Moscow authorities have announced tenders for street repairs in almost all districts

Since the beginning of March, the structures of the capital’s mayor’s office have announced a total of 59 tenders for the improvement of urban areas. Work is scheduled from April to October in almost all urban districts and includes repairs of asphalt and tile surfaces, curbs, ramps, stairs, house facades and replacement of road signs. Thus, in the center of Moscow it is planned to develop Kudrinskaya Square, Krasin, Fadeev streets and all three Frunzenskaya streets. Earlier, the capital’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced the most large-scale work in the history of the city, promising to improve 785 streets this year.

Tenders for “performing work on landscaping” were announced by the mayor’s office of the State Budgetary Institution “Moscow Highways”. One of the largest (almost 2 billion rubles) was the competition for the renovation of territories in the North-Eastern Administrative District of Moscow. We are talking about the arrangement of 39 addresses, including Palekhskaya and Pechorskaya streets, Borby Square (near Dostoevsky Street) and the area around the Butyrsky district administration, as well as “squares and passages to the All-Russian Exhibition Center.” The tender documents mention the repair of asphalt and tile surfaces, granite and concrete curbs, ramps, stairs, lawns, house facades and the replacement of road signs and garden furniture. Similar works are listed in other competitions announced by the State Budgetary Institution “Moscow Highways”. In total, since the beginning of March, this structure has announced 59 tenders for work in almost all districts of Moscow (with the exception of TiNAO) for a total amount of 51.9 billion rubles. In all cases, it is assumed that the work will be completed between April and October 2024.

The announced tenders also include the development of Komsomolsky Prospekt and Bolshaya Akademicheskaya Street (up to 1.38 billion rubles are planned to be allocated for this), Kudrinskaya Square, Krasin, Fadeev, Gilyarovsky streets, Abelmanovskaya Zastava Square, Maly Znamensky, Bolshoy Karetnoye, Bolshoi and Maly Konyushkovsky lanes, as well as 1st, 2nd and 3rd Frunzensky streets.

The city authorities have been implementing the city improvement program (originally called “My Street”) since 2015. Then 47 streets were repaired, in 2016 – 61 streets (including Tverskaya, Novy Arbat, Garden Ring, Vozdvizhenka and Bolshaya Yakimanka), in 2017 – 82 streets (including 12 embankments and the Boulevard Ring). In these areas, tiles were resurfaced, traffic lanes were narrowed, and trees were planted. Large-scale renovations in Moscow were not carried out in 2018 due to the FIFA World Cup in Russia and in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the previous decade, Moscow spent about 35–40 billion rubles on improvement every year, but the 2020 Moscow budget included expenses of 119 billion rubles. In 2022, judging by the government procurement website, the authorities published 67 tenders to “bring streets and public spaces to standard” (worth about 43 billion rubles). In 2023, 57 competitions with similar wording were announced worth about 33 billion rubles.

It is noteworthy that the current documentation (unlike competitions of past years) does not indicate, say, the volumes of tiles or curb stones that the contractor must lay when repairing streets. In the tender conditions there is a reference to Art. 22 of Federal Law No. 44 on public procurement, stipulating that payment for services will be made based on “the volume of work actually performed or service provided, but in an amount not exceeding the maximum value of the contract price.” It should be noted that the capital’s 2024 budget law provides for expenditures of 244.8 billion rubles for the state program “Development of the Urban Environment”.

In February 2024, the capital’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin made it clear that this year it is planned to repair 785 streets and such large-scale improvement will take place in the city for the first time. According to the mayor, the renovation will take place in the “From Home to Home” format (carried out in Moscow since 2021). As Kommersant has already reported, the essence of the format comes down to carpet renovation of urban areas from one building facade to another on the opposite side of the street. “From Home to Home” was previously described as an integral part of the city’s improvement program. Mr. Sobyanin clarified that using this technology in 2024, Komsomolsky and Nakhimovsky avenues, Academician Korolev and Aviamotornaya streets, the embankments of the Yauza River will be repaired, and in total, by 2028, the city plans to improve 3.7 thousand streets “within the old borders of Moscow.”

Alexander Voronov