Who and how built the road near Tver, which has stood as new without repair for more than 10 years

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In the small town of Bezhetsk, Tver Region, there is a section of the highway that has remained practically intact for more than 10 years.

Despite the fact that the road is quite busy and even timber trucks drive along it, the state of the nine kilometers of the highway, which the locals call "the eternal road", rather resembles a piece of the German autobahn, it is not clear how it ended up in a provincial Russian area.

The correspondent of the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" drew attention to the unusual route, trying to find out who built it and with the help of what "alien technologies".

Photo by Vladimir Vorsobin, "KP"

The head of the district, Alexander Gorbanev, drove the KP correspondent Vladimir Vorsobin along an unusual road for the province. According to the head, nine kilometers of an ideal road among the residents of the city are considered in their own way a legendary place. People are wondering who and why built the road, which, when fully loaded, has stood for almost 11 years as new and are sure that the Russians could not build such a thing.

There are rumors among the local population that more than 10 years ago, part of the road was built by the Germans, allegedly as part of some kind of charitable program and in general to show how to build it correctly.

A strange streak loomed menacingly on the horizon. The road in the distance suddenly changed - it brightened, covered with spots and became real, dear. This transition was a clear, borderline line. We come to the junction of two roads. Two civilizations. On the left is ours, usual, annually repaired. On the right is an alien that has never been repaired. When she appeared here, in the small town of Bezhetsk, almost no one remembers. Who built it, too. Nobody knows why a 9-kilometer section of the European Autobahn was set up here, in a deserted outback.

from the reportage "KP"

Photo "KP"

Trying to find out the origin of the road, the KP correspondent spoke with local residents, who were sure that the road was built by foreigners, and with officials of the road fund, who confirmed that the road had never had to be repaired in 10 years. Opening the archives, officials found out that the section of the road was built in 2005 by a contractor from Petrozavodsk, Valentin Katz.

The head of the district also said that 10 years ago a Petrozavodsk company was engaged in the road, which left, having laid only nine kilometers of the road. According to him, the contractor could not agree on the price with the local authorities. In addition, Gorbanev hinted that the previous head could demand a rollback for the construction of the road, but Katz refused to pay.

According to Gorbanyov, a Petrozavodsk contractor brought in granite chips and new crushed stone during the construction of the road, when local builders usually fill up the waste. Trenches were dug under the drain, making a groundwater drainage system, although local workers, as a rule, just throw pipes under the canvas.

Petrozavodsk workers first made channels for the approach and outlet of water, outlet and reception gates, and the pipes were lined with insulating materials on a special concrete pedestal. As a result, Katz's road turned out from the base to the pavement more than a meter thick, in contrast to the thin local ones. For 11 years, only one pothole appeared on it.

We wandered along the side of the "eternal" road, the existence of which refuted many official construction theories, for example, "about the traffic of goods that kill the canvas." About the terrible Russian climate. And in general about the frailty of everything asphalted … I recalled spring Samara with streams washing away the year-old asphalt, and joyful road workers putting it into the water again.

from the reportage "KP"

The KP correspondent managed to find Valentin Katz's number and talk to him. He still works in Petrozavodsk and assures that Russians can make good roads if they are not clamped down in finances.

According to the contractor, in Russia, the state unreasonably saves a lot on road construction, so workers and designers have to fit into the estimate using cheap materials and reduce the thickness of the coating, significantly reducing the service life.