The general contractor announced “rodents that have bored a hole” in the embankment dam in Orsk

The director of JSC Spetsstroy, the general contractor for the construction of an embankment dam in Orsk on the Ural River, Sergei Komarov, said that, judging by the video from the site of the break in the structure, the cause could have been rodents who had bored a hole. He ruled out the factor of design error.

IN on air “Channel One” Sergei Komarov was asked if the dam’s crest held, but it began to wash away from below, what was the reason for the breakthrough. “This is also a mystery to me. I assume two factors. The human factor – someone used a horizontal drilling machine to drill and lay some kind of communication for discharging wastewater into the Urals,” said the director of Spetsstroy.

“But after looking at the filming where the breakthrough happened, this factor disappeared from me. And only one factor remained: rodents that could have pierced this dam, and this 2-3 centimeter hole would have been enough for water to flow through the dam,” said Sergei Komarov. He added that otherwise the breakthrough would have occurred in several places.

The dam in Orsk is an embankment structure built to protect the highway and strengthen the river bank. It was put into operation in 2014 and, according to the design documentation, is designed for a level of the Urals of 550 cm. By the evening of April 8, the river level reached 892 cm, exceeding the dangerous level of 890 cm.

The governor of the Orenburg region, Denis Pasler, said that the dam project was designed for a much smaller load, and the scale of the current flood is “rather an exception.” Meanwhile, on April 4, the day before the dam broke, the mayor of Orsk Vasily Kozupitsa said that he personally monitored the condition of the structure and came to the conclusion that it would bear the load.

The decision to build an embankment dam in Orsk was made in 2010 to eliminate the threat of flooding during floods. The cost of the object is approximately 932 million rubles. In 2020, Rostechnadzor identified 38 violations committed during construction and ordered the city administration to eliminate the comments by 2022. No follow-up inspection was carried out due to the moratorium. After the dam broke, the West Ural Department of Rostechnadzor created a commission to technically investigate the causes of the incident. The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case on violation of safety rules during construction work (Part 1 of Article 216 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and negligence (Part 1 of Article 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

April 5 Orsk administration announced evacuation of the population due to the possible threat of flooding. The dam broke about a couple of hours later, and houses inhabited by about 11 thousand people were in the flood zone. Vasily Kozupitsa saidthat “partial damage to the dam occurred in two places.” The next day the dam broke in another area.

About the development of the situation – in the publication “Kommersant” “Waiting for water.”

Lusine Balasyan