The problems of the Kyiv subway are just beginning: versions of the critical situation at Demiivska station

14.12.2023

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A collage of Kyivans who were left without convenient transportation

On the afternoon of December 8, 2023, Kyiv residents found themselves in a new transportation reality when, by the strong decision of Mayor Vitalii Klychko, they were left without six metro stations – stations from Demiivska to Teremky were urgently closed for
repairs. Approximately for six months. The reason was the flooding of the metro tracks due to tunnel sealing violations. But many questions have arisen, including what caused a violation in the tunnel’s sealing, how long it has been happening and and what funds will be used for repairs during the difficult stage of the war, which is entering its third year.

Kyiv Government’s versions

According to Viktor Brahinskyi, the head of the Kyiv Metropolitan municipally corporation, among the versions being considered are violations of safety (isolation) during tunnel construction, the activity of the Lybid River, and floats.

«The first report will be two weeks after receiving the results on geology. After that, the tunnel will be opened from above… We need to access the tunnel from the outside and see if the norms prescribed by the project were followed by the general contractor… It will be approximately two to three months from now. Because the pit needs to be made about 20 meters long and over 10 meters wide, and the depth of the pit is from five to eight and a half meters», – Brahinskyi explained to the journalists, who, for some reason, were led to the critical emergency tunnel.

Kyiv City Council deputy from the UDAR party (Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform of Vitalii Klychko), Dmytro Bilotserkovets, stated that the former president Viktor Yanukovych is to blame for the emergency state of the metro.

«Just a reminder: the metro stations that were just closed for repairs were opened by the “strong managers” Yanukovych and Azarov ten years ago. Yanukovych’s gang came to power in 2010 and they needed to show quick results – urgently opening metro stations. And they didn’t care that they didn’t manage to do the waterproofing», – reasoned Dmytro Bilotserkovets.

The police version

Law enforcement agencies have their own version, which was confirmed by the Podil District Prosecutor’s Office of Kyiv City on December 13, 2023, when searches were conducted in the office premises of the Department of Transport Infrastructure of the Kyiv City State Administration, Kyiv Metropolitan municipally corporation, and the project organization that implemented the project of problematic distillation tunnels. The purpose was to seize documents regarding the construction and operation of distillation tunnels between the Demiivska and Lybidska stations in the Lybid River floodplain for further study by investigators and experts.

It is reported that law enforcement officers are thoroughly investigating the circumstances in a criminal case initiated due to official negligence, related to the emergence of an emergency situation leading to breaches in sealing, water leakage, and sand ingress into the tunnel of the Kyiv metro on the Obolonsko-Teremkivska line.

According to the results of examinations conducted by experts, appropriate measurements of cracks in tunnel structures and vaults have been carried out, among other things. Experts have also noted the necessity for detailed analysis of project, construction, executive, and other documentation, as well as geodetic surveys, along with laboratory investigations of water and soil.

Version of the former government

Former Mayor of Kyiv Leonid Kosakivskyi (1997–1998, head of the Kyiv City State Administration 1995–1996) stated in a comment to the media that developers are to blame for the depressurization of the capital’s metro.

«Builders, or rather «destructors». It is their predatory behavior that has distorted and destabilized the city, creating numerous problems that, like time-delayed mines, explode here and there. And on this stretch of the metro, in particular. All that horror looming there, and those tons and tons of concrete, iron, and glass, pressing on the soil and the tunnel lining, which suffered. This is what provoked and contributed to what happened. All other factors are derived from this. This is clear to any thoughtful person. There’s no need to look for other explanations», – summed up the former Mayor of Kyiv.

According to the former Mayor of Kyiv, it is necessary to establish the surnames of those who signed permits and documents for all constructions in the neighborhood where this disaster occurred, who their owners are, and compel them to pay for all the damages that the city and Kyiv residents will incur due to the elimination of this emergency situation and its consequences.

«That would be fair. Although I have little faith in it. All previous accidents at other facilities, pipe bursts in the same part of the city, ended with the appointment of scapegoats, or even without searching for those responsible, and the true “heroes” remained behind the scenes with their windfalls. However, I console myself with the hope that this time the public will demand the truth about what and who really caused this emergency, and will not allow, as usual, to pass all the losses onto the budget», –
summarized the former mayor of the capital.

«Let’s remember the background of the issue. Starting from the mid-1996, the city authorities, at the behest and solely in the interests of developers, barbarically and obsessively developed Kyiv with commercial housing, numerous offices, and shopping malls, abandoning the previously existing comprehensive approach, caring only about how to squeeze out more profit from every piece of land in Kyiv», – recounted the former mayor of the capital.

At the same time, according to him, no attention was paid to the development of transportation, engineering, social, communal infrastructure, and the balance was completely forgotten. The extensive motorization was «overslept».

«The physical wear and tear of municipal networks exceed their meager renewal by 80%. I remind you that we have about 5,000 km of heat networks and hot water supply networks in a single-pipe design. It’s like the distance from Kyiv to Delhi. The housing stock is aging catastrophically, mostly in unsatisfactory condition. Most of the elevators have exhausted their resource. The bridges are «tired». The so-called «share-out» began, where land was literally torn apart into pieces, and power in the city, essentially, was seized by what the press dubbed the «construction mafia». Big business and developers «called the shots», dictating the rules of the game in order to maximize their profits. In fact, they determined the architectural and construction policy in the capital, thus becoming the real power», – Leonid Kosakivskyi recounted.

Architect version

In the expert community, they are discussing not only the problems during the construction of the Obolonsko-Teremkivska metro line. They note that around the Lybidska and Demiivska stations and the floodplain of the Lybed River, many new construction sites have appeared – where no one dared to build before due to the high water table. But in this triangle, residential complexes such as « Frantsuzkyi kvartal» by Ihor Kushnir and Vadym Stolar, «Salut» residential complex by Kushnir and Stolar on the brink of Lake Hlynka, the Ocean Mall shopping center associated with Vahif Aliyev from Russia, and the «Riverdale» residential complex by Dmytro Isaenko (former member of
Party of Regions) have appeared.

Additionally, directly above the location of the tunnel accident, at the site of the former Demiivsky Market, the construction of another residential 22-story building is planned.

According to the opinion of Kyiv architect, and associate professor of the Mykhailo Boychuk Kyiv State Academy of Decorative and Applied Arts and Design, Viktor Hleba, the director of the Department of Transport Infrastructure, Ruslan Kandybor, and the head of the metro, Viktor Brahinskyi, they know the real cause of the accident but mislead Klychko and the public with their statements blaming the Lybid River. Hleba stated on Facebook that back in November 2022, officials of the Kyiv City State Administration were warned about the instability of the metro tunnel structures at Demiivska Square due to changes in the hydrological conditions of the engineering corridor in the floodplain of the Sovka River. However, an agreement between the Kyiv City State Administration, the State Investigation Bureau, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, and the Office of the President led to the lifting of the arrest from the plot where the cause of the accident is located.

Hleba is referring to Perfect Group company by Dmytro Isaenko, which is constructing a residential complex on the territory of the Kyivhuma factory on Iziumska Street, where the Sovka River flows.

«The start of construction works on the zero cycle of the Riverdale residential complex on the territory of the Kyivhuma factory led to the destruction of part of the sewer of the Sovka River (preparatory and geotechnical works, in our opinion violated the integrity of the aquifer, resulting in the saturation of sands and clay with water and filling the metro tunnel shield passage, the soil of which underwent chemical treatment during metro construction – «freezing»). Active bloggers began to spread information about the Lybidska metro and the construction of Ocean Plaza as the cause of the accident. Indeed, at the site of the shopping center, there was a tunnel construction shaft, and voids remained. And thousands of cubic meters of hot water from a burst heat line went underground there even before the war», – Hleba notes.

In the architect’s opinion, the public may now witness a multi-step combination that will only benefit the developers:

«We will soon see:
• I predict deja vu with Heroiv Dnipra station (where they also reinforced the slope of the metro station with the walls of a shopping center);
• The accident will be used to completely demolish the remnants of the Demiivsky Market, historical buildings of Kyivhuma, and legalize hydro-technical construction works in the interests of Perfect Group».

Interesting Facts

The director of the Department of Transport Infrastructure of the Kyiv City State Administration, Ruslan Kandybor, revealed in an interview with New Voice that the first cracks in the tunnel section between Demiivska and Lybidska stations appeared as early as 2011, just three months after its opening. Water started seeping in due to a breach in the sealant.

«In March 2011, the first cracks appeared, and this was recorded in the journal. And for the next 12 years, this section remained problematic; water was seeping in, and it continued to exist», – Kandybor said.

Before the issue with the Obolonsko-Teremkivska metro line became evident to all Kyiv residents, «Aktyvni hromadiany» submitted a request to the Kyiv City State Administration, asking the Department of Transport Infrastructure to provide a list of objects and measures according to the project-cost documentation for which the Department intends to spend 9.3 billion UAH in 2024 on activities in the field of electric transport. According to the response received by the editorial team, it is unknown whether funds are allocated for the repair of these specific tunnels of the Kyiv metro, although, as we can see from the statements of officials, the problems were known for a long time.

With 8.7 billion UAH allocated for the modernization of metro cars and only 550 million UAH allocated for the repair of electric transport facilities, including metro objects, it remains uncertain whether the allocated amount will be sufficient for the full and high-quality restoration of the problematic tunnels. Experts have not yet commented on this matter.

According to former Member of Parliament Igor Mosiychuk, the problem in the metro is also associated with the fact that the authorities in Kyiv do not pay sufficient attention to maintaining the transportation system in proper condition. The reason for this, he claims, is corruption.

«Looking for those responsible for the accident and the flooding of the blue line of the Kyiv Metro, one can certainly blame Azarov and Yanukovych under whose rule it was built (perhaps some miscalculations were indeed made then), but with the same success, one could point fingers at Klychko, Shchek, Khoryv and their sister Lybid, for example, for not exactly where our beautiful Kyiv was founded. Of course, you can shift the blame to predecessors indefinitely, but the fact remains – for the past TEN YEARS, the responsible team for operation, expert examination, and current repairs is under the control of Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klychko, the corresponding departments of the Kyiv City State Administration, and municipal enterprises, including the Kyiv Metro, headed by Viktor Brahinskyi since July 16, 2014. At the same time, even now, without expertise, it can be boldly stated that one of the main reasons for the accident on the blue line of the metro and the overall deterioration of the entire Kyiv Metro system has been the rampant CORRUPTION and blatant embezzlement of budget funds on an especially large scale, both in the current repair of existing infrastructure and in the construction of new metro stations, systematically engaged in by officials of municipally corporation Kyiv Metropolitan and JSC Kyivmetrobud», – wrote Mosiychuk on Facebook.

Let’s recall that in 2019, «Aktyvni hromadiany» wrote about the dangerous construction on the slope of Lake Hlynka in the Pechersk district of the capital, a multi-story residential
complex. Several years ago, the lake and the area on this slope were fenced off with a fence bearing the inscription of the Kyiv municipal service, which, as indicated on the fence, was only planning to carry out work to reinforce the slope. However, now, on the slope of the deep lake, new construction has grown up for several sections.