural route which also provides easier access to the Zhulebino District and Kotelniki and Lyubertsy outside Moscow. The new interchange with Michurinsky Prospekt makes it easier to reach Vnukovo International Airport, the Solntsevo, Ramenki and other districts. The new interchange with Marshal Zhukov Prospekt on Zvenigorodskoye Motorway provides access to the federal M9 Baltics route. The Podolskikh Kursantov Street interchange allows drivers to enter and leave the West Biryulyovo District more quickly. The Molodogvardeiskaya Street interchange links the northern Odintsovo bypass route with MKAD. The Businovskaya interchange links city roads with the M11 Moscow-St. Petersburg high-speed motorway.
Work is underway at five more interchanges. Exits/ramps at Volokolamskoye Motorway and new interchanges at Altufyevskoye and Ostaskovskoye motorways will appear soon. Three interchanges with Lipetskaya Street, Verkhniye Polya Street and Kapotnya Street are currently being designed. Efforts are being made to synchronise construction with the reconstruction of routes inside MKAD and in the Moscow Region. All this increases the capacity of the highways linking Moscow and the Moscow Region more efficiently.
Diagonal sections
The Expressway Ring, now seen as the most ambitious highway project, consists of four all new routes, the North-West, North-East and South-East expressways and the Southern Expressway. These routes form a new connecting road network 133 km long, the equivalent of four Third Ring Roads. Moscow within the MKAD resembles a circle, and the four expressways will link various sections, bypassing the city’s centre. As we learned in our geometry lessons, greater efficiency is possible. Traffic flow should be about 20 percent more efficient than the closed-loop MKAD. These expressways will replace the once planned Fourth Ring Road.
According to traffic engineers, the expressways will become key elements of Moscow’s basic road framework. They will include186 flyovers, underpasses and bridges totaling 87 km in route long, as well as 79 pedestrian crossings.
These expressways will more effectively link eight administrative areas and 73 city districts serving a population of over 7 million. A relocation programme will be launched along the right-of-ways over the next few years.
The expressways will link radial routes, reduce congestion on some surface streets, as well as on the Third Ring Road and the MKAD. All four expressways will link up with the MKAD and intersect with each other.
The Expressway Ring is 72 percent complete: 190 km of roads, 98 highway structures, as well as 54 pedestrian underpasses and overpasses, are now in place.
The North-West Expressway, 83 km, 32 highway structures and 30 pedestrian crossings, is completely open to traffic. Vehicles now ply six sections of the North-East Expressway and three sections of the Southern Expressway.
Today, 1.7 million Muscovites shuttle to work and back more quickly with the new sections.
Unique road structures
Some expressway sections are being built to the latest designs. The North-West Expressway has four new structures, the Alabyan Street-Baltiiskaya Street Underpass, a bi-level interchange at Narodnogo Opolcheniya and Berzarin Streets, and a new girder bridge over Lock No. 9 of the Moscow Canal.
The Alabyan Street-Baltiiskaya Street Underpass runs beneath Leningradsky Prospekt, as well as under the Volokolamsky and Leningradsky underpasses, the metro’s Zamoskvoretskaya Line and the Moscow Railway’s Riga Line, which is part of the Moscow Central Diameters route 2. This is the world’s only underpass beneath such a large mix of transport arteries. Traffic was never interrupted during the complex construction.
This bi-level underpass is unique because two-way traffic moves via the upper and lower sections. This design approach was motivated by high-density construction projects on Narodnogo Opolcheniya Street and the need to build the facility far from residential buildings.
The bridge spanning the above canal locks is also unique because designers were asked to reduce construction costs. They designed a girder-stayed bridge in place of a cable-stayed bridge. The 206-metre span has no extra pylons: Two bridges, similar in concept to the Zaryadye River Overlook Bridge, extend from either bank and connect above the water.
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Radial routes for vehicles and people
The city has been rebuilding its outbound radial routes, including motorways and avenues, for several years. These outbound radial routes often merge with high-speed motorways beyond MKAD.
First, reconstruction creates favourable conditions for public transport. Designated HOV (bus/carpool) lanes are included in new carriageways, and new interchanges with flyovers, bridges and underpasses are part of many highway improvement projects.
City transport programmes also aim to create transport links between city blocks adjacent to motorways. This is done with parallel routes or frontage roads that reduce congestion on the main routes. People in neighbouring districts no longer have to use the main carriageway to drive two km to reenter a residential area.
New motorways in the Troitsky and Novomoskovsky administrative areas are an important element of the city’s road plans. New transport infrastructure will promote the newly incorporated territories’ long-term development.
Moscow has built and upgraded 15 radial routes, including the Lenigradskoye, Dmitrovskoye, Volokolamskoye, Yaroslavskoye, Kashirskoye, Mozhaiskoye, Varshavskoye, Shcholkovskoye and Enthuziastov Motorways, as well as the Volgogradsky, Ryazansky and General Dorokhov Prospekts and roads between Maryino and Salaryevo, and a section of the M3 route (Moskovsky-Kaluzhskoye Motorway-South Butovo).
Highway projects have been carried out on existing radial routes and new routes have been built from scratch. In October, the city received its 24th road called General Dorokhov Prospekt serving as an alternate route for Kutuzovsky Prospekt, Michurinsky Prospekt and Mozhaiskoye Motorway. It took five years to build and open the new avenue stage by stage.
Several other major routes, including Vnukovskoye Motorway, a northern alternate to Kutuzovsky Prospekt, are now under construction. The city is also building the Central Ring Road, a highway linking Solntsevo, Butovo and the Varshavskoye Motorway. Another road is to link MKAD with Kommunarka town and Ostafyevo Airport. Work is underway to build a road linking Kaluzhskoye Motorway, and the Yakovlevo, Andreyevskoye and Varshavskoye Motorway. Additionally, the city is building a road from Voskresenskoye to Karakashevo and Shcherbinka. A new road will link Mamyri, Penino and Sharapovo. Another radial route links the Third Ring Road at the Besedinskaya interchange.
Over the tracks
Railway overpasses are another important element of the road infrastructure. New bridges provide nonstop traffic flow without detours or delays, reducing travel times.
New overpasses also include the improvement of pedestrian routes through the industrial areas that often surround stations on the Moscow Central Circle (MCC) railway and the Moscow Railway. Lawns and trees are planted nearby, and convenient well-lit paths are being built. In 2014-2017, the city built 12 new vehicle overpasses, including six over the MCC tracks and six over various Moscow Railway lines. A new overpass spanning the MCC tracks between the Prud-Klyuchiki and 1st Frezernaya Streets was completed earlier this year.
Ten other overpasses are to be completed by 2023, including one near Zhavoronki Station, the Dmitrovsky Overpass, one near Akademik Korolyov Street, the Staro-Rublyovsky Overpass and others.
Few other cities in the world can boast this level of road and motorway improvement activity.
