Marat Khusnullin: 33 million vehicles have crossed the Crimean Bridge in 8 years

Published on: 2026-05-18

Source: Government of the Russian Federation –

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Eight years ago, on May 16, 2018, vehicle traffic was launched on the Crimean Bridge across the Kerch Strait. During this time, 33 million vehicles have passed along the roadway section in Crimea and Kuban, reported Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin.

“The Crimean Bridge is a true symbol of the reunification of Crimea with Russia, which organically connected the peninsula with the mainland part of the country and gave a powerful impetus to the development of tourism, the economy, and logistics of the region. This is a unique project, implemented by our builders at the highest technological level. Over eight years, the Crimean Bridge has become a familiar route for millions of people. Since its opening, it has served 33 million vehicles, and today’s average daily traffic intensity exceeds 11 thousand cars,” said Marat Khusnullin.

The construction of the transport link through the Kerch Strait has launched a large-scale integration of the Crimean Peninsula into the transport system of the Russian Federation, connecting the entire south of Russia with a unified route.

“Today, thousands of artificial structures of various purposes and structural features are operated in our country. The construction of bridges is strictly regulated to ensure safety, durability, and functionality. Undoubtedly, the Crimean Bridge is a unique project of its kind, during the implementation of which the highest technological level of domestic bridge engineering was demonstrated,” said Roman Novikov, head of the Federal Road Agency.

One example of an original structural solution is the locations where spans and supports of the artificial structure come into contact. Special spherical support parts of individual design are installed here. They provide possible movements of the span structures in case of temperature or seismic loads. At the same time, the supports are protected from dust, splashes, waves, and icing effects.

The construction of the Crimean Bridge became possible thanks in part to the coordinated work of engineers, designers, builders, as well as experts from the scientific community. Representatives of the country’s leading scientific universities participated in the design and engineering research.

At this stage of the bridge project development, the weather factor was also taken into account: the Crimean region is characterized by an unstable, low-snow winter with frequent thaws and stormy winds. Specialists were prepared for such conditions: the concrete production sites were protected from precipitation and equipped with heat generators to maintain the necessary temperature regime.

Minimizing the influence of weather factors was enabled by the auxiliary infrastructure created in the Kerch Strait. Three working bridges with a total length of more than 5 km ensured uninterrupted supply of materials, inert materials, and metal structures to the marine sections of the main bridge construction, while stationary technological sites and special mobile complexes in the water area performed key technological operations.

During the construction of the artificial structure, special attention was paid to environmental safety issues. In particular, the construction of the Crimean Bridge contributed to an increase in the population of dolphins in the Kerch Strait.

Archaeological rescue expeditions in the construction zone of the Crimean bridge have become some of the largest in the recent history of Russia. They allowed to concretize and generalize knowledge about the natural features and peculiarities of the ancient history of this territory.

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