Ice track under a “starry sky”: the planned skating rink in the Kolomenskoye Museum Reserve

Winter is a magical time of year. Snow crunching underfoot, fairy-tale frost patterns on the windows, Christmas decorations and favorite winter activities: skiing, tobogganing and skating. This year, in addition to the well-known skating rinks in VDNKh, in the Northern River Station Park, in Sokolniki Park etc., there will be several new rinks in the city, and other places. In the Luzhniki Olympic complex, in place of the fountain on the central square and the adjoining alleys, a new ice area of 16,000 square meters with architectural and artistic illumination will be opened.

One of the capital’s largest skating rinks is being poured along the Moskva River embankment in the Kolomenskoye Museum Reserve. Read about the planned ice track, the technologies that enable people to skate at plus temperature and the “starry sky” effect on mos.ru.

Multilayer structure and refrigeration units

The new skating rink in the Kolomenskoye Museum Reserve is a 1.7-kilometer linear track with artificial ice. It starts at Golosov Ravine and extends to the southern part of the embankment. Specialists from Moscow’s Department of Capital Maintenance Moscow have already installed the technical systems, the perimeter fence and the supports for the hanging fairy lights, and frozen the rough 10-centimeter ice base layer. They are currently applying the smooth skating surface. Workers in brightly colored vests carefully water the ice track from fire hoses connected to hydrants.

“As part of the project upgrade the embankment, we laid underground utilities to support ten refrigeration units. Then we prepared the base for the rink: we poured and tamped sand and then laid a special film layer with flexible tubes known as ice mats covering the entire surface evenly. With the help of special main and branching pipes, the ice mats are connected to refrigeration units, from which powerful pumps supply refrigerant to the tubes. Then we froze the first base (or technical) layer of ice, laid a layer of geotextile, and on top of that a second base layer”, says Pavel Naumov, Head of Moscow’s Department of Capital Maintenance.

The total length of the ice-mats is about 75 kilometers, and the area of the rink is about 13,500 square meters. The ice is frozen gradually, layer by layer, up to a thickness of 15-centimeters. At the end of the work the surface of the rink is leveled with hot water from ice-pouring machines.

“The pavilions with rolled tracks for thee eight ice-pouring machines are now being installed. Technicians will work on the ice track for two hours every day, and also overnight, removing snow and leveling the surface with meltwater. The skating rink will be open to visitors and at continue to operate in above-zero temperatures up to 5 degrees”, explains Pavel Naumov.

140 kilometers of fairy lights

This year the embankment at the Kolomenskoye Museum Reserve was landscaped. The 3.5-kilometers walkway has a wedding garden, pavilions with panoramic windows, one which a restaurant with its own terrace, a bar on the water with a viewing platform and a large amphitheater, and in the southern part of the embankment, sports fields and volleyball courts. The pouring of the skating rink began at the end of October.

“The construction of such a long ice track takes about two months, with most of the work being done manually. The site employs more than 500 specialists, including workers and process engineers. About 80 units of equipment are being used to prepare the ice rink, including cherry pickers truck towers and water spray trucks,” continues Pavel Naumov.

Alongside the rink runs a wooden boardwalk, and fairy lights with more than 14 million bulbs create a “starry sky” effect. “Specialists are already completing the installation of the “starry sky” of 72 strips of high-quality fairy lights, supported by 400 posts. Their total length is more than 140 kilometers. Additional illumination of the ice will be provided by about two thousand LED lamps embedded in the ice border along the whole rink”, says Pavel Naumov.

The skating rink in the Kolomenskoye Museum Reserve will be one of the largest in Moscow. It will be able to accommodate more than 2.5 thousand skaters at a time. There are three visitor entrances/exits at different sections of the ice track, equipped with 12 turnstile groups with a safe rubber coating.

“The quality of ice on this rink is not inferior to that in the capital’s indoor arenas, and the spot lighting on sections up to 12 meters wide creates a unique atmosphere and gives the route a unique atmosphere. 10 cooling units and ice-pouring machines will work on the track at the same time. They will maintain the necessary temperature and keep the skating surface in perfect condition,” assures Vyacheslav Petrov, representative of the contractor company.