Bolshoy Ustinsky Bridge

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Bolshoy Ustinsky Bridge is a steel arch bridge that crosses the Moskva River near where the Yauza River flows into it, linking the Boulevard Ring with the Zamoskvorechye district in Moscow. It was opened in May 1938. The project was led by structural engineer V.M. Vakhurkin, with architectural design by G.P. Golts and D.M. Sobolev. The bridge sits among three smaller crossings over nearby waterways: Maly Ustinsky Bridge, Astakhovsky (Yauzsky) Bridge, and Komissariatsky Bridge.

The first Ustinsky Bridge across the Moskva was built in 1881 as a triple-span arch, a common design for downtown Moscow bridges of that era. Most of those early bridges were later rebuilt or replaced.

Bolshoy Ustinsky Bridge today is about 40 meters wide and 478 meters long, with a main span of 134 meters consisting of six arches. Its deck is orthotropic and supported by I-beams, carrying six traffic lanes plus two tram tracks on a raised divider. In 1999–2000 the roadway deck was replaced with a lighter orthotropic deck, while the original structure was kept.

Nearby, Komissariatsky Bridge crosses the Vodootvodny Canal and continues the route toward Zamoskvorechye; it was built in 1927 and began regular tram use in 1960. Astakhovsky Bridge across the Yauza was rebuilt in 1940, about 46.4 meters long and 36 meters wide, with eight lanes. The Yauzsky Bridge—renamed Astakhovsky after a steelworker who died in 1917—connected the city center with the east and was rebuilt on the old site.