Construction of an underground automobile tunnel from Peremohy Square to Livoberezhna Subway station will cost UAH 2.5 bn. It will take three years to build the tunnel that will be several tens of kilometers long. KW tried to find out whether it is worthwhile to invest in the megaproject that will pay off only in 30 years.
http://weekly.com.ua/?art=1201716347 In order to settle Kyiv’s growing problem of traffic jams, the capital’s authorities have decided to build a tunnel through the city’s main water thoroughfare. To date, the four bridges that link the right and the left banks of the city cannot cope with the number of motor transport, which grows by day. The load on them is two times higher than the planned capacity.
Construction of an underground automobile road from Livoberezhna subway station to Peremohy Square has been approved by the Program of Construction and Reconstruction of Road Transport Objects for 2007-2011. It is planned that the tunnel will go several tens of meters deeper than Dnipro’s bottom and thus deeper than the subway line. The digging will begin in May 2009 and it is planned to commission the tunnel in December 2012. The deadlines are written down in the documents, but in the view of absence of real investors, the final commissioning could be postponed. The city officials have calculated that the construction will cost approximately UAH 2.51 bn. However, already now there are doubts that the local budget will be able to allocate such amount.
“The construction of the tunnel will be quite expensive so we will have to attract investors. Naturally, it will be done on tender basis,” says first deputy of Kyiv Mayor Denys Bass. Recently, the municipal corporation KyivAvtoDor submitted proposals on including the development of technical and economic substantiation of tunnel construction on the concession basis into the program of social-economic and cultural development of Kyiv in 2008.” If the tunnel is built using the funds of investors, it is possible that there will be a charge for using it.
KW has tried to estimate how quickly the investments will return provided that the usage of the tunnel will be based on a toll. According to the State Automobile Inspection, such tunnel will have the throughput capacity of about 20,000 cars per day. With the toll at UAH 10 per car, the annual proceeds will amount to UAH 73 mn. Therefore, the investments into the tunnel will return in 34 years and then will begin to yield profit.
By the way, the Program of Construction and Reconstruction of Road Transport Objects for 2007-2011 envisages reconstruction of Peremohy Square prior to the beginning of construction of the underground tunnel. Reconstruction will begin in January 2008 and end in December 2011. The cost of the reconstruction is estimated at UAH 1.35 bn.
The document also envisages construction of another 2.5 km tunnel, which will go from Podil Bridge under Frunze Street to Chornovola Street. The terms for construction are January 2010 – December 2011
