Rapid growth of industrial development in East Donbass in 1880-1900 caused an increase of transportation, mainly of coal, steel and bread to the ports of the Azov Sea and of wood to the Donbass mines.
The necessity of improving navigation conditions on the Don River and the Seversky Donets River was first considered at the Engineering Meeting of the Ministry of Transportation in 1903. There the project of locking of the Seversky Donets River with hydro-system No.1 on the Don River near Kochetovsky village, worked out by the outstanding hydro engineer Nestor Puzyrevsky, was approved.
The construction of the Kochetovsky hydro-system was started on May 20, 1914 and continued during the First World War and the Civil War.
In 1919, the Kochetovsky hydro-system was completed and put into operation.
During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 and Nazi occupation the hydro-system was saved due to skillful measures taken by operation personnel. At the end of 1943 the hydro- system was operating again, passing through barges with coal.
In 1952-1953, the gate and lock drives were electrified.
In 1967-1972, the hydro-system underwent major reconstruction. The existing lock gate was extended from 100m to 138m to allow navigation by vessels of the "Volga-Don" type along the Volga-Don canal.
Today it is the oldest infrastructure of the Unified Deep Water System of European Russia.
Being the first hydro-system on the way from the Azov Sea, the existing lock gate determines the total channel capacity of the Volga-Don waterway. However, the technical condition and overall dimensions of the existing lock gate of the Kochetovsky hydro-system, which has been operating since 1919, does not meet modern requirements of passing through large-tonnage vessels, and restricts the carrying capacity of the Unified Deep Water System of European Russia in the Azov-Volga section.
The overall dimensions of the lock gate (145х17m) are not big enough for passing large-capacity vessels with dimensions of 138x16.8m. Moreover, the depth at the lock gate is 3.35 m at the minimum water level. This means vessels with a draft up to 3.6 m have to significantly under-load in order to pass through the gate with a draft of 3.0-3.1 m.
Construction of the second (parallel) lock gate chamber with access ducts aligned with the existing Kochetovsky hydro-system was started in August 2004 as part of subprogramme Inland Waterways of the Federal Targeted Programme Modernisation of Transport System of Russia in 2002-2010, following the decision of the Government of the Russian Federation. Over 3.2 billion roubles ($129.45 million, or €89.01 million) were allocated from the federal budget for this construction.
At the end of December 2006, technological testing of the new lock gate was successfully performed with the passing through of a cargo vessel. The first passing of vessels through a new line of the lock gate was conducted the day the Kochetovsky hydro-system opened for navigation on April 1, 2008.
On June 19, 2008 the State Commission, consisting of representatives of the Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, supervisory authorities and the Administration of Rostov Region, signed the acceptance certificate for the second line of the lock gate of Kochetovsky hydro-system. The document was approved by A. Davydenko, head of the Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport.
Putting the second line of the lock gate of Kochetovsky hydro-system into operation will eliminate one of the narrowest points of the inland waterways of the Unified Deep Water System of European Russia.
The second line of the lock gate of Kochetovsky hydro-system will serve to achieve the following goals:
- liquidate the bottleneck on the Lower Don and ensure a guaranteed depth of 4.0m throughout the Unified Deep Water System of European Russia;
- provide safe conditions for inter-basin navigation between Azov and Astrakhan;
- increase competitiveness of the Russian part of the North-South international transport corridor;
- reduce transportation costs for Russian exporters by using the full loading capacity of vessels. The new lock gate with overall dimensions of 156.6х18.1х5.5 metres allows locking of modern cargo vessels with a capacity of up to 8,000 tons, as well as passenger ships with a capacity of up to 400 people;
- increase total cargo capacity of the waterways in the Azov-Volgograd section by 7.3 million tons.
Completion of the second line of the lock gate has special economic and social importance and facilitates further development of import-export transportation via the Unified Deep Water System of European Russia. This boosts the significance of the Unified Deep Water System of European Russia in general and especially in the section from Astrakhan to the Azov Sea.
Putting the second line of the lock gate of Kochetovsky hydro-system into operation will lay the foundation for infrastructure development of the whole Volga-Don waterway.
Integration of Russian inland waterways into the international transport network, including preparation of internal waterways for navigation by foreign vessels, will become a truly realizable goal at the Azov-Caspian section after the opening of the Kochetovsky hydro-system.