Sergei Sobyanin: Balchug Island embankments become trendy and exciting spaces

After completing the landscaping program, Balchug Island became a trendy and exciting place. That is what Sergei Sobyanin wrote in his blog.

“Balchug Island is the very heart of Moscow. But just a few years ago, its embankments were still uninviting and empty. It will not be an overstatement to say that landscaping gave them a breath of a new life. Balchug became what it should always be: a trendy and exciting place,” said the Moscow Mayor.

Balchug Island was one of the key embankment landscaping projects of 2021.

The island was roughly divided into the old and the modern areas. The streets deep inside it were left to the locals. The embankments, used mostly by tourists, got wider walkways with new paving, new streetlights and outdoor lamps, illuminated balustrades, lawns and flowerbeds.

Sergei Sobyanin opened embankments of Balchug Island after landscaping

40 embankments have been renovated in Moscow in the recent years. Right now, comfortable promenades span 65 kilometers along the Moskva River banks.

One of the first new-generation walking spaces has been set up on Krymskaya Embankment. It was made pedestrian and landscaped back in 2013. Pushkinskaya and Yakimanskaya Embankments renovation followed a few years later. Now Muscovites consider them among their favorite places for walking.

In 2017, a walking route over embankments spanning the distance from the Moscow City business center to Taganskaya Square, started to take shape. It is over 19 kilometers long. On top of the ones already mentioned, it includes Kremlevskaya, Prechistenskaya and Moskvoretskaya Embankments.

Luzhnetskaya Embankment is another point of interest for Muscovites, especially those who love sports. It features spaces for walks and running, biking and roller-skating tracks.