When the construction of the Big Circle Metro Line is completed. Video

BKL builders have to build seven new stations and reconstruct two more. These stations should be added to the existing 22 BCL stations as early as 2022. The pace of construction of the BKL was told on the air of the City program on the RBC TV channel

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In December 2021, Moscow immediately opened traffic at ten new stations of the Big Circle Line (BKL) of the metro. The movement of trains with passengers was launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. Earlier, in April 2021, two more stations were opened on the BCL — Khoroshevskaya and Mnevniki. Together with the stations commissioned in December, the total number of stops on the BCL reached 22.

What about BCL? Where is Metrostroy today, how is the work going? When will the BCL close and the new ring line will work at 100%? Now we'll tell you.

Recall that the BCL is a circle line, the length of which will be 70 km, there will be 31 stations. For comparison: the current Circle Line of the Moscow Metro is 12 stations and 19.5 km. And the length of the current champion among underground rings - the Second Ring Line of the Beijing Metro - is 57 km.

So, the first section of the BCL from the Petrovsky Park metro station to the Delovoy Tsentr (five stations in total) was launched in February 2018. But the launch date of the BCL has changed. The most relevant dates for the completion of the construction of a large subway ring in the Moscow City Hall were named only recently.

Andrey Bochkarev, Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Urban Policy and Construction:

- According to the original plan, the completion of the construction of the BCL was in 2023. [Moscow Mayor] Sergei Sobyanin was instructed to speed up the construction of the facility. We [Stroykompleks] completed the construction of 12 BKL stations last year and launched them in December. it was actually half a year ahead of [the plan]. We plan to complete the construction of all stations remaining on the Bolshaya Koltsevaya Line by the end of 2022. And prepare them for launch with passengers.

So, this year it remains to open seven new stations and two more - after reconstruction. All of them are located on the eastern section of the BKL. Here, the tunneling has already been completed, that is, technically the ring is closed. Sergei Sobinin announced this on December 29, 2021: “This day will forever go down in the history of the Moscow metro construction,” the mayor wrote. “143 km of tunnels of the Big Circle Metro Line, the largest metro ring in the world, have been completed.”

The themes of construction, of course, are shocking. But how to explain them? The word - to the builders of the BCL. Mosinzhproekt is the general designer and general contractor for the construction of the stations.

Konstantin Maslakov, General DIRECTOR of MIP-Stroy 1:

“We are faced with the task of optimizing construction time. First of all, this has already been achieved by reducing the depth of laying new sections of the station complexes. That is, in fact, we are building shallow stations, with a depth of less than 30 m. Thus, the speed of excavation from under the shield tunneling has increased, which, accordingly, has increased the speed of the tunneling complexes.

Now each station has two years of construction instead of four. This, by the way, is the technical feature of the BKL project: the closer the tunnels and stations are to the surface of the earth, the faster the construction goes, but at the same time you have to deal with a larger volume of existing engineering communications.

Konstantin Maslakov, General Director of MIP-Stroy 1:

- During construction, we are faced with a large number of engineering communications that need to be removed from the building site. This is especially important during the construction of BCL, since new stations must be integrated with radial lines (both existing and prospective).

It is also possible to speed up the construction process due to the extensive fleet of special equipment: 33 tunneling shields were involved in the tunneling of the BKL at different times.

Konstantin Maslakov, General Director of MIP-Stroy 1:

“Among them are four giant shields, ten-meter shields that we use in the construction of double-track tunnels. What it is? That is, in one tunnel there are two paths running parallel in opposite directions. Giant shields themselves began to be used quite recently. And, despite the scale of this technique, for a fairly long period of installation and dismantling, nevertheless, this is a significant advantage [in the speed of construction].

Let's fix it. Right now, one of the largest construction operations in the world is underway near Moscow. This has never been built anywhere else.

Andrey Bochkarev, Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Urban Policy and Construction:

— The work is being carried out intensively, but on schedule. There are a number of difficult moments - now we were dealing with the issue of resolving all these organizational, technical, administrative issues. I am sure that by the end of 2022 we will complete the construction of the BCL.