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The New Way

For the past few years Fred has been watching the progress of the new highway, Krasnopresnya Prospekt, that will stretch from 1905 Goda metro to the MKAD, giving Moscow’s elitny a new route to Novorizhskoye Shosse and Serebryany Bor. This new highway is expected to draw heavy traffic off the Volokolamskoye Shosse and Rublyovskoye Shosse.

The last major section of , Krasnopresnya Prospekt has involved the construction of a spectacular cable-arch bridge over the Moscow river and the North-West tunnel under the Serebryany Bor area. This section should be open by the beginning of 2008. The tunnel has two levels: the top level to carry auto traffi c and the level below for the Arbatsko-Pokrovskoi metro line to Strogino. The tunnel was necessary because Serebryany Bor is a large natural, forested area along on the Moscow river, with numerous beaches including Moscow’s fi rst nude beach. It is also the location of many exclusive dachas for government offi cials and foreign diplomats.

The Zhivopisniy Bridge is sure to attract attention. The bridge itself is 1.4 kilometers across the Moscow river, and 37 meters wide. The cable-arch section is 410 meters and the arch reaches 70 meters above the deck, a total of 100 meters above the water. The bridge is supported by 72 cables stretching in both directions. The bridge has four lanes in each direction and two pedestrian walkways.

Most interesting is the “flying saucer” that was lifted at the end of November – to abecome a bar and restaurant at the very top of the arch. From the top, there will be a 360-degree view of Serebryany Bor and the Krylatskoye sport zone. Four panoramic elevators will take passengers up the 80 meters along the arch to the top in less than two minutes.

As for Kransnopresnya Prospekt, the first section was completed from the vicinity of 1905 Goda metro to Ulitsa Mnevniki in 2006, which shortened Fred’s trip to the center from 40 minutes to seven on most days.

About two kilometers of the future highway now falls along Ulitsas Mnevniki and Marshala Zhukova to the new bridge, and this unfortunately is not yet complete, creating a huge bottleneck along Mnevniki. Construction of this section is gearing up. During the summer, hundreds of old trees were cleared along Ulitsa Mnevniki and side streets to make way for construction. No word on completion, though it surely is not far off, since this is the last section between the center and the wealthy suburbs to the northwest.