A Bridge Not Too Far!

On our Irkutsk–Yakutsk–Magadan–Yakutsk winter road-trip we finally rolled into civilization and were fast approaching Yakutsk Airport, from where we’d soon have the good fortune to be heading home. But before the triumphant finale to our adventures, we decided to investigate a topic that’s been pertinent to the locals here since, like, forever: connecting the two banks of the Lena River to give Yakutsk – a city of almost 400,000 – year-round access to the “mainland”. And our investigations hit upon some very positive news: construction of the Lena Bridge has finally begun! Hurray!

But first things first…

We took the Kolyma Highway as far as Nizhny Bestyakh, but instead of heading out onto the ice to cross the Lena over to Yakutsk, we decided to make a small ~40km detour along the Lena Highway to get to a certain road sign…

And here it is! That makes four “1111” signs on this trip alone! A “full house”, no less. Or is it “four of a kind”? )

And the road itself surprised us too – dead-smooth, top-notch asphalt! I drove here back in 2021 when it was still gravel. Now, it seems, they’ve made the whole Lena Highway off-the-scale luxurious!

I thought about it for a bit, then dug up some photos of this road from the internet circa 2006. The photos aren’t mine; I don’t know who took them, and there were no copyright credits. But 20 years ago, in summer, the road looked like… this! ->

We got our shot of the 1111 marker, and headed back…

We meet a “no left-turn” sign… which seemed to list an exception-to-the-rule; alas [sic.], it was impossible to read…

So, naturally, we turned left!…

And headed over there ->

The sign states that construction is expected to last from this year to 2028, but I read elsewhere it’s now going to be more like 2029 ->

So yes, the Lena Bridge, finally, is to become a reality. For those interested in the details, there’s plenty over on Wikipedia. In brief: the bridge will be cable-stayed and two-lane, with the bridge structures totaling 4.6km in length, and the central pylon standing 284m tall (wow – just a touch shorter than the Eiffel Tower!). Passenger cars will cross free of charge (or so they say), while freight trucks will pay a toll.

Here’s a rendering of how it’ll all look:

And it’s a real complex structure, too. It looks set to be a unique bridge with no equal anywhere in the world: an almost five-kilometer construction (with the main spans totaling about 2.5km), built on permafrost, with annual temperature swings from +40°C to -60°C (sometimes higher and lower). The bridge’s safety margin must be off the charts. And there’s more: the Lena here is a little over two kilometers wide (at its narrowest point near Yakutsk), while the river runs up to 12 meters deep (apparently even deeper during the spring floods).

The informational displays at the construction site explain how it’s all done – and it’s complicated. Floating cofferdams (a new term for me:) are those round structures installed where the pylon foundations will sit. The water gets pumped out, and then construction of the pylons gets underway. Since there’s permafrost here, the drilling has to go real deep. Here are the cofferdams:

Off we popped to see how it all gets assembled in the brutal cold…

Construction of the piers for the bridge’s overland section:

A finished pier:

Installing a cofferdam:

It’s the first time I’ve seen a complex bridge being built. Fascinating stuff!

Construction of the structure’s overland section:

Colossal! (Alas, my sunglasses were reflecting the dashboard lights pretty badly) ->

The permafrost conditions call for bridge-pier elements of this size to be buried in the ground:

For now, the crossing is still an ice one :)

Off to the side – a power-line pylon. A surreal sight…

And here’s the main staging area for the upcoming on-water works:

And a huge thank-you to the construction management team who kindly gave us a most fascinating tour!

And that’s about it. Another magical winter road-trip has come to an end. And here we are on the “official” current ice crossing over the Lena:

And here we are too – all happy and content post-road-trip:

In 21 days, we clocked up more than 9,000 kilometers.

And that, finally, was that. Next stop – home!…

The best hi-res photos from our Irkutsk–Yakutsk–Magadan–Yakutsk road–trip are here.