VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
Up until the mid-1950s, the Volga Embankment was lined with wooden pavements and dotted with loading docks and berths for merchant, fishing and small boats.
The first concrete embankment was built in 1958 when Astrakhan marked its 400th anniversary, stretching from the mouth of River Kutum, a tributary of the Volga, to Pier 17, a historic landing place for passenger motorboats dating back many decades.
The embankment was overhauled in 2006 under an agreement between Governor Alexander Zhilkin (acting on behalf of the regional government) and Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller.
Under the agreement, Gazprom provided over 2 billion roubles for the modernisation of the embankment. The on-site financing was carried out by the region's Gazprom subsidiary, Gazprom Dobycha Astrakhan. The company also selected a contractor, the local construction company Vis.
Under the project, a 1,250 km stretch was paved with granite, while the pedestrian zone was expanded from 6 to 15 metres. The plan was also to replace the entire engineering infrastructure, develop the adjacent areas (redecorate the facades of the buildings that line the embankment, build more cafes, including floating cafe bars and outdoor cafe terraces), and reinforce the waterfront by installing 70-metre concrete poles to replace the wooden ones and make the embankment steep rather than sloping.
Belvederes were erected at intervals along the embankment, built on raised ground to provide an excellent panorama. All construction works have been completed to date.
Four fountains were built - the Wedding Waltz fountain near the Central Wedding Palace, the Sound-and-Light fountain in the middle of the embankment (the largest and the only one of its kind in the city), the Flower and the Goldfish fountains.
The embankment is paved with several kinds of high quality granite, and is adorned with a decorative cast iron baluster, early 20th-century street lamps, and granite stairs descending to the water.
