The bridge to Sakhalin

2018

The bridge to Sakhalin was in the trunk development plan for infrastructure

Building of transition from the mainland of the Russian Federation to Sakhalin is included in October, 2018 in the development plan for trunk infrastructure, but is planned at collateral financial provision, confirmation of forecast cargo base and financing from non-budgetary sources, follows from the government of the document published on the website.

The Cabinet of Ministers on Thursday published the order of September 30, 2018 about the statement of a comprehensive plan of upgrade and expansion of trunk infrastructure until 2024. The Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation Evgeny Dietrich reported, commenting on the document that the bridge to Sakhalin is present at the plan, but funds for its construction are not defined yet.

"(Will be — the edition) performs construction of the railway line Selikhin-Nysh with transition of Nevelskoy Strait … Implementation of an action is planned at collateral financial provision and also on condition of confirmation of forecast cargo base and financing from non-budgetary sources", said in the plan. Providing railway infrastructure for freight transportation in the message with the island of Sakhalin in volume up to 36.9 million tons per year should become result of creation of transition. 2019-2024 appear terms of implementation.

The question of construction of a stationary crossing to Sakhalin was repeatedly brought up from the middle of the 20th century. The project of a tunnel between Sakhalin and continent thought still in the fifties last century, but then to implement it it did not turn out. In 2007 the question of connection of coast by the bridge or a tunnel was lifted again. In June, 2018 the Russian President Vladimir Putin noted importance of transition for inhabitants of Sakhalin, and in September specified that project implementation essentially will realize the potential of ports of the island, but it is necessary to understand the volume of transportations.

The representative of the Russian Railway reported to RIA Novosti in September that parameters of building of transition to Sakhalin undergo completion. According to him, the project of the railway line Selikhin-Nysh with the bridge crossing of Nevelskoy Strait is coordinated to the project for development of East polygon of network of the railroads after which implementation on BAM and the Trans-Siberian Railway in 2025 it will be possible to transport up to 195 million tons of coal a year in the direction of ports of the Far East. At such approach the investment payback of the Russian Railway can be reached in 26 years of operation, added to the companies.

According to the Russian Railway, up to 30 million tons of coal from the total amount of transportations it will be possible to transport in the direction of the ports of Sakhalin. Ports of the island will become an alternative to ports on the mainland as carrying capabilities of approaches to ports of the continent even after implementation of all actions for their development will be filled almost to a limit of opportunities. At the same time, noted in the company, the main consignors predict growth of need for port capacities of the Far East.

The Russian Railway refused to finance the bridge to Sakhalin

JSC RZD will not finance the transport passage Selikhin — Nysh (bridge or a tunnel) to Sakhalin: expenses on it are not specified in the target scenario of the updated investment program of monopoly for 2018-2025, Vedomosti with reference to the document writes in October, 2018. According to the newspaper, the corporation is ready to give only 3.5 billion rubles for preparation of the feasibility statement, investors should provide other 536.8 billion rubles.

The transport passage to Sakhalin was included into the list of the projects offered by the Ministry of Finance to business. The Minister of Transport Evgeny Dietrich said that "on the bridge in the plan there is no state support". Kommersant reported that in documents of JSC RZD the Sakhalin project appears in category "requiring adoptions of the separate solution", cost — 589.3 billion rubles. The monopoly was going to finance construction of the bridge through concession, including with port.

One of sources of Kommersant said that there are no applicants yet. Vedomosti also reports with reference to federal officials that "even the government has doubts in expediency of construction of the bridge". According to the source newspapers, familiar with materials of government meetings, at selection of the state money there is a risk of unreasonable expenditure of means, and without them the project cannot be implemented.

Construction of Sakhalinsky Bridge can cost 540 billion rubles

Construction The 6-kilometer railway Sakhalin bridge can begin in 2021. At the same time, according to a preliminary estimate of experts, the realization value of the project can exceed 540 billion rubles that by 3.5 times exceeds Crimean bridge cost, reported on July 10, 2018 in the company Evromobayl, the distributor and integrator IoT/ M2M- solutions in Russia and the CIS countries.

As of July, specialists develop projects and carry out calculations within the procedure of justification of investments. This work should be completed by December, 2018 then its results will be submitted for consideration to the Government of the Russian Federation.

It is supposed that within the project only the railway line will be laid. Besides, the issue of construction of high-voltage transmission lines and consolidation of continental and island power supply systems is at the same time handled that will influence economic development of adjacent territories.

Predesigns show that the construction of the transport passage will allow to increase railroad goods turnover on Sakhalin by 26 times (from 1.5 to 39 million tons per year) and to resolve questions of food security, timely supply with building materials and the prices of the goods imported for the island. Positively construction of the bridge will affect also a geopolitical situation, having given an opportunity of a further exit to Japan.

The Far East region is in difficult engineering-geological and climatic conditions therefore construction and operation of this sort of constructions requires special approach. Specialists need to consider seismic activity of the region, passage depth, strong speed of a current. According to experts, the bridge to Sakhalin can become one of the most difficult projects in the history of Russia.

Taking into account experience of construction of Krymsky Bridge case of initial importance for operation is called the qualitative observation system behind a cloth.

For the transport passage on the peninsula. The Crimea the control system, unique for Russia, was developed. For the purpose of security extremely important not only to adopt this experience, but also whenever possible to improve a system in the process of construction of Sakhalinsky Bridge — Alexey Miloslavsky, the president of Evromobayl company is convinced.

According to Evromobayl, the bridge through the Kerch Strait is equipped with 19 cameras, 7 meteorological stations and about four hundred sensors. They control structure, amount of the movement and speed of vehicles. In real time information comes to Command center where it is processed by 18 managers.

2017: Studying of a possibility of construction of the bridge to Sakhalin

In September, 2017 the president Russia Vladimir Putin said that "the possibility of construction of the bridge on the lake is in detail studied" Sakhalin. He also added that together with development of the Northern Sea Route, upgrade of BAM and Trans-Siberian Railway, implementation of other projects all this "will allow to turn the Far East into one of the most important logistic nodes of the world", transfers TASS.^[1]

Notes