Saint Petersburg Ring Road facts for kids
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The Saint Petersburg Ring Road is a big, circular highway that goes all the way around the city of Saint Petersburg, Russia. It's like a giant loop, about 142 kilometers (88 miles) long. This road is the only main highway that circles the city, and it's officially called federal public highway A-118 in Russia.
Contents
Building the Ring Road
Early Plans and Challenges
People first thought about building a road like this around Saint Petersburg (which was called Leningrad back then) in 1965. They wanted it to help with city development. Part of the road was planned to be built on a special wall, or causeway, that would also help protect the city from floods in the Gulf of Finland.
In the late 1970s, they started building this flood protection wall. By the early 1990s, a two-lane road was built on part of it, connecting the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland to Kronstadt, a city on Kotlin Island. But then, Russia faced some money problems, and work on both the flood wall and the Ring Road had to stop in 1992.
Work Resumes and Key Openings
Building the Ring Road started again in 1998. The very first part of the highway opened on December 26, 2002. This section connected the northern end of the flood wall, near Gorskaya railway station, to the northern part of Saint Petersburg.
By September 2006, more parts of the Ring Road were finished. These new sections completed the eastern side of the road around Saint Petersburg. They included special ramps and bridges that connected to other important highways like the E-18/A-181, E-105/R-21, and E-105/M-10.
A very important part of the completed road was the Bolshoy Obukhovsky Bridge. This is a special bridge that crosses the main part of the Neva River. It's unique because it's the only bridge over that part of the river that doesn't open up to let ships pass underneath.
Finishing the Road
In November 2007, a new connection was opened near the international Pulkovo Airport. As the Ring Road was being built, the land around it and its connections became much more valuable.
The last parts of the Ring Road, including the sections across the dam and the connection to the E-20/A-180 highway, were built over several years in the late 2000s. The six-lane road across the Gulf of Finland has many bridges, raised sections, man-made islands, and even a tunnel that goes under the main shipping path for boats.
After more than twenty years of building, the entire Saint Petersburg Ring Road was officially opened on August 12, 2011. Important leaders like the Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, and the Governor of St Petersburg, Valentina Matvienko, were there to celebrate and open the dam facilities as well.
