Kerch Strait Bridge

Vilcom Holding constructed a highway and road approach in the city of Kerch to the Kerch Strait crossing. Transport safety measures were also implemented.
The project gave an impetus to the development of bridge building in Russia. Sophisticated challenging technologies developed by our engineers for the Crimean bridge and successfully implemented by our workers in the Kerch Strait constitute valuable experience that can be applied to other construction sites.
Bridge warranty period is 100 years provided that it is properly maintained and serviced. 

The structure features adequate safety margins to operate in a region with complex geology, high seismicity, regular wind loads, and possible ice drifts.

Highway section of the bridge: figures and facts

• 27 months of construction
• 3,000 piles
• 288 supports
• 100,000 tonnes of metal spans
• 2 layers of asphalt
• 1,000 lighting masts
• 75 km of barrier fencing
• 60 road signs
• 117 km of painted stripes
• 10 road traffic control complexes

The highway section of the bridge was opened on 16 May 2018, which was six months early.  In 19 months, 8.5 million vehicles have passed over the bridge, including 900,000 trucks and 110,000 buses.  This is 1.7 times the number of vehicles transported by the Kerch ferry since 2015 (5.1 million vehicles).  With the free bridge, car owners and carriers saved 28.8 billion roubles by not using the ferry.