Bridges in Kyiv

Due to the location and the width of the river, the bridges have always been a very attractive and hard to realize option throughout the long history of Kyiv.

Stationary bridges existed in Kyiv from the mid-19th century, but none of them survived the turbulent events that followed the 1917 Russian Revolution.

According to the chronicles,[clarification needed] the earliest floating bridge across the Dnieper River in the area was built in the 1115.

Rusanivsky bridge connected the Darnytsia region with the city of Kyiv by the Brovary chaussée (highway).

During the Battle of Kyiv, Red Army's attempt to catch the bridge by landing forces was unsuccessful.

Immediately after the liberation a temporary wooden bridge was built at the location of the blown up Darnytskyi bridge by the Red Army engineers in the record thirteen-day time (some sources cite thirty days) in the urgency to facilitate the pursuit of the German army on its retreat from Ukraine.

The record short construction time plan was met despite the frequent German bombing raids.

A few years before World War II the Soviet government planned two underground railroad lines to be laid underneath the bedrock of Dnieper river.

Another line (Southern) was planned to cross the Dnieper from the Zhukiv Island to Osokorky (Darnytsia Raion).

The project came up in a fear that in case of a war the bridges over the Dnieper were a vulnerable part of the regional transport infrastructure, and tunnels might be a long-term strategic solution.

The NKVD oversaw the project, drafting hundreds of military, civilian and prison workers to work on it.

The underdeveloped technology of the time required special makeshift caissons (vertical mines for ventilation and soil extraction) to be built in the middle of the river.

The builders were able only to connect the Right Bank with the close Zhukiv Island (where the present-day southern port is situated).

Contemporary amateur researchers believe that a large secret base component of the project, including a train station, barracks and mass graves of workers, are also located in the depths of the tunnels.

It is a cable-stayed bridge, with the beam of the main span being held by a cluster of steel ropes which are fixed to a 115 meters tall A-pylon.

The bridge is a light construction 400 m (1,312 ft) in length that connects Kyiv to the park-area Trukhaniv Island.

The bridge is used for both the Sviatoshynsko-Brovarska Line of Kyiv Metro and automobile traffic (being part of the Brovary Parkway).

The Metro bridge consists of two spans as it links the central Hydropark island as well as the left and right banks.

It was the first fully welded steel construction of such length in the world to the date of completion and it was the longest bridge in Europe at that time.

It took the place of an older bridge, which was destroyed in 1941 in the first days of the German invasion of the Soviet Union (see the earlier history section.).

[13] Following the construction of the bridge, a new major passenger terminal will be completed in the Darnytsia Railway Station on the Left Bank of the city.

It connects the Vydubychi to the rapidly developing left-bank Darnytsia neighborhood, completing the southern end of the Kyiv Smaller Ring Road route.

Despite the mid-20th century failure, the idea of under-river tunnels, which is relied on much advanced metro technologies, is still on Kyiv city planner's table.

Tunnel projects are recently being included in some of proposed Kyiv development plans as a way to move the main traffic flows in the city center underground.

Recently, Kyivavtodor road company and the institutes of Kyivdormostproekt and Kyivproekt were working out plans for a tunnel system which would connect the left and right banks of Kyiv.

A special Pontoon-Bridge Brigade of the Armed Forces is based on the Left Bank, ready to use its truck-based automatic bridges and docking boats.