Understudy Shchelkovo highway will go through another forest

Rosavtodor has decided on an approximate route for the future understudy of the Shchelkovo highway: the route will pass south of the existing A-103 highway from the Moscow Ring Road, without affecting the Losiny Ostrov national park. To do this, it is necessary to adjust the boundaries of the water protection zone of the Eastern Water Treatment Plant, which supplies water to the east and southeast of the capital, the Moscow Mayor’s Office, in agreement with Rosavtodor, is already doing this. But before the start of construction is still far away: it is required to approve the project, as well as to find funding. According to Kommersant’s information, a project of a paid understudy with the transfer of the highway to the Avtodor State Corporation was also considered, but these plans are denied in Rosavtodor.

The project of an understudy of the federal Schelkovo highway, one of the most congested roads in the Moscow region, we recall, has been discussed for ten years. During this time, five scenarios were considered, including the reconstruction of the existing highway and the laying of a new one through the Losiny Ostrov National Park (as a result, this idea was abandoned). In 2019, FKU Tsentravtomagistral, which is part of Rosavtodor, decided to re-analyze all options by signing a contract with VTM Dorproekt LLC for 342 million rubles. investment rationale, which was recently extended until June 2023. The contractor undertook to conduct geodetic, environmental, hydrometeorological surveys, assess changes in the boundaries of forest park zones, collect data on natural, archeological and cultural monuments, analyze traffic and provide at least three options for the route.

“Three possible options for the passage of the new route were considered and a priority was chosen, which will pass south of the existing A-103 highway (Shchelkovo highway from MKAD.— “b”) practically in undeveloped territories and without affecting the lands of the Losiny Ostrov protected area, ”Rosavtodor told Kommersant, adding that the justification process is ongoing. There is no final trace yet. It should be noted that in 2021 reference materials of Rosavtodor were published on the network: the understudy passed through the Gorensky forest park, along the Gorky direction of the railway, north of Balashikha, then through the Ozerny forest park towards Star City. According to Kommersant, this project is not relevant.

As part of the completion of the investment justification process, it is necessary to change the boundaries of the security zones of the Eastern Water Treatment Station (an object of the Moscow Mayor’s Office that supplies drinking water to the east and southeast of the capital and is located near the Schelkovo highway in the village of Vostochny), explained in Rosavtodor, Moskomarkhitektura is already doing this. Then the documentation will pass a “technical and price audit” at the Federal Autonomous Institution “Glavgosexpertiza”. After receiving a positive opinion, the design of the road will begin, the Federal Highway Agency explained. The terms of project development or construction are not indicated.

Federal and major regional road construction projects are included in the road construction plan until 2027 with funding of over 13 trillion rubles, which was approved by the Russian government in June 2022. Then there was no understudy of the Shchelkovo highway in the “five-year plan”, it was considered by the Ministry of Transport as a highway that could appear after 2027. At the same time, the reconstruction of other “federal” in the document is mentioned (M-8, M-5, Rublevo-Uspenskoe highway, etc.). The plan is a “flexible mechanism”, it changes regularly, it is impossible to speak unambiguously about the impossibility of including one or another road in it, says a Kommersant source familiar with the situation.

According to Kommersant, at one of the stages, the option of transferring the project of the understudy of the Shchelkovo highway to the state company Avtodor to attract investment was considered – this would mean paid travel along the highway. Rosavtodor denied this: “Currently, the transfer of this project to a state-owned company is not planned.” “The understudy of the Shchelkovskoye Highway is, in fact, the city’s main road, where people travel daily between Moscow and the region,” Mikhail Blinkin, scientific director of the HSE Institute of Transport Economics, explained to Kommersant. “If it is paid, then the fare here will certainly not be cheap, and local residents are not ready to pay for it in the mode of daily trips. They will continue to be stuck in traffic on the freeway.”

Environmentalists are skeptical about the future project. “The fragmentation of any forest area near the outskirts of Moscow significantly reduces its viability, as well as its recreational value,” says Alexei Yaroshenko from Greenpeace Russia. “The width of the Gorensky Forest Park is only about 1.5 km. If the new road cuts it roughly in half, then there will be practically no silent zones left in it. And this is a very important function of the forest park – to provide people with places where they can hide from the noise of the city.”

Problems with laying highways in the suburbs of Moscow are the results of chaotic development over the past few decades, Mr. Yaroshenko notes. “The neighborhoods of highways are built up in such a way that there is no room for their expansion,” he explains. “It is almost impossible to lay new ones along large areas of residential development, so we have to build on the remaining natural territories, which leads to a radical decrease in the quality of the environment. The current unsystematic development and the unsystematic cutting of plots for development is the basis for problems for many decades to come.

Ivan Buranov, Anna Vasilyeva