The Lena Bridge () is a

cable-stayed bridge A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which wire rope, cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or wikt:stay#Etymology 3, stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, norm ...

under construction in

Yakutsk Yakutsk ( ) is the capital and largest city of Sakha, Russia, located about south of the Arctic Circle. Fueled by the mining industry, Yakutsk has become one of Russia's most rapidly growing regional cities, with a population of 355,443 at the ...

Sakha Republic Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia, and the largest federal subject of Russia by area. It is located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of one million ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

which will connect the A331 highway to the

Lena Lena or LENA may refer to: Places * Léna Department, a department of Houet Province in Burkina Faso * Lena, Manitoba, an unincorporated community located in Killarney-Turtle Mountain municipality in Manitoba, Canada * Lena, Norway, a village in ...

and

Kolyma Kolyma (, ) or Kolyma Krai () is a historical region in the Russian Far East that includes the basin of Kolyma River and the northern shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, as well as the Kolyma Mountains (the watershed of the two). It is bounded to ...

highways over the

Lena River The Lena is a river in the Russian Far East and is the easternmost river of the three great rivers of Siberia which flow into the Arctic Ocean, the others being Ob (river), Ob and Yenisey. The Lena River is long and has a capacious drainage basi ...

. The bridge will connect the

Russian Far East The Russian Far East ( rus, Дальний Восток России, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in North Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asia, Asian continent, and is coextensive with the Far Easte ...

to the ports of the

Sea of Okhotsk The Sea of Okhotsk; Historically also known as , or as ; ) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands on the southeast, Japan's island of Hokkaido on the sou ...

, creating an transport corridor linking

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and , ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 587,891 Irkutsk is the List of cities and towns in Russ ...

Magadan Magadan ( rus, Магадан, p=məɡɐˈdan) is a Port of Magadan, port types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative centre of Magadan Oblast, Russia. The city is located on the isthmus of the Staritsky Peninsula by the ...

and developing Russia's northern economic axis. Upon the completion of the bridge, Russia will have year-round access to the city of Yakutsk by road.

Design

The bridge is intended to connect the east and west bank of the

, creating a connection between the Russian road network and the city of

. Currently, Yakutsk cannot be reached by road year-round. In the winter, there is an ice road over the Lena, and in summer ferries must be used. During parts of spring and fall, there is no access by road due to moving ice. The bridge will cross the river from the village of Staraya Tabaga to the village of Khaptagai. Passenger cars will be able to cross free of charge, but a toll will be established for trucks.

History

The project to connect the banks of the

near Yakutia originated in 1980, following the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline. Since 1986, three options for the location of the bridge have been considered. Finally a location was chosen at a distance of 38 km upstream on the Lena from Yakutsk, near the town of

Nizhny Bestyakh Nizhny Bestyakh (; , ''Allaraa Besteex'') is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) in Megino-Kangalassky District of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located on the east bank of the Lena River, opposite the republic's capital city of Yakutsk, ...

. This option was justified by the proximity to the Amur-Yakutsk Mainline, which connects Nizhny Bestyakh to Berkakit In July 2013, the Federal Road Agency announced an open tender for a contract for the construction and operation of a road bridge on the Lena River in Yakutsk. The competition, officially announced on July 19, provided for the construction of a road bridge and its approaches of a total length greater than 21 kilometers. According to experts, the estimated cost of construction was no greater than 40 billion rubles. The winner of the concession was the consortium ''Transportnyje koncessii (Sakha)'' In November 2023, Vladimir Putin declared that the construction of the bridge would be completed by 2028. The construction of the bridge began in October 2024, with drilling on the right bank of the Lena beginning in March 2025. In 2025, the cost of construction was estimated to be around 133 billion rubles.

References

{{Portal bar, Siberia Sakha Republic Yakutsk Bridges under construction Road bridges in Russia