Sergei Sobyanin on Moscow's improvement plans for 2022

Results of the capital’s municipal services complex work in 2021 were summed up and the tasks for 2022 were discussed at a meeting of the of the Moscow Government Presidium.

Last year, the complex was systematically working to create comfortable and safe urban environment — improving squares, streets, parks, improving Muscovites’ quality of life — repairing houses and improvement of courtyards, ensuring reliable and uninterrupted operation of utilities infrastructure, maintaining cleanliness and order in the city, environmental monitoring and protecting environment.

City streets

Since 2011, 441 streets and public spaces with a total length of 399.7 kilometers were arranged in Moscow. In 2021, 21 streets were changed to receive a new image. Streets and embankments of Balchug Island, Dmitrovsky Lane connecting Bolshaya Dmitrovka and Petrovka, Krasnaya Presnya Street and Zvenigorodskoye Highway to the Third Ring Road, the section of Leninsky Prospect from Kravchenko Street to the MKAD were arranged well.

Plans for 2022 include improvement of 56 more public spaces. In the center, the historical quarters of the Basmanny district (23 streets), Arbat and Khamovnikov (18 side streets), the territory near Paveletsky Station Square, lanes between Tverskaya and Bolshaya Nikitskaya, as well as Konyushkovskaya Street will be put in order.

Besides, a comprehensive improvement of the Volokolamskoe highway will be carried out. This year the section of Leninsky Prospect from the Garden Ring to University Avenue will be arranged to continue the last year’s work. Besides, it is planned to improve the territory of the Trasport Interchange Hub "Slavyansky Boulevard" in Kutuzovsky Prospect.

Embankments of the Moskva River

36 embankments were improved in the capital in 2011 - 2021. Last year, comprehensive works were completed in embankments of the Balchug Island: Sofiyskaya, Raushskaya, Sadovnicheskaya and Kosmodamianskaya, as well as in the territories adjacent to them (in Sadovnicheskaya Street, in Repinsky Square, Komissariatsky, Faleevsky, Sadovnicheskiy, 1st and 2nd Raushsky Lane).

“Yauza” Park

Seven districts with a total area of 178.5 hectares were improved on the banks of the Yauza River and its tributary Chermyanka River in 2016 ‒ 2021. These are territories along Lazorevoye, Chukotsky and Yurlovsky passages, Zapovednaya Street, Mussorgsky Street and in the Botanical Garden.

In 2022, work is planned in two northern sections — along Severodvinsk Street and from Shirokaya to Yeniseiskaya Street.

City parks and landmark sites in residential areas

Since 2011, 886 parks with a total area of about 19.5 thousand hectares were put in order and improved. According to Muscovites, these territories turned into fundamentally new modern sites. All opportunities for comfortable leisure appeared within walking distance from residential buildings. In summer, these are cycle tracks, sports fields and workout, and in winter — skiing trails, ice rinks and snow slides.

Last year, the December Vosstaniya Park in the Presnensky district and two sections of the Yauza Park were arranged, as well as 118 landmark sites with a total area of 951.1 hectares.

There are plans for 2022 to put 66 park territories in order. Rehabilitation and restoration work will be carried out in Pokrovsky-Streshnev, Bitsevsky Forest, Kuskovo (including the adjacent square along Yunosti Street), Shchukinsky Park, Vsekhsvyatskaya Grove, the valley of the Khimki River along the Volokolamsk highway.

Work under the "My District" program will go on at 55 landmark district facilities and park areas with a total area of about 550 hectares.

Water bodies and landscaping

From 2011 to 2021, 89 water bodies were improved in the capital, 30 of them in 2021. Improvement of 17 city ponds is planned for 2022.

Over 10 million trees and shrubs were planted in Moscow since 2011. 600 thousand of them appeared last year. More than 2.3 thousand large-sized trees, such as linden, maple, rowan, apple and cherry trees, were planted in the specific areas of the city.

New green spaces will appear in the streets, in parks, in courtyards and in natural areas in 2022.

Specially protected natural areas

35 new specially protected natural territories were formed over the past two years, as decided by the Moscow Government. Now there are 145 of them, and it is planned to continue their creation this year.

Ecology

Environmental monitoring displays that concentration of major pollutants in the Moscow air decreased by 1.3–1.6 times over the past ten years. Carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide near highways decreased by 1.8-2.5 times, the concentration of sulfur dioxide decreased by 1.3 times (close to highways — by two times).

The content of petroleum products and metals in the Moskva River at the exit from the city center became twice as little. And the average concentration of petroleum products in the soil (the main indicator of the impact of vehicles on soils) decreased by 2.2 times.

The environmental situation improved due to decreasing the adverse effect of motor vehicles and motor fuel, modernization of the Moscow Oil Refinery and other industrial production facilities. Moscow entered the top 30 of the world ranking in terms of air quality in 2021, outrunning Paris, Vienna, Berlin and other cities.

Over the past year, Moscow ecologists carried out 14.7 thousand educational events, intellectual competitions and contests on ecology. They were mainly held in a remote format, and about 700 thousand people were their participants.

Arranging the unified environmental monitoring system is also underway. 15 automatic air pollution control stations were installed in Moscow suburbs in 2021 at the expense of Moscow budget. The new stations track emissions of large industrial facilities in the Moscow region, burning of felling residues and the occurrence of forest and peat wildfires that negatively affect the air of the capital’s region.

Courtyards and house entrances

To create a high-quality urban environment in the courtyards, planned improvement, repair and replacement of outdated infrastructure is carried out according to proposals of residents.

Last year, improvement and current repairs, including asphalt replacement, were carried out in 4039 courtyards. 14 737 house entrances were also repaired.

192 lifting platforms were installed in the entrances for limited mobility people, and a total of 1,591 platforms were installed since 2011.

Comprehensive and general works are planned to be carried out in 2022 in another 2,300 yards and 12 thousand house entrances. 194 lifting platforms will be installed at the request of residents.

Major repairs of residential buildings

A regional program of major repairs of apartment buildings is under implementation in the capital since 2015. Over 11 thousand buildings have been renovated within six years, more than 39 thousand lifts were replaced. Last year alone, 2,513 houses were renovated and 3005 elevators were replaced.

In the meantime, houses are no more equipped with elevators which service lifecycle exceeds 25 years.

It is planned to renovate 1,743 houses and replace 2,246 elevators in 2022.

Lighting

The program for improving street lighting and developing the light-color environment has been realized in the city since 2011. During this time, the number of lighting devices nearly doubled — from 399 thousand to 714 thousand.

365 thousand new outdoor lighting poles were installed, including 55 thousand in 2021.

The lighting improvement program will be continued this year. It is planned to install another 36 thousand lighting poles in courtyards, in playgrounds and sports grounds, in territories of schools and kindergartens.

Architectural and artistic illumination

The number of buildings with architectural and artistic illumination almost increased almost fourfold since 2011. Today there are over 2.2 thousand of them. One can see architectural and artistic illumination on buildings along the main highways, pedestrian routes and embankments of the Moskva River, bridges, transport overpasses and churches are illuminated.

For example, last year architectural and artistic lighting appeared at 14, Tverskaya Street, where the grocery store "Eliseevsky" was opened at the beginning of the 20th century.

City navigation system

A project of arranging a unified pedestrian navigation system in Russian and English launched in 2014 was continued in Moscow in 2021. In total, 93.7 thousand house navigation signs and 11.6 thousand stand alone city signs were installed.

Territories adjacent to transport facilities

Creation of comfortable pedestrian connections between residential areas and metro stations, MCR, MCD, platforms of the Moscow Railway and Transport Interchange Hubs is underway.

In 2021, the territories adjacent to 29 transport facilities (their total area is 218.7 hectares) were improved, including 14 stations of the Moscow Metro, four stations of the MCD and four bus routes.

Plans of 2022 include improvement of the territories adjacent to 38 transport facilities. The total area of improvement will be 375,7 hectares.

Utilities infrastructure

Reliable operation of all the city’s engineering systems is ensured daily. More than 74 thousand facilities of Moscow were prepared for the 2021-2022 winter season: over 34 thousand residential buildings, 8.8 thousand social facilities and 30 thousand economic facilities.

Meanwhile, 2021 saw no accidents and incidents that caused long disconnection of consumers from light, water or heat.

Planned work is underway to repair utilities networks. 33.2 kilometers of drainage networks, 31.8 kilometers of sewerage and 54.4 kilometers of water supply networks were repaired and developed over the past year. 260 kilometers of power transmission lines, 107.4 kilometers of thermal and 45.6 kilometers of gas networks, as well as 30.8 kilometers of cable collectors were reconstructed.

In 2022, it is planned to reconstruct 254.3 kilometers of power transmission lines, 101 kilometers of thermal and 52.2 kilometers of gas networks, 31.5 kilometers of cable collectors, 108.3 kilometers of water supply, 39.7 kilometers of drainage and 45 kilometers of sewer networks.

Comprehensive work to improve reliability of urban energy and municipal infrastructure allowed both to reduce the wear of networks annually and completely eliminate the capacity deficit, achieve 50 percent capacity reserves in heat and water supply systems, and the energy and gas supply systems increased the capacity reserve from 19 to 23 percent.

The existing reserves of the systems' capacity ensure stable and uninterrupted supply of energy resources to consumers, as well as to meet the needs of promising urban programs and infrastructure projects.

In recent years, the energy intensity of Moscow's GRDP decreased by nearly 40 percent — from 4.5 kilograms of reference fuel per thousand rubles in 2010 to 2.76 kilograms in 2021.

Public services centres and other facilities

Moscow’s cluster of municipal services implements a number of programs for the overhaul of non-residential facilities.

As part of the program of the overhaul and adaptation of premises for public service centers, two flagship and 12 district "My Documents" centres were repaired last year. 13 facilities will be overhauled in 2022 to adapt them for public services centres, and two more flagship centres will be created.

In 2020-2021, the Moscow municipal services complex completed reconstruction of 40 healthcare facilities: the buildings of S.P. Botkin municipal clinical hospital, Moscow Multidisciplinary Palliative Care Center and city polyclinics. More than 60 polyclinics and hospital buildings are planned to be reconstructed this year.

Renovation of 21 urban non-residential facilities was completed in 2021. Plans for 2022 include the renovation of 17 more facilities for various purposes.

Fire safety and safety on water bodies

The number of fires in Moscow decreased by 5.4 percent in 2021, 1,883 people were rescued. Almost two million preventive measures were carried out.

Safety of citizens on water bodies is ensured by 24 search and rescue stations. Over the past year, 93 people were rescued, more than 235 thousand preventive measures were carried out for vacationers. Plans for 2022 include opening of a new search and rescue station "Maryino".

The professionalism of Moscow rescuers is annually confirmed by victories in Russian and international competitions in fire and rescue work. In 2021, the Moscow team became the first in the Russian multisport competition of rescuers, the fire and rescue squad No. 209 won the final stage of the All-Russian competitions for the title of the best team for emergency rescue operations in case of an accident, and the Moscow dog handlers as part of the Russian national team won the World Championship.

From improvement to major repairs: plans for 2022

The main tasks of the Moscow municipal services complex for 2022 include:

— improvement of 56 squares, streets, embankments and 66 parks and landmark sites in residential areas;

— repair (and improvement) of 2.3 thousand courtyards and 12 thousand house entrances of apartment buildings;

— renovation of 1,7 thousand houses and replacement of 2,2 thousand elevators within the framework of the regional major repair program;

— installation of 184 lifting platforms for people with limited mobility;

— installation of 36 thousand lighting poles;

— improvement of territories adjacent to 38 transport facilities with a total area of 375.7 hectares;

— continuation of the repair of utility infrastructure, including 254.3 kilometers of power transmission lines, 101 kilometers of thermal and 52.2 kilometers of gas networks, 31.5 kilometers of cable collectors, 108.3 kilometers of water supply, 39.7 kilometers of drainage and 45 kilometers of sewer networks, as well as the repair of 152 Gormost structures;

— repair with adaptation of the premises of 13 "My documents" centres and repair of 17 facilities of various purposes;

— repair of over 60 healthcare facilities.