The Moscow-Kazan line will be constructed according to the “green standards” requiring minimal environmental impact
Openness, dialogue, compromise with environmentalists and population allowed the creators of the Moscow-Kazan HSR to earn public approval. The designers’ efforts to minimize the harmful impact of the project on nature and human beings were highly appreciated at the round table in the Gudok Publishing House.
Roadmap
High-speed trains have a less environmental impact than their competitors: motor and air transports. Here are the figures announced at the roundtable by the First Vice-President of JSC Russian Railways and the General Director of JSC High-Speed Rail Lines Alexander Misharin: the land allocation for high-speed railway lines is 2-3 times less than the areas allocated for highways, carbon dioxide emissions of high-speed rail transport (in terms of passenger-kilometer) are 4 times lower than emissions of air transport and 3.5 times less than emissions of motor transport, and energy costs per passenger are 4 times lower than those for cars and 8 times lower than those for airliners. All these calculations were made by the International Union of Railways (UIC) and the data obtained during the preparation works for the Moscow-Kazan HSR construction once again confirm these calculations.
Of course, these basic advantages do not save such a large project of a high-speed mainline from a deliberate attention of ecologists. But, if we analyze preparation of large infrastructure projects, we can easily see that the level of confrontations with environmentalists has decreased in recent years. Confrontations and mutual accusations of railway representatives and nature defenders during designing and constructing the Moscow-St. Petersburg HSR and numerous rallies in defense of the Khimki Forest during designing the motorway to the second capital were replaced by cooperation with environmentalists and local residents during large-scale construction works in preparation for the Olympic Games in Sochi.
Moscow – Kazan HSR is another example of a large project in which a very serious attention is given to potential environmental problems at the design stage. Illustrating this fact, the General Director of JSC "Mosgiprotrans" Alexander Dyatchin said that of the 600 volumes of the project about 50 are devoted to the ecology issues, and the costs of measures in terms of noise protection, for example, are comparable to the amount of funds allocated for the establishment of a contact network. The efforts have not been wasted: confrontations have been avoided and the project has received the approval from the population of seven regions that will be affected by construction of the mainline.
Green Construction Standard
Legislation on environmental protection and sanitary-epidemiological control, as Alexander Misharin noted, has been consistently expanded and increased over the last 20 years. In particular, during the roundtable it was mentioned several times that Russian standards for noise are the most stringent in the world and they are stricter than similar regulations in France, Italy, Spain and Germany in terms of equivalent values (calculated rate of the noise harmful effect lasting 8 hours, the standard shift), and limitation of absolute values.
Moreover, requirements to the environmental parameters of the project are also very strict. As Alexander Dyatchin said at the roundtable, a largest number of comments from Glavgosexpertiza were exactly related to the environmental sections of the project. In particular project provides for arrangement of 89 passages for small and large animals, recultivation and sowing of meadow grass and garden trees. About 97 local treatment facilities are being constructed at the control points of the line on which over 14 thousand people will work. Alexander Shashurin the Head of the LLC "Institute of Acoustic Structures" added that 300 km of noise-proof screens with a height of from 3 to 6 m and more than 20 thousand valves of ventilation and noise-proof filling will be erected.
But it is not just about strict legislation and control, because even the most stringent standards cannot prevent potential conflicts with environmentalists and public. Therefore, it is important that there the formats of interaction with environmental organizations and population living in the areas that will be affected by the construction, are changing from disputes to cooperation. And, the instruments are well known: professional working groups and public hearings. Anyway the readiness for dialogue is still important. Uncertainty and lack of information spark fears and ridiculous rumors. That is why, Vladimir Tushonkov the General Director of LLC “Environmental Safety of Industry, Energy and Transport” thanked the designers for the fact that during 37 public hearings (according to the number of administrative-territorial units in 7 regions and republics), current specialists and practice engineers met with people and were able to respond competently to the concerns expressed by participants of the meetings and to understand their wishes, which had a beneficial effect on the perception of the whole project.
There were several sticking points during designing Moscow-Kazan HSR which could have caused public unease and mass media frenzy. These points were Kovrovsky Forest, the Pivovarovsky Karst Fields and Lebyazhy Forest Park in Kazan.
The Editor-in-Chief of the publication "Ecograd" Igor Panarin attending the roundtable noted that it is important to preserve the integrity of the local biome on 41 hectares of woods near Kovrov. This forest, for example, is inhabited by the part of the population of Russian desmans included in the Red Book. Thanks to the measures which have been taken by environmentalists during over 30 years, the number of these animals has reached several hundred. The Chief Engineer of the environmental project of JSC Mosgiprotrans, Olga Vasyukova explained that the inhabitation of 20 Russian muskrats was actually found on the route of the line (4 kilometers of the line pass through the forest). The easement area does not spread on this inhabitation but the impact of construction works will affect it. Therefore, the efforts to resettle the despicable family are being currently made in cooperation with Rosprirodnadzor. She also added that along the route there are a lot of habitats of endangered species, most of them are birds (for example, gray crane, gray heron, oyster catcher). The designers did not forget about them. "The occupation of the land is insignificant in the case of the observance of measures, such as limitation of the time of works during the nesting period which will minimize the impact," Olga Vasyukova said.
Moreover, Igor Panarin suggested communicating with environmentalists more intensively. In his opinion 37 hearings are not enough as no engineer can foresee whether the place for a passage for animals on the concrete stretch is chosen correctly. His proposal is to hold joint retreats with environmentalists. However, this proposal does not contradict the current situation as discussions with professionals are already performed within working groups.
There also were disagreements regarding the route of the line through the Lebyazhy Forest Park which is a nature conservation area of republican importance situated near Kazan. According to Igor Panarin, the use of overpasses was the solution to this problem. Sergei Kiselev the Head of the Construction Department of "High-Speed Rail Lines" company says that the use of overpasses makes construction more expensive, but at the same time significantly reduces the area of withdrawn lands and eliminates the need for crossings (both for humans and animals), and most importantly, it reduces the volume (and hence the harmful effect) of construction works on site, since the completed 900-tonne trestle elements will be delivered to the line. By the way, overpasses will take almost 20% of the mainline total length. Olga Vasyukova added that a part of the compromise concerning Lebyazhy Forest was an increased compensation for intervention in nature: both in cash (1.3 billion rubles.) and in kind (three new seedlings per one uprooted tree).
Environmentalists also expressed their concerns about the safety of traffic in the area of the Pivovarovsky Karst Fields in the Vladimir Region in the 265-268-km section of the line. Karst is an underground cavity created under the influence of water on soluble rock such as limestone. As a result, the position of the high-speed mainline was shifted to north of the karst fields by 10 km.
Invaluable experience
Vladimir Tushonkov commended the level of environmental preparation of the project and asked to maintain this level. He recalled that during the construction works carried out in preparation for the Olympics, contractors very often allowed deviations from a carefully designed project. Rashid Ismailov, the representative of the Open Government, the Head of the Working Group on Ecology of the Expert Council under the Government of the Russian Federation, said that the so-called green standards for the HSR construction are being developed. These standards are precisely aimed at providing to provide formats of cooperation of environmentalists and public with the companies constructing the mainline. So, environmentalists and residents whose interests somehow are affected by the construction of the mainline must timely receive the information on the process of construction and primarily on the environmental protection measures developed during the design phase from independent sources.
Rashid Ismailov called the results of the designers' work impressive: "The solutions and approaches developed during the designing the Moscow-Kazan HSR must be passed on over the country in future years." Of course, now it is too early to talk about the experience of construction, but the approaches to design of HSR, work with all interested parties including public organizations, will undoubtedly become an invaluable baggage of knowledge for RZD in further development of the backbone network.
