In Sochi Prime Minister Vladimir Putin inspects cluster of tunnels No.3 forming the combined motorway and railway linking Adler with the Alpika-Servis alpine ski resort
Showing Putin the tunnels, Vice President of Russian Railways Oleg Toni confirmed that the builders experienced a landslide when building this section of the road.
"Together with the best specialists from Germany, Canada and Switzerland Russian engineers have analyzed three options," he said.
"And you have concluded that you should go higher, haven't you?" Putin asked.
"We will go higher and build the bridge's foundation over it," Toni said. He added that they are planning to build a cable-stayed bridge. "This elegant engineering decision will make the bridge look beautiful," he said, adding that the IOC Inspection Commission will review it in January. "If they like it, we will endorse the project on January 20 and start putting it into action," Toni specified.
Toni told Putin that they have three years to build 48 km of railway tracks, motorways and five roundabouts. He said the project has taken all requirements into account. "It will be fully completed in March 2012. By now we were due to have completed all the preparations and we have," he said.
Toni emphasized that the builders are paying great attention to environmental issues. He said the No.3 is the longest tunnel cluster. "In the first quarter we will start working on the motorway tunnel which has a 13 meter diameter," he said.
The longest tunnel cluster is located on the road's section from the 23rd to 28th km. It includes motorway and railway tunnels with a service and escape gallery and is designed to avoid the Mzymta River bed, which turns sharply at this point. Both tunnels will be more than 4 km long.
After the combined road project is completed, up to 8,500 passengers an hour will be able to travel by railway and up to 11,500 people by car to the alpine stadiums of Krasnaya Polyana and the Olympic Park's ice arenas in the Imerety Valley. The journey will take about half an hour.
To date some 30 km of trail roads (80%) have been built. The construction of access ways to production depots and construction sites has been fully completed.
