Saint Petersburg Dam - Project

Project

For years, prominent scientists and statesmen of imperial Russia developed various plans for flood protection, and the Soviet Union implemented the idea. The flood of 1955 finally made it clear that the city needed a protection dam. Many options were considered before the Soviet government decided on a 25.4 km (15.8 mi) complex of 11 dams, including a six-lane highway on the top.

The project was begun in 1979, and construction continued through 1995, at which point the dam was around 70% complete, when due to difficulties obtaining financing after the fall of the Soviet Union the project was suspended until 2005, when Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ordered its resumption. Construction was completed in 2011, and the formal opening of the complex was on 12 August 2011. At the opening ceremony, Putin said that the completion of the project was a "historic event" and meant that Saint Petersburg "is not just protected from floods, the ecological situation also improved."

The entire project cost roughly 109 billion rubles ($3.85 billion), and resulted in a series of eleven separate dams measuring 25 kilometres (16 mi) across the Gulf of Finland. Built into the structure are two openings to allow ships to pass through, six gates that can be closed to hold back water, and about 30 facilities for purifying water flowing into the gulf. It took 42 hm3 (55,000,000 cu yd) of stone and soil, 2 hm3 (2,600,000 cu yd) of reinforced concrete and about 100,000 tonnes (110,000 short tons) of steel structures and other materials to build the dam. The project was designed and implemented by over 100 scientific and design institutions, construction companies and suppliers of materials and equipment.