Vitebsk Inaugurates New Bridge with Transport Launch Ceremony

Vitebsk hosted a festive ceremony to launch traffic on the Polotsky overpass following its large-scale reconstruction.

Initial plans suggested that the construction work would take almost five years. However, specialists, working day and night and during an unusually warm winter, completed the project in 20 months. This interchange is essential for the residents of this part of Vitebsk. Trams, trolleybuses, buses, and minibuses will travel across the bridge to various parts of the city.

Before the traffic launch, awards were presented to those involved in the overpass reconstruction. The Chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, Nikolai Sherstnev, thanked the services and organizations for the construction and landscaping of the interchange. "Today is a significant day, we are opening such an important facility. Not only skeptics but also professionals in this field cannot believe how quickly the bridge was reconstructed," noted the governor.

Nikolai Sherstnev spoke about future plans for the development of road infrastructure. According to him, within a year – by the next "Slavianski Bazaar" festival – they intend to renovate Gagarin Street in Vitebsk. Subsequently, the construction of the ring road around the regional center will be completed.

After honouring the specialists, the construction equipment that had been working on the site and preparing it for commissioning departed from the overpass. At the end of the ceremony, those who wished were able to be the first to travel on public transport across the bridge.

The Polotsky overpass was built in the late 19th century and is one of Vitebsk's most important transport arteries. It is located at the confluence of Kosmonavtov, Titov, and Leningradskaya streets and not only connects different parts of the city but also serves as a continuation of republican roads leading to Polotsk and further on to Russia and Latvia.

The overpass was last reconstructed in 1958. Over time, its structures began to deteriorate, and construction and installation work commenced here in June 2011. Due to a lack of funding, it had to be suspended in 2015. Three years later, the bridge was inspected again and deemed to be in a state of disrepair. In November 2018, traffic and pedestrian movement across the overpass was halted. Considering the inconvenience caused by the closure (4 tram routes and 15 bus routes passed through here, with 110 minibuses operating daily), work on the site was organised in two shifts, involving 400 construction workers and over 70 units of equipment.

The construction work cost Br89 million, including credit resources. The renovated overpass is a bridge structure with a width of 45 m, a height of 7.6 m, and a length of 412 m. Tram tracks were laid using a non-standard method – employing a trackless structure with rails bonded into metal boxes within precast-monolithic sections of the reinforced concrete tram bed. The rails are laid on rubber pads in thermally continuous lengths, which reduces the number of joints and lowers noise and vibration from train movement.