$12 million were spent on repairing the bridge in Dnipro, but it still has emergency beams

February 5 could have been the birthday of my friend Vasyl Sukhov, but Vasya left us quietly and prematurely. One of his last publications in the newspaper ‘Litsa’ was an article about the repair of the ‘Central Bridge’ in Dnipro, and that was more than a year ago. What has changed? Nothing!

The «major overhaul» for UAH 312 million ($12 million) has turned into another ‘Potemkin village,’ and even the current president took part in this show, making a deal with the mayor of the city, Boris Filatov, who officially won the latter—since the bridge is open and thousands of cars drive over it every day. However, it remains in disrepair and has not yet been put into operation…

These beams were not replaced. They were simply covered up.

Let’s recall the history

1967, 50 years of the USSR, the bridge had to be put into operation by this date at any cost. Therefore, according to eyewitnesses, the order was given to use any construction mixes and solutions, in addition to special concretes, to fill the formwork under the bridge supports, which later led to erosion and the formation of voids in the support structures.

A documentary (and not just one) was filmed about this by divers and shown on the “1+1” TV channel. Thus, the main problem is not even in the damaged beams but in the supports, which no one addressed. I would like to draw attention to the fact that the estimate for the work of divers, initially set at UAH 80,000 ($3,000) on paper, was later increased to UAH 8,000,000 ($300,000), and all other repair costs increased in the same proportions.

Now, about the visible part of the bridge

Based on the provided photos taken before the «cosmetic repairs», it is evident that not only are there holes in the load-bearing beams, but the load-bearing pre-stressed reinforcement is also damaged. Its function is to absorb dynamic loads. In other words, such beams are already functioning solely for destruction, and it is only because the bridge structures are interconnected that it manages to relax (remove critical stresses) the load. However, at any moment, all this can lead to a disaster!

To confirm this, consider the statistics of the so-called repair of «load-bearing structures». Out of 36 emergency beams, 9 of which were in critical condition, only three were replaced! The rest were merely patched up, and for the sake of inflating the budget, they used a material like Kevlar!

According to the project, the service life of this bridge was supposed to be 50 years. The bridge is already 54 years old. Therefore, to avoid serious consequences, it needs to be demolished and a new one built. Of course, one can opt for a major overhaul, starting with caisson works to reinforce supports and replacing most load-bearing structures, and that should happen in the near future.

But in Dnipro, it seems that no one cares: the money has been spent, the bets have been won, and no one has faced punishment except for some «scapegoats».

There is also the Dnipro Metro, where the drill-and-blast method is used to pass through the rocky formations on the right bank. This method involves the use of massive explosive charges. This could lead to collapses and destruction in the very center of Dnipro… But that’s a completely different story.

Alexander Molchanov, Honored Economist of Ukraine, Corresponding Member of the International Engineering Academy.