Project Features
- Project name: Western High Speed Diameter
- Location: St. Petersburg, Russia
- Construction start: 2015
- LMV activities: Design, fabrication and commissioning of specialised equipment for incremental launching and lifting of steel structures.
The Western High Speed Diameter (WHSD) is one of the most important road infrastructure projects ever built in Russia. It is a high-speed urban motorway bypass crossing the city of St. Petersburg, designed to improve urban mobility and enhance connections with the port and the city’s main transport corridors.
The project includes more than 11 kilometres of viaducts, cable-stayed bridges, sea crossings, artificial embankments and a tunnel, making it one of the most complex infrastructure developments ever completed in the country. Thanks to its engineering solutions and impressive scale, the WHSD has become an international benchmark in the field of major infrastructure projects.
Specialised Technologies for the Launching of Major Infrastructure
For this project, LMV developed and commissioned dedicated equipment for incremental launching, a technology introduced in Russia for the first time thanks to LMV’s contribution. The equipment included Derrick cranes with lifting capacities of up to 600 tonnes, 80-tonne tower cranes, winch traction systems with capacities of up to 384 tonnes, roller systems with lifting capacities of up to 3,000 tonnes, hydraulic transport units and high-pressure hydraulic power packs operating at up to 700 bar.
At the same time, LMV directly participated in the erection and launching of the main steel structures for two sections of the WHSD, working on a project that included:
- 22,600 tonnes of steel bridges and load-bearing structures;
- 8,000 tonnes of auxiliary steel structures and specialised equipment;
- approximately 1,800 metres of steel viaducts constructed over the sea;
- more than 168,500 welding hours dedicated to the steel structures.
To successfully deliver a project of this complexity, LMV deployed a highly specialised technical organisation comprising engineers, skilled technicians, welders, steel erectors and support personnel. The company also utilised an extensive fleet of equipment, including crawler cranes, mobile cranes, gantry cranes and more than one hundred launching sliding systems for the steel structures.
