Alushta bypass construction completed under 23 billion rouble contract

Construction and reconstruction of the 7.8-kilometre Alushta bypass in Crimea have been completed under a 23 billion rouble contract with VAD, Interfax reported on October 14.

Crimean Transport Minister Arseny Kozlovsky announced completion. The road’s technical classification was raised from category II to IB. Contractor representative Pavel Shurshilin said it had capacity for 20,000 vehicles a day.

The project includes nine structures, among them a river bridge, overpasses and a viaduct, plus 11 retaining walls. A 60 km/h limit applies because of the mountainous terrain. The contractor estimates that the bypass can shorten the journey from Simferopol to Yalta by an hour during the tourist season.

The contract was signed in April 2023 and required completion by the end of November 2026. The contractor therefore finished the section ahead of the contractual deadline.

VAD, established in St Petersburg in 1994, previously built the Tavrida highway and the four-lane road linking it to Perevalnoye. The latter opened along its entire length in 2025.

The company is also reconstructing the separate Perevalnoye-to-Alushta-bypass section under a 61.6 billion rouble contract due by December 1, 2030. Once that work is complete, the route from Tavrida to the exit from Alushta towards Yalta is intended to have four lanes throughout.

Other works include a 9.7 billion rouble overhaul of the Alushta–Yalta road due by the end of 2027. Another contractor, Tsentrodorstroy, is building the Tavrida–Sudak road in three stages costing a combined 22.8 billion roubles. The first stage is scheduled by the end of 2026 and the remaining two by the end of 2027.

Vladimir Putin called for more links from Tavrida to the coast for tourists in August 2020. The completed bypass and the continuing road sections are separate contracts, so completion at Alushta does not mean every project listed has finished.