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| Putin attends opening ceremony of Crimean Bridge (VIDEO) | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Tuesday marks the official opening of a 19km bridge connecting mainland Russia with the Crimean Peninsula. The ceremony is attended by President Vladimir Putin. | Tuesday marks the official opening of a 19km bridge connecting mainland Russia with the Crimean Peninsula. The ceremony is attended by President Vladimir Putin. |
| The opening of the Crimean Bridge comes a day before automobile traffic will be allowed. The Kremlin kept the program of the ceremony secret, only saying that the people who created the massive construction in record time would play a key part in it. Whether Putin will head the column is his brand new limousine, ride a bulldozer, or simply give the literal green light to the workers, is up for speculation. | |
| The bridge has two parts – one for automobile traffic, which is opening this week, and one for trains – which is to be finished next year. For several more months, trucks will not be allowed through, giving extra time to check all the safety measures and engineering quality. | The bridge has two parts – one for automobile traffic, which is opening this week, and one for trains – which is to be finished next year. For several more months, trucks will not be allowed through, giving extra time to check all the safety measures and engineering quality. |
| A direct path connecting the Crimean Peninsula to the Krasnodar region on mainland Russia is a significant achievement. Building one was considered as early as the late 19th century. The invading Nazi Germany started constructing a bridge, but the project was cut short by advancing Soviet Union. | |
| The soviets went as far as erecting a bridge themselves, but it quickly failed due to difficult seabed terrain and harsh winter weather. Eventually a ferry connection was deemed a more viable alternative. In modern times Russia and Ukraine were trying to negotiate a joint project to create a bridge with modern technology, but it didn’t take off. | |
| Tables turned in 2014, when an armed coup in Kiev put a fiercely anti-Russian government in power in Ukraine. Frightened by threats of nationalist pogroms and a rollback of autonomy, the predominantly Russian population of Crimea voted in a referendum to break up from Ukraine and ask Russia to take the peninsula back as part of the country, which Moscow did. Kiev responded by trying to isolate the region, disrupting supplies of freshwater and electricity and restricting travel to Crimea. | |
| The Crimean bridge project was Russia’s response to the situation – a permanent overland link between the peninsula and the rest of the country. The work on the project started in 2015 in parallel with creating necessary infrastructure on both sides of the Kerch Strait. | |
| In 2016, the actual work on the bridge started in earnest, with workers building temporary constructions and driving pillars into the seabed. Year 2017 was marked by arguably the trickiest part of the construction – towing, rising and putting in place two arches under which ships can pass. The steel constructions weighted 6,000 tons and 5,500 tons for the railroad and automobile parts of the bridge respectively. | |
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