The government is preparing a project for alternative crossings over the Dnipro in Kyiv. Experts assessed the risks of pontoon bridges, the threats of shelling, and proposed a paid crossing.
Valentyna Dobrota
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The first alternative crossings over the Dnipro in Kyiv could become operational as early as the beginning of the year. This was reported by Mykola Kalashnyk, Minister of Infrastructure and Recovery. In total, Ukraine plans to build 21 crossings.
Whether alternative crossings will help avoid the isolation of Kyiv's banks — TSN correspondent Valentyna Dobrota investigated.
Kyiv residents' daily ordeal: five hours on the road and problems with the metro
For millions of Kyiv residents this is a daily challenge: first catch and squeeze into a bus, and then in an incredible traffic jam stretching for more than one kilometer, cross the Southern Bridge over the Dnipro. Only one lane is open toward the center, and only after you overcome obstacles in the form of interchange repairs on the left bank.
Getting from the left to the right bank of the capital, especially during rush hours, has always been difficult. But Russian strikes on the bridges have turned this journey into an ordeal.
The fastest way to get to the other bank is the metro. But the above-ground section of the red line does not operate during air raids, and the green line — after the latest Russian attack — does not run across the river at all.
And while residents of the left bank await official information about the restoration of metro service across the bridge, the authorities have promised to connect the two banks with alternative routes. This is a government project for which Kyiv must find a billion hryvnias.
Dmytro Bespalov, transport planning expert, head of the company "Bespalov LAB": "I think it's worth starting with the fact that a pontoon bridge, a pontoon crossing, is a military object. First of all, to fulfill military goals, and secondly — to evacuate the population with some humanitarian missions."
Transport planning expert Dmytro Bespalov says there is too little official information about what exactly the alternative crossings over the Dnipro will be. Since the Dnipro is wide and unruly, the engineer suggests it could be a combination of pontoon, modular, and embankment structures. But in the specialist's opinion, they will not be able to replace permanent bridges for the civilian population to cross the river twice a day.
Dmytro Bespalov, head of the company "Bespalov LAB": "These bridges were damaged, but they still work, they are actually fully operational now, although, for example, the Paton Bridge and the Metro Bridge are in terrible technical condition. Nevertheless, they work every day. And I can say that there is no alternative to such capital bridges for Kyiv to live approximately the life it is trying to live. That is, if you and I imagine that all these bridges were put out of action, if the question is whether it is possible, for example, to make some temporary solutions to perform some evacuation functions, humanitarian missions, I will say that it is certainly possible."
The experience of Chernihiv and the danger of pontoons during shelling
Residents of settlements that found themselves isolated after the bridge bombings in 2022 know how to drive on pontoons. In particular, Chernihiv was cut off. Pontoons, which are quick to assemble, were used across the Desna for a year until a new permanent bridge was built. It was the only route to the city and proved itself, but it operated intermittently: during temperature drops, ice, floods, and initially it was also closed during air raids.
In addition to weather whims, pontoons are now also too vulnerable to enemy strikes, says military expert Ivan Stupak. A crossing could become too easy a target for drones.
Ivan Stupak, military expert: "Here on the roads our drivers can't always manage, let each other pass. Someone broke down, so for civilians this is definitely not suitable. Military? No questions. Deployed a pontoon crossing, literally an hour or two — crossed, folded it up and then deployed it somewhere in another place. Because the Russians are constantly flying, they see it in the air and can attack at any moment. If it gets hit, then imagine a traffic jam of civilian cars: two dozen overturned, everyone trapped in cars, they go to the bottom — what will happen? Yes, a bridge can be attacked, yes, people can die, but there definitely won't be dozens of victims."
Kyiv has 6 road bridges and 2 railway bridges. About 600,000 vehicles cross them every day.
Imbalance of the banks, paid crossing, and "digital twins" of bridges
People live on the left bank and work on the right. This Kyiv imbalance is further reinforced by public transport problems. All mayors without exception for years favored private over communal transport. To free up roads for motorists, dozens of kilometers of tram tracks were even destroyed, one of which connected the two banks of the Dnipro.
According to research by the Academy of Construction of Ukraine and the National Transport University, a thousand passenger cars crossing the Dnipro carry only 1,300 people. That is roughly how many one metro train holds.
According to Ivan Perehynets, vice president of the Academy of Construction of Ukraine, the issue of crossing bridges can be partially addressed by high-capacity buses that move in a separate lane rather than standing in traffic jams in the general flow.
Ivan Perehynets, vice president of the Academy of Construction of Ukraine: "Another solution to the problem, and this is an unpopular step that I will now mention, but it is also justified — is to introduce a paid crossing over the bridges for passenger transport. And these funds would be directed precisely at solving this problem, namely at creating digital twins of the entire transport infrastructure of Kyiv, and especially the bridges."
A digital twin of a bridge is a virtual copy of the structure that displays its physical condition, load, and behavior in real time. That is, engineers have the opportunity not only to see how the bridge responds to daily traffic flow, earthquakes, or Russian strikes, but also to quickly make decisions about its repair.
Ivan Perehynets, vice president of the Academy of Construction of Ukraine: "Now there's a hit on a bridge — reaction, analysis, and then repair. If this is created, then these teams will respond much faster to damage: in 2–3 hours make technological maps of how this can be, and restore traffic. That is, this is much more effective, in our view, than simply relying on the fact that we'll now make pontoons."
Is there an alternative to permanent bridges?
Building a crossing over a river is quick, but that's not enough, experts say. Access roads also need to be organized and signs with traffic lights installed.
An underground metro could save Kyiv from transport collapse — as, say, in Hungary, where a Budapest metro train instantly travels under the Danube. True, the Danube is narrower than the Dnipro, and the project itself is too expensive even for peacetime.
Dmytro Bespalov, head of the company "Bespalov LAB": "If pontoon crossings start appearing here, it means that the standard rear-area life of the city of Kyiv has come to an end. In addition, they will also have to be better protected, since a capital bridge, for example — even if weapons can hit some of its elements or explode nearby — will not suffer great damage from this. It is very difficult to destroy: as an engineer I'll say, you have to actually hit one point many times... The bridge will still retain potential for repair."
The Russians are constantly looking for our vulnerable spots, and so far they have managed to complicate movement across the bridges. But engineers emphasize: protecting and repairing bridges is only the tip of the problem with the capital's municipal transport, whose operation needs to be radically changed.
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