Preparatory work for the construction of one of the Adler bypass tunnels began in Krasnodar Krai. Vyacheslav Petushenko, Chairman of the Board of Russian Highways State Company, officially launched the construction of a tunnel retaining wall in the village of Vysokoe at the site of the future interchange with the A-149 Krasnopolyanskoe Highway.
At the moment, three drilling machines are involved in the works near the village of Vysokoe. Two more are operating at the site of the future interchange with A-147 near the settlement of Kudepsta, where there will be a connection to the tunnel. They are involved in preparing the site for the tunnel boring machines (TBMs) and the retaining wall of the interchange. The total length of tunnels on the Adler bypass will be about 12 kilometers. It is planned that there will be two tunnels 6 kilometers long each, which will run parallel to each other.
The Russian Highways State Company is also carrying out other preparatory works, including site development for the plant for producing reinforced concrete tunnel lining, building construction camps, rearranging utilities in the work area and construction of access roads.
The Adler bypass will become part of a new expressway on the Black Sea coast. According to the preliminary project, it will start from the junction with M-4 Don, located between the village of Gorskoe and the settlement of Dzhubga. It will then run along the coast through challenging sections of mountainous terrain. At the Sochi River, it will connect to the existing A-147 road. Next, from Kudepsta, there will be the about 10 kilometer long Adler bypass. The new construction section is over 130 km long.
This road is an ultra-complex and the only tunneling project of this scale in the world. Unique TBMs more than 12 meters in diameter each will be used for tunneling. Construction will take place in difficult confined area of mountainous terrain, dominated by mountain clefts, depressions and rivers.
As Russian President Vladimir Putin noted during his address to the Federal Assembly, the construction of the M-4 Don – Sochi Highway is a new significant road sector project.
