For 12 hours the Crimean bridge broke the record of the ferry

17 May 2018

Traffic is already open

Vehicular traffic on the Crimean bridge began on may 16. Already during the first 12 hours the record was broken ferry crossing through the Kerch Strait is on the bridge drove nearly 14,000 vehicles.

At the same time record the Kerch crossing was installed in August of 2017: then during the day, from the mainland to the Peninsula and Vice versa was transported almost 13,000 cars.

According to statistics, over 12 hours on the Crimean bridge drove about 7 000 vehicles in the direction of the Crimea and around 6 700 in the direction of the Kuban.

Solemn opening of the Crimean bridge hosted the day before. Part in the festive ceremony was attended by Vladimir Putin, who drove across the bridge behind the wheel of a KAMAZ. The path from the Krasnodar region to Kerch took 16 minutes. The President led the convoy of several dozen trucks involved in the construction of the bridge.

The long and the long-awaited

To build a bridge connecting the Peninsula with the mainland, still wanted by the British. In the late nineteenth century they saw the opportunity to establish direct railway communication with India, but the project seemed too costly. In the early twentieth century about a similar initiative was supported by the Nicholas II, however, the plans violated the First world war. During the Second world war, German troops have even started the construction of the bridge, but to finish they managed the Soviet army liberated the Peninsula from invaders.

Thus the first land crossing across the Kerch Strait was built it was the Soviet army: the bridge was built by the autumn of 1944. However, already in the spring of 1945 it was destroyed by drifting ice.

And yet the Crimean bridge is the longest in Russia: it stretches for 19 kilometers. Of these, 11.5 per kilometer takes place on land, including the island of Taman, 7.5 km over the sea. Previously the longest was a 13-kilometer Presidential bridge over the Volga in Ulyanovsk.

Also impressive is the capacity of the new bridge: at his day you can go up to 40 000 cars. And when will improve rail connections (this will happen at the end of 2019), the train can carry up to 14 million passengers a year.