St Petersburg flood barrier

Since time immemorial St Petersburg has had problems with flooding. This is because of the somewhat unfortunate location that Tsar Peter the Great chose for the city at the time it was built. In the 1970s work began on the building of a flood barrier, which was two thirds complete around 1988. However the dam was blamed for the deterioration in the water quality in the surrounding areas and the building work was stopped. Studies, to which the Netherlands contributed, showed that it was not the dam but a water purification plant that had polluted the water. By this time, however, completion was no longer an option: the Soviet Union did not exist and the money was gone. In the end construction was at a standstill for almost twenty years.

At the beginning of this decade, with support from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Netherlands and Partners for Water, Russia took out a $300 million loan to complete the project. Russia would also contribute $100 million to it itself. However the Russian economy recovered much better than expected and so did its ability to finance the project itself. The costs of the project increased hugely. The cause? Enormous inflation in the construction industry and a rise in the price of steel. The project had also been expanded: it was decided to build the motorway over the dam more quickly and to create a new harbour entrance. The project costs for the completion are now moving towards $1.5 to 2 billion and the bulk of it is being financed by the Russian state treasury.

Feasibility study
Royal Haskoning has been known in the region and also locally in St Petersburg since 1995, through projects in the water sector from the Ministry of Economic Affairs. ‘In 2002 this put us in an outstanding position to join the hydrodynamic laboratory in the competition for the feasibility study,’ recalls project manager Bert te Slaa. The recommendation to complete the flood barrier arose out of this study.

Project management
In 2004, working with Russian partners, Royal Haskoning won a major consultancy commission for the project management and supervision of the completion of the flood barrier. Royal Haskoning is advising the Russian government across a wide spectrum of hydraulic, technical and contractual aspects. The work will certainly continue until 2011.

Spectacular project
The spectacular project is as long as the Afsluitdijk in the north of the Netherlands. The flood barrier contains six sluices like the Haringvliet ones and a Maeslant-style barrier with two huge semi-circular doors that can shut off the river at high water. Bert te Slaa continues, ‘without the experience that we had near the Hoek of Holland with the Maeslant barrier a number of things would not have gone well here. Still facing us is the operating system. This will be a big job, because all the openings have to close on time and in a particular order.’

Dutch hydraulic engineering
‘Royal Haskoning has pioneered a number of important, technical improvements,’ concludes Te Slaa. ‘It is a fine piece of Dutch hydraulic engineering. Looking at it with the benefit of hindsight you can say that a number of things that were done at the time were unfortunate, because nowadays people have more of an interest in the environment than they did thirty or forty years ago. All the same I don’t think that the project would have been looked at radically differently if we were to start it now.’

Contact: Bert te Slaa
+7 (0)812-9992033
b.teslaa@royalhaskoning.com

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