An initial plan to route the railway through Tomsk necessitated a bridge 55 km west, but frequent spring flooding of the Ob river at this site rendered it unsuitable.

Civil engineer and writer Nikolai Garin-Mikhailovsky subsequently identified a viable alternative: a narrow, rocky section approximately 200 km southwest of Tomsk, near the present-day Novosibirsk, just north of the Salair Ridge.

In late August 1891, three high-ranking officials—Konstantin Mikhailovsky (Head of Railway Construction), Vladimir Berezin (State Counsellor, future contractor), and Vikenty Roetsky (Exploration Group Commander)—met in Big Krivoschekovo.

In 1882, he became the first in Russia to advocate for using steel in railroad bridge construction, a practice not yet systematically adopted in Austria and cautiously approached in Germany due to contemporary technical limitations.

[1] Originally, the bridge superstructure was made up of nine bowstring arch through truss spans over the river channel with double lattice girders that measured 109-meter (358 ft.) in length.

The design gained international acclaim, receiving the prestigious Gold Medal at the 1890 Edinburg Exposition, becoming recognized globally as the "Russian style of support".

[2] The truss superstructure rested on masonry piers, reinforced upstream with triangular buttresses (cutwaters) to break up ice that floats downstream in spring.

Budanov played a pivotal role in overseeing construction projects, notably recognizing the substantial contributions made by Nikolai Garin-Mikhailovsky to the development of railway sections, bridges, and stations.

Budanov expressed deep appreciation for their collaborative spirit, highlighting Garin-Mikhailovsky's resourcefulness, talent, and intelligence, which markedly elevated both the quality of the projects and team morale.

To remediate erosion at the bridge approach foundations, 78,000 m³ of soil was backfilled, and an access road exceeding one kilometer in length was constructed over this fill to the left abutment to facilitate material transport.

However, the USSR Ministry of Railways opted to construct a new bridge, demolishing the existing structure deemed inadequate for modern heavy rail traffic, as it was originally designed for smaller engines and lighter railcars.

This event resulted in a substantial alteration of the Ob River's hydrological regime within the city of Novosibirsk, specifically the near elimination of the annual spring ice drift.