Near the city of Yakutsk, Russia, the construction of the first bridge support—pillar No. 4—over the Lena River was completed from the Russian village of Tabaga. The opening ceremony took place on Oct. 21.
“The installation of all the concrete structures of the Lena Bridge, including the spans that will appear next year, will begin from pillar No. 4. This is not a structural element, but a permanent part of the bridge,” Kirill Bychkov, Chairman of the Government of Yakutia (the Republic of Sakha) in Russia’s Siberia region, said at the ceremony, as quoted by Yakutia Media.
The Lena River, some 2,800 miles long, is one of the largest rivers in the world. It runs south to north, starting in the Baikal Mountains, near Lake Baikal, passing northward just east of Yakutsk, and emptying in the Lena Delta in the Arctic Ocean. The river is frozen seven to eight months of the year, from October through May. During some of that period, one can walk across the frozen river, and sometimes carry goods across. But for most of the time, including during the time when it thaws, there is no way to cross it except by small boat.
