 Fording the Dnipro The past, present and future of Kyiv's bridges By Serhiy Kharchenko |
Bridges hold a fascination for people. They represent more than a way to cross valleys and waterways - they are frequently works of art, often marvels of engineering and sometimes reminders of times past. Bridges have metaphorical value as well - we speak of bridging gaps between peoples, generations and cultures. It is likely no accident that some Euro banknotes picture well-known European bridges.
Bridges are common sights in cities like Kyiv that straddle rivers. They can define a skyline, but more importantly, they enhance commerce, facilitating the movement of goods and commuters alike.
Without bridges, rivers are obstacles. And when a bridge is too small to accommodate the steady stream of goods and people that use it, the bridge can itself become the obstacle. For all their merits, bridges are unforgiving. A stalled bus or a traffic accident can bring cross-river commerce to a standstill.
In Kyiv, six bridges span the Dnipro, allowing the movement of mass transit, trains and automobile traffic.
Most of the time, that is.
Like many of the city's roads, its network of bridges wasn't built for today's traffic volumes. Soviet urban planners never imagined the sheer volume of traffic that the city experiences today and even present-day planners are hard-pressed to forecast the demand that will be placed on the city's main thoroughfares in a decade's time.
And that is bad news for Kyiv's bridges, where twice a day, commuters play rush-hour roulette. They risk their lives and property to cross the Dnipro, alternatively edging slowly along in gridlock or swerving around one another like mechanized bullfighters as they shuttle between work in the center and residential areas like Troeyeshchyna and Darnytsya.
It's a problem city officials can't hide, admitting publicly that Kyiv is "catastrophically short of bridges."
In Paris, as many as 30 bridges, many dating from the Napoleonic era, span the Seine. Kyiv has six.
Kyivans have been troubled by bridges, or the lack of them, since as early as the sixth century, when Prince Kyi, for whom the city was named, was nicknamed "the waterman" by historians. Realizing that people would pay to cross the river, the prince organized a ferry service. Locals benefited, as did the merchants who made Kyiv a regular stopover on the trade route between Asia and Europe. In addition, the Dnipro itself became part of a north-south marine trade route plied by Vikings and Greeks, and Kyiv quite literally became a crossroads for the era's international trade, and helping it become the capital of Kyivan Rus.
Eventually, cross-river ferry service was replaced by the first in a succession of wooden spans. Early rulers learned through hard experience that bridge-building consumed significant quantities of cash, raw materials and manpower. And in addition, the first spans were frail as well, falling victim to early spring floods and ice floes.
By the time Kyivans developed sturdier wooden bridges around the 13th century, they discovered to their dismay that the bridges were a convenience to more than just locals and peddlers. The city's bridge made it possible for invading armies to gain easy access as well. Tens of thousands of Khan Batu's horsemen found the bridges helpful when they invaded and occupied the city in 1240. The Mongols defeated the city's guards before they could destroy the bridge.
Metal bridges appeared in Kyiv comparatively late, in the middle of the 19th century. Steel made the bridges less vulnerable to ice and flooding and some were recognized as masterpieces of engineering in their day. In 1853, an English engineer Charles Winole built one of the largest and most beautiful bridges in Europe across the Dnipro. Winole's so-called "chain bridge" used brick footings to support a metal bridge deck 770 meters long and 16 meters wide. Two strong chains provided additional support. The bridge was a source of pride for the city until Poles destroyed it during the Civil War of 1918-1921. It was subsequently rebuilt, but it, and many of the river's other principal spans, was destroyed during World War II.
After the war, the Soviet Union found that could afford to provide each city with just one or two bridges. Winole's celebrated chain bridge was not to be reborn.
War set the city back in many ways, and its bridges were no exception. Wooden spans were built once again until the city was able to finance the construction of two steel railway bridges. To the north, a crossing was built at Podil, and to the south a new bridge connected the city to Darnytsya on the left bank. Four spans for use by automobile traffic were built across the river between the 1950s and 1990s.
The capital's oldest existing span is the Paton Bridge, opened in 1953 and named for its creator, Yevhen Paton, the inventor of a progressive electric welding technology. The 1.5-kilometer bridge was entirely welded - not a single rivet was used - and at one time it was Europe's longest bridge, serving automobiles and the city's tramway system.
The city's double-deck metro bridge was inaugurated in 1965. The lower deck is for automobiles and the upper is for metro trains. The span is unusual in that it incorporates genuine caisson technology and arches.
While a cable-stayed bridge across the Rhone opened in Dusseldorf to great fanfare during the 1970s, a similar bridge completed in Kyiv in 1972 received little notice in the West. Held aloft by kilometers of thick, braided cables, Kyiv's six-kilometer Moscow Bridge is considered by many to be one of the city's most beautiful structures.
That same year, a six-lane highway bridge opened to the south.
While many of the nation's major bridges failed to survive the ravages of World War II, today the country's bridges face different enemies - time and neglect. The government estimates that, nationwide, 18,000 bridges are in urgent need of repair or replacement.
Two major projects are slated to get underway in the capital soon, and should be completed within four years.
To the south of the city center, a new intermodal railway and automobile bridge will be built. The 1,200 meter-span will cost an estimated $300 million. To the north, an ambitious seven-kilometer crossing is in the planning stages. The bridge will carry six lanes of auto traffic. It will also form an integral part of Kyiv Metropolitan's aggressive development plan, which includes a fourth metro line to be built from Victory Square and the railway station to the west to a transfer point at Tarasa Shevchenko station and across the river to Troeshchyna and eastward to Promzona.
Plans for new bridges and extensive renovation of existing spans may give the nation's drivers some solace as they brave rush-hour gridlock, but the plans are not without cost. The government is wooing foreign investors, who will expect a financial return on their involvement in public works projects. Kyivans should expect the imposition of tolls and other user fees to help pay for the projects. The country has few other alternatives available to it.
Transportation planners say that the nation's inadequate and decaying roads and bridges are costing $2 billion a year in lost revenue from tourism and transportation. Reclaiming those revenues will mean planning for future needs. Otherwise, today's cross-river gridlock is just the beginning.
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More in the section:
The Ukrainian Prophet Ivan Franko
Read also previous issue' articles:
A heat wave in Ukraine
"The Spirit of Hollybush" Comes to Donetsk
The new wave of Labor Migration
Home Discoveries
Asserting dignity
New Public Health for the New Ukraine
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