Putin flies with helicopter to Amur highway he drove Lada on
UGLEGORSK, Amur region. Sept 2 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin examined on Tuesday a section of the Amur federal highway near the city of Uglegorsk in the Amur region, which connects Chita, Khabarovsk and Far East regions with the rest of the country.
In 2010 Putin already inspected the Chita-Khabarovsk highway. He drove Lada Kalina 2,200 km and found out that about 500 km of the highway needed capital reconstruction.
This time the president arrived to the 1,412th km of the highway with helicopter and examined a cafe and a motel located there. A big parking lot for trucks, repair and tire shops, gas station and a store are next to the cafe.
Minister of Transportation Maxim Sokolov and Communications Minister Nikolai Nikiforov accompanied the president and elaborated on highway operations and its infrastructure.
The Amur highway construction, which allows ensuring traffic from Moscow to Vladivostok, began in 1978 but was virtually frozen in mid 1990s. Only 308 km of certain sections were built by then. In 2000s work resumed and by 2010 over 1,700 km of the highway were completed. For three years to follow old sections of the highway, which did not meet requirements, were repaired. Construction of access lines from settlements is currently being held but only seven out of 14 access lines are ready.
One of the issues related to the Amur highway operations is exceeding by 1.2- to 2-fold the acceptable load of the road due to the construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome near Uglegorsk and planned construction of gas and chemical plant in the framework of the Power of Siberia project.