New Crimean Bridge Breaks Records: Fifteen Hour Crossing Reduced to Only Fifteen Minutes
Already in the first predawn hours, the Crimean Bridge over the Kerch Strait was crossed by 5,000 cars. One could study geography via the license plates: there were not only Russians but also foreigners, including Ukrainians, to whom the Maidan government have tried to convince for two years, that there won't be a bridge, and citizens of Western states, whose leaders have imposed sanctions on Crimea. During the first 12 hours since the opening, the traffic flow to Crimea has already beaten the absolute daily record of the Kerch Strait ferry line.
The initial travelers from different shores of the same country were seen off by my colleagues Pavel Zarubin and Olga Armyakova.
These are really lucky men, those who are first to rush over the bridge from Crimea. The car convoy dips below the horizon. The traffic over the Crimean Bridge opens at 5:30. The atmosphere here is that of a huge celebration. Hundreds of cars are honking, and people from both sides of the Crimean Bridge start the long-awaited movement towards each other. The very first emotions of the first drivers as we film on the move, at 50 mph.
– Everything is excellent, everything is fine!
– How does it feel to drive over the bridge?
– We are proud of our country!
– Great, the road is lovely, it's like we're flying.
– How's your mood, what are you feeling?
– Simply super!
– What do you think of the bridge?
– We built it. And here is the truly historic meeting. The two shores, Crimean and Taman, met here, right on the Crimean Bridge. Our exclusive footage: Maria Zakharova, the official representative of Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs was one of the first to drive over the Crimean Bridge or rather, to race over it.
Maria Zakharova: "Amazing! It's something unbelievably beautiful. Well alright, let's overtake them? The road is so great that, honestly, you want to step on the gas".
Zakharova had a scheduled briefing in Kerch to cover all of the recent events. Top officials in Ukraine were claiming earlier, that Russia wouldn't build a bridge. Now, when it has become a reality, Poroshenko says, quote: "the occupants will leave over it".
Maria Zakharova: "I feel sorry for Ukraine, I feel sorry for the people, the ordinary folk. I feel sorry, that they, excuse me for such words, they fill their heads with such stupid nonsense".
Later, Zakharova posted a screenshot of her GPS, which still has outdated maps. It would have taken her 15 hours to make it to the other shore, In real life, it's now only15 minutes. In order to be the first to drive over the Crimean Bridge, Zakharova arrived several hours before the opening.
It's 3:30 AM, but there are already hundreds of cars sitting at the entrance to the Crimean Bridge, with Russian flags, posters. People came here from all over Russia with their whole families.
Children drink dairy mixtures while waiting, but the parents consider it very important to be here at such a historic moment.
- We want to be the first, by rights. We left home at 2 AM.
- To continue our trip in Crimea.
- Grandma, look, stars!
- With all of our heart and soul, we're there, on the other shore, because we lived our whole life together.
And so the obstruction blocks are cleared from the road. The traffic starts, in both lanes, a long procession of cars and bikers. Crimea waited for this event, which before seemed like a dream, for one hundred years. Right now, from the Crimean side, our staff reporter Olga Armyakova drives towards us.
- Olya, hello!
– Pasha, hello! It's time to make a wish. This is a new good tradition, to make it every time you drive under the snow-white arches, of the main symbol of the Crimean Bridge: the navigable arcs, 100 feet over the Kerch Strait.
It was here, where between the two seas, at dawn, where two shores of one country met. A special, incredibly beautiful moment. Something like this happens only once in a lifetime. They waited for today with special feelings. Many couldn't sleep all night because of the excitement. They prepared for the journey.
- The Crimean Bridge! The mood is great!
- Ura! We are going to open the Crimean Bridge. Follow us, everyone.
And for this family, the Crimean Bridge opening is not just an event, but history. Alfred Israilevich is one of the few who took the train to cross the Kerch Strait, exactly 74 years ago, on the first railroad bridge. Today, with his family, he will repeat the legendary route.
– I don't remember the place, only that there was water on both sides.
– One may say now, that three generations will cross this new bridge.
In order to see the bridge with his own eyes, journalist Kohl arrived from Austria, despite the fact that Western media still considers the ambitious project to be fiction.
– I watched the European news yesterday, about the Crimean Bridge opening. And they unanimously say that no one needs it, it's very expensive, illegal, and many other unpleasant, negative things. But that's not true. I think the bridge is something incredible.
Not incredible, but rather, impossible, a fantasy, these were things that the Ukrainian media called the Crimean Bridge project on air. Kiev still thinks that even today. But now anyone can confirm the existence of the bridge.
- They told me, that I can't go over it with a Ukrainian passport, but I'm already on the other side of the bridge, it was nothing.
That's because one may go over the Crimean Bridge with any passport. The key point is to follow the driving regulations.
If the navigable arcs are the heart of the bridge, then this is a real brain center. The main control center. On these screens, there is information about the traffic congestion, average speed, and even weather conditions. This is the most advanced monitoring system. Dozens of cameras and hundreds of sensors work 24 hours a day, so that the driving on the bridge will be comfortable, and most importantly, safe.
Grigory Sokol, deputy chief of the federal road agency "Taman": The automated traffic control system monitors traffic in real time, to determine the speed limit.
– And if there is a traffic jam on the Bridge, what will you do?
– We can't have traffic jams on the Crimean Bridge. The dispatcher evaluates the situation in real time, makes the right decision to lower or to raise the speed limit within the legal values.
Up to now, the Bridge has beaten the record of the Kerch Strait ferry station: almost 15,000 cars. And it's only the beginning, because construction of the federal highway "Tavrida" is well underway, and it will become the key arterial road of the peninsula.
By the end of this year, the traffic will at first be open on one lane in both directions, and then by 2020, "Tavrida" will be functioning in its full capacity of all four lanes.
Olga Armyakova, Pavel Zarubin, Konstantin Morozov, Elizaveta Beryozkina, Alexander Medvedev, Nikita Kalchenko and Andrey Melnikov, Vesti, the Crimean Bridge.