Sergei Sobyanin opened embankments of Balchug Island after landscaping

The embankments of Balchug Island are opened in Moscow after the landscaping.

“Quite a large area is landscaped on the island of Balchug — from the House of Music to the GES-2 House of Culture,” said Sergei Sobyanin. “One can now walk not only along the Zaryadye and the Kremlin Embankment, but along this bank as well. The landscape turned out to be nice.”

A comprehensive improvement of Balchug Island carried out this year covered Repinsky Public Garden (Bolotnaya Square), Sofiyskaya, Raushskaya, Sadovnicheskaya, and Kosmodamianskaya embankments and adjacent Sadovnicheskaya Street, 1st and 2nd Raushsky, Faleevsky, Komissariatsky and Sadovnichesky lanes.

Despite the fact that this area is located two steps from the Kremlin and Zaryadye, there was not enough greenery prior to landscaping. Narrow and sometimes broken sidewalks were inconvenient for pedestrians. It was uncomfortable for everyone: local residents, hotel guests, office workers and music lovers who came to concerts at the House of Music.

Green, cozy, and safe

The main focus in Balchug landscaping involved a conventional division of its urban space into historical and modern parts.

“The sidewalks on the island itself – on Sadovnicheskaya Street, in lanes and along embankment buildings – are mainly used by local residents and office employees. The movement along them is calm and unhurried. And it will remain that way. These sidewalks are put in order within the scope of the landscaping project with adding recreation areas with classic Moscow benches.

Tourists walk along embankments near water, while city residents ride scooters and bicycles there. There, the urban space got more interesting and modern decorations. Some of the new lanterns on Balchug are made in the minimalism style, others resemble old gas lanterns. The parapets of the embankments are outlined with the help of special lighting.

In total, more than 1,100 hardscaping items, 27 navigation points, 806 lighting poles and 913 parapet lamps are installed on Balchug. In order to improve the safety of pedestrians and transport, 32 video surveillance cameras and 19 traffic lights are installed. The facades of seven buildings have been repaired.

In addition, the drainage network is reconstructed: 1.7 thousand meters of storm drains are laid; 152 rain-receiving grilles and 200 observation wells are installed. The overhead lines are removed underground into a cable sewer 17.1 kilometers long. 405 cable wells are installed for quick repair and convenient connection of additional lines.

The island now has more greenery. More than 59 thousand square meters of lawns and 6.4 thousand square meters of flower beds are laid out there. This autumn, almost 600 new trees and 11,418 shrubs will be added to them. Those will be European Pallida lime trees, red maples, Lobel elms, decorative apple trees, mountain ashes, cotoneaster and white dogwood. The new green spaces will give a fresh look to the promenades and act as a natural barrier protecting pedestrians from the dust of the roadway. The public gardens on Kosmodamianskaya and Sadovnicheskaya Embankments will play with new colors.

The project is important from the point of view of the improvement of Repinsky Public Garden, a large green space in Balchug, created for the 800th anniversary of Moscow in 1947. The existing trees are preserved as much as possible here and new green spaces will be planted in the autumn following archival layouts. New lamps, benches and litter bins are styled in late 1940s.

A new pedestrian zone is created near a historic building of GES-2 to link the Cathedral of Christ the Savior with Yakimanka. One now can go down to Bolotnaya Embankment from Patriarshy Bridge and relax close to the water.

“This is GES-2, which was decommissioned 10 years ago. The power plant was built for the first electric tram in the city of Moscow, it is over one hundred years old. It is now reconstructed,” added Sergei Sobyanin. “It really turned out to be such a unique facility there.”

The improvement of Balchug Island is the largest project of creating a high-quality urban space in the center of Moscow, which has been implemented this year.

Getting better: what else has been improved in the capital

More than five thousand city objects are to be put in order this year. Their total area is over 6.6 thousand hectares, including 21 streets and an embankment, 118 parks and iconic sites, 29 transport infrastructure facilities (approaches to metro stations and the Moscow Central Circle, railway platforms of Moscow central diameters, industrial enterprises, reconstruction of roads for the organization of new ground transport routes). Also, 36 territories (blocks) were improved in the “house to house” format, over 3.5 thousand block courtyards and 400 territories of educational organizations.

The major facilities include the embankments of Balchug Island opposite the Kremlin, two floodplain sections of the Chermyanka River (the right tributary of the Yauza River) from Dezhnev Passage to Molodtsov Street (along Yurlovskogo Passage) and from Mussorgsky Street to Dezhnev Passage (along Musorgsky Street), Leninsky Avenue (from Kravchenko Street to MKAD), Krasnaya Presnya Street and the December Uprising Park, Zvenigorodskoye Highway to the Third Ring Road.

A large-scale program of improvement of school yards and stadiums was implemented in the summer; it also covered the territories of kindergartens. A high-quality space for recreation and sports has appeared in 400 schools and kindergartens. The main work was completed in late August-early September. The remaining facilities are planned to be commissioned by the end of this year.