Dmitry Aleksandrov and the students participating in the excursion
On 4 June, fourth- and fifth-year students from the SPbGASU Department of Transport Systems and Road and Bridge Construction, majoring in "Construction of Unique Buildings and Structures" (CUBS), as well as sixth-year graduate students, took a professional tour of the Tsymbalinsky Highway Overpass construction site. The reconstruction project is being carried out by JSC PO Vozrozhdenie.
The Tsymbalinsky overpass connects Bela Kuna Street in the Frunzensky District and Tsymbalina Street in the Nevsky District of St Petersburg. Although the project is described as a reconstruction, it is actually a new construction project. The existing two-lane arched overpass, built in 1910, will be completely dismantled, and in its place, two separate overpasses—one on the left and one on the right—will be erected.
The new four-lane construction, including ramps, will be 975 meters long, 450 meters of which will run directly over the railway tracks. Once operational, its capacity will increase almost two and a half times, to 24,000 vehicles per day. Furthermore, the Moscow-St Petersburg high-speed railway will run under the overpass.
The tour for the students was led by Dmitry Aleksandrov, a SPbGASU graduate 2007 and construction supervisor. The participants visited the slipway where the superstructure was being assembled and witnessed one of the most interesting stages of the work – the sliding of the left overpass superstructure. The operation was performed using two powerful horizontal jacks.
To reduce the sag of the cantilevered portion of the sloping span, the builders used a truss system—a special cable-stayed system that provides additional structural support. The students were able to learn the principles of its operation in detail on-site.
Of particular interest was the process of concreting the monolithic roadway slab of the steel-reinforced concrete superstructure, adjacent to the main overpass with a metal superstructure and an orthotropic roadway slab.
The tour allowed future engineers to experience modern bridge construction technologies and the organization of work at one of the Northern Capital's most important infrastructure facilities in real-life conditions.
Student Daria Suvorova shared her impressions: "During the tour, we learned about the Tsimbalinsky overpass itself, its features, and the structures and construction technologies used at the site. It was especially interesting to see the bridge superstructures, which we studied throughout the semester, in real. We also had the opportunity to observe the construction process itself. The most impressive part was the sliding of the overpass's metal superstructure—we learned about the technology and the devices used. Thank you so much for the opportunity to visit the bridge under construction!"
According to the participants, the two hours on the construction site flew by and became a valuable addition to the theoretical training, allowing them to see the practical application of the engineering solutions being studied.