Roman Starovoit, President of Rosavtodor: “Russky Bridge – is Really a High-Tech Project”

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A comprehensive system for precision monitoring of the bridge over the Eastern Bosphorus Strait has become one of the main topics of a scientific and practical conference held in Vladivostok on Russky Island as part of the XIV International Forum “Russian Roads in the 21st Century.”

The conference was attended to by Roman Starovoit, President of the Federal Road Agency, Oleg Belozerov, Deputy Transportation Minister, Sergei Ten, Deputy Chairman of the Duma Transportation Committee, Igor Pushkarev, Mayor of Vladivostok, Aleksandr Sharabarin, Head of the Federal Highway Administration “Dalny Vostok”, Aleksey Shirshov, Director of the Department of Roads of Primorie, Aleksei Surovtsev, Deputy Director General of the Institute “Stroyproekt,” Gennady Shkuropat, Head of a Special Division of JSC USK MOST in Vladivostok, and many others. The forum, which was held in Vladivostok, on Russky Island, was dedicated to the currently important problems of the high priority lines of work and further development of the road sector in Russia.

“Innovative technologies have been recently introduced on the Far-Eastern roads. It is not by accident that Vladivostok was chosen to host the conference because a huge job was done here as part of preparation for the APEC Summit 2012. The bridge over the Eastern Bosphorus Strait has become the largest in the world in terms of the central span length, pylon height, and stay cable length. It should be emphasized that it was built in a record-breaking time based on the bridge-building practice, and the bridge incorporates the most advanced technologies and daring design concepts,” Roman Starovoit, President of Rosavtodor, said in his presentation. “Building the Russky Bridge, the tunnel systems and interchanges in Sochi and other unique installations allowed us to upgrade significantly the technologies that are used in bridge building and tunneling in Russia and to reach the world standards. The problems that the road building industry is facing today require mass-scale application of new materials and technologies and their expedited introduction.”

The participants of the conference looked into details of a comprehensive monitoring system incorporated in the bridge over the Eastern Bosphorus Strait.

“The Russky Bridge is a unique facility for Russia – the first bridge of its kind in this country. The most advanced technologies that had been never used before were implemented when the bridge was built, and many design concepts are second to none in the world and have been patented. Operation and maintenance of such a facility, quite understandably, require a serious approach and study. Thousands of state-of-the-art sensors and devices monitor all the bridge condition parameters and also monitor the weather conditions and the wind loads”,

– emphasized in his presentation Aleksandr Sharabarin, Head of the Federal Highway Administration “Dalny Vostok.”

Since the opening of the Russky Bridge, along with highly skilled monitoring technicians, representatives of scientific organizations also take part in the monitoring and issue their recommendations; they also develop maintenance and servicing specifications. This is how the necessary experience is gained and methods of operations of the installation, which is unique for Russia, are perfected.

The participants of the conference expressed the opinion that this experience is necessary for further development of the industry as part of a high priority line of work – introduction of innovative construction and maintenance methods and development of new technologies based on the use of state-of-the-art materials and designs.

“The innovative precision monitoring system allows for continuous comprehensive monitoring of the giant installation condition using global navigation satellite systems. The data flows automatically and continuously to the Monitoring Center where it is stored and is accessible for analysis of the bridge condition”,

– said Gennady Shkuropat, Head of a Special Division of JSC USK MOST in Vladivostok, answering the reporters’ questions.

The comprehensive monitoring of the bridge over the Eastern Bosphorus is carried out by qualified personnel who were directly involved in its construction and in the equipment shakedown and who are familiar with all the details of high-tech technologies that are incorporated in the system. The best world practices and national experience of design and construction of similar projects were applied to the Russky Bridge including the most advanced scientific and practical knowledge in the field of bridge building. This is certainly a basis for next steps forward.

The Forum “Russian Roads in the 21st Century” attracted the leading Russian and international industry experts who came to Russky Island with representatives of major investment, petrochemical, construction and road-building organizations. The scientific-practical conference also addressed the problems of pricing in road construction; attraction of private investments to road projects in Russia; doubling the scope of construction of federal highways; bringing the existing road network to the standards; preparation of roads for the World Football Cup in 2018, and others.

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