The Shchelkovskoye Highway backup project has once again been suspended

The Shchelkovskoe highway backup project has once again been suspended. As Kommersant found out, this decision was made by Rosavtodor. Earlier, residents of Balashikha began collecting signatures against construction. Activists said that the road would harm the environment and suggested simply expanding the Shchelkovskoye Highway. However, experts believe that there are no real alternatives to building a backup, and a delay will only worsen transport problems. Moreover, they doubt that the reason for freezing the project was the indignation of local residents.

Last week, the mayor of Balashikha near Moscow, Sergei Yurov, said that “the implementation of the project to double the Shchelkovsky highway through the city center has been suspended.” Now Rosavtodor has confirmed the official’s statement to Kommersant and shared the details. “The construction of a backup route for the Shchelkovskoye Highway on the section from the Moscow Ring Road to the 32nd kilometer is not provided for in the five-year road plan for 2024–2028, approved by the government. In this regard, the development of the project is currently suspended,” the agency’s press service reported.

We are talking about a backup of the Shchelkovskoe highway, the tracing of which was published on the website of the Balashikha administration at the end of 2023. Let us remind you that the project involved the construction of an eight-lane highway from the MKAD-Entuziastov highway interchange, further south of the existing Shchelkovskoye highway, then through the Gorensky forest park, along the edge of Balashikha, through the Ozerny forest park, past the villages of Almazovo, Bolshiye Zherebtsy, and further to A-103. Sources of financing for the project, we note, have not been identified (see Kommersant on January 24).

The need to partially duplicate the Shchelkovskoye Highway has been talked about for more than ten years. An early version of the project assumed that the backup would pass through the territory of the Losiny Ostrov national park, but the Ministry of Natural Resources and Rosavtodor did not come to an agreement on this issue. The route under discussion does not affect the federal natural territory, but passes through three local ones: Gorensky Forest, Ozerny Reserve and Pekhorka Park.

Some residents of the district did not agree with this plan: they were concerned about the possible deterioration of the environmental situation, as well as noise from the highway. Residents began collecting signatures against the construction. Last week, the mayor of Balashikha held a meeting with residents, which was attended by about a thousand people. There Sergei Yurov said that the plan proposed by Rosavtodor “will absolutely not be implemented.” Activists said that to solve transport problems it is enough to expand the four-lane Shchelkovskoye Highway to eight lanes in the busiest places, and presented a sketch of such a plan. Mr. Yurov responded by announcing the creation of an initiative group that would help together “to make decisions regarding the future fate of Shchelkovskoye Highway.”

A number of media outlets and city groups on social networks wrote following the meeting that the protesting residents managed to cancel the construction of the backup. However, it is worth noting that the proposed route is a federal road, so the city authorities are not making decisions on its construction. A member of the public council under the regional Ministry of Transport, Andrei Mukhortikov, notes that the construction of the backup was never included in the Federal Targeted Investment Program, and design and estimate documentation was also not prepared. “There is only a planning draft, so it is not entirely correct to say that residents have achieved the cancellation of construction. But they expressed their opinion quite clearly,” explains the expert. At the same time, Mr. Mukhortikov doubts whether there is a real alternative to the construction of the backup: “The optimal, in my opinion, routing was proposed along the edge of Losiny Ostrov.” The volume of deforestation there was less; the region was ready to compensate for this forest by annexing new territories to the national park. But that tracing outraged the so-called environmentalists.”

Andrei Mukhortikov believes that “a long time ago” a decision should be made and proceed to the construction of the road according to one of two options. “The residents of Balashikha themselves suffer greatly from transport problems without such a road. And the option they proposed involves lengthy litigation with hundreds of owners of plots along Shchelkovskoye Highway, which will need to be purchased. It is also necessary to ensure that many ramps are designed,” he is confident. “When allocating money for federal construction, priority will be given to projects that do not cause disturbances. And the traffic problems in the eastern part of the Moscow region will continue to worsen without this road.”

“The majority of residents should have liked the project, because there really is a transport problem in this place and a solution has been awaiting it for a long time,” says Anton Khlynov, a member of the expert council at Rosleskhoz. He added that it is impossible to judge the effectiveness of the expansion of Shchelkovskoye Highway proposed by residents until accurate plans and calculations are ready. “But such an expansion, in any case, will also harm the environmental situation, just like the discussed backup,” Mr. Khlynov is sure. “Moreover, this option looks very expensive.” The construction of a road through local parks, according to the ecologist, will lead to fragmentation of forest areas, which for the Moscow region are quite valuable not only from an environmental, but also from a historical and archaeological point of view.

The expert notes that there are several other plans for building a backup designed to minimize environmental damage, but they all “cost money.” “If we had listened to the opinion of the scientific community, we would have advocated for more expensive but gentle options – using engineering means, tunnels that do not harm the landscape,” he added.

Polina Yachmennikova, Ivan Buranov