New plans for Russian roads being built

Major new highway projects are now progressing in Russia, withmore detailed plans being drawn up. Two key projects are for the new Black Sea Coast Highway and the M-4 Don Transport Corridor.

The Black Sea Coast Highway has seen some changes to the original proposals, with the high cost of the initial design having been a major factor in the revisions to the plans. The length of the new route will be 80.5km under the new proposals, with the work now costing around US$15 billion, some 2/3rds of the original plan. The highway would connect Sochi with Tuapse, rather than running onward to Dzhugba. Work is expected to commence in 2019 and should be complete by 2037. The project will include building tunnel and bridge sections.

Meanwhile there are also plans to build a new road link between Volodarskogo and Tikhoretskaya, also in the Krasnodar Region. This 36km route will cost around $339 million to build and take six years to complete. It will improve transport connections between Krasnodar and Loris, Industrialny, Znamensky and Novoznamensky. Design work on six of the eight sections should be complete by the end of 2019.