Repair costing 24.2 million euros: a bridge in Kyiv, which had renovation work initiated three months ago, collapsed

On Saturday afternoon in Kyiv, the Degtyarevsky Bridge, which had undergone repairs costing nearly a billion hryvnias, collapsed.

Ukrainian media reported this incident.

The Degtyarevsky Bridge is an automobile bridge with a tram line, and it is part of Degtyarevskaya Street. It spans over a section of the Small Ring Road, where Teligi and Dovzhenko Streets intersect.

As early as 2020, the overpass began showing signs of needing urgent repair when a piece of concrete broke off from it and fell onto a car, smashing the windshield and damaging the hood.

“Degtyarevsky overpass is one of the oldest in Kyiv. It was built in 1963 and has never undergone major repairs,” explained officials from “Kievavtodor” at the time, detailing the reasons behind the accident.

In 2023, amidst the ongoing war and on the occasion of the bridge’s 60th anniversary, it was decided to undertake repairs costing nearly 934 million hryvnias (approximately 24.2 million euros). The bridge was closed for reconstruction in early June 2023.

The ambitious goal was to completely replace the overpass while also upgrading the entire transportation interchange. The plan included dismantling the supports, spans, and foundations of the bridge to increase its width from 28 to 40 meters and to install bike lanes.

Initially, the work was scheduled to be completed by November 30, but the timeline was later extended to the end of the year. By the time of the collapse, the construction workers had already removed all the beams of the old bridge and had begun installing new spans.

According to experts, today was the first day when new beams were being installed on the bridge as part of the reconstruction.

“They were supposed to install all 14 beams on the bridge today. They managed to install six. During the installation of the seventh beam, it started to bend unnaturally and cracked, entangling the other beams. After that, a domino effect began, and all six beams, one after another, began to break. This is a characteristic of such beams. They are designed only for vertical loads, and they easily break under horizontal loads, which is exactly what happened,” said the repairmen.

Beams of this type are experimental, and this is the second instance of their use in Ukraine.

“The length of these beams is 36 meters, whereas previously, beams of 33 meters were used. Such beams were installed for the first time on a bridge in Borodyanka, and everything went well there,” added the repairmen.

Meanwhile, the company responsible for repairing the bridge claimed that there were allegedly no issues with the quality of the beams. They stated that six of them were installed “correctly,” but an “incident” occurred during the installation of the last beam.

The last beam lost stability and tangled with a part of the already installed structure, leading to the collapse of the other beams.