Today, on July 4, a grand opening of traffic bypassing Losevo village and Pavlovsk city along M-4 Don Highway in the Voronezh Region was held.
The ceremony was attended by Evgeny Dietrikh, Minister of Transport, Aleksandr Gusev, Governor of the Voronezh Region, Andrey Kostiuk, Deputy Minister of Transport and the Head of the Federal Road Agency, Mikhail Chernikov, Head of the Main Directorate for Safe Traffic of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, and Vyacheslav Petushenko, Chairman of the Board of Avtodor State Company.
The Head of the Ministry of Transport noted that this open section is long-awaited by the motorists, since the old direction of M-4 Highway passed through Losevo village and Pavlovsk city and is one of the bottlenecks on the highway connecting the south of Russia with Moscow and St. Petersburg.
“Before the high season in the Black Sea resorts, the opening of the section is a huge gift to all our motorists," the Minister said.
“Today, we have a very significant development in place. Millions of Russian car users who headed south to our resorts experienced inconvenience and even irritation when driving through this section crossing Losevo. Now they can drive safely and comfortably while saving their precious time. We can say that they will drive at the pace and speed with which the Voronezh Region has been developing over the past decade, so here we get in sync with them. I want to thank the Ministry of Transport for the attention to this facility, the employees of the State Company, and, of course, the road builders who delivered the work of a very high quality and ahead of schedule," the Governor said of the Voronezh Region.
“Well-coordinated work allowed us to build this section six months ahead of schedule, but we should not stop here, we will continue to develop the M-4 Don Highway. And just in a couple of months, we will begin to work further, from the 715th to the 877th kilometers. The entire highway in the Voronezh Region will acquire the first technical category, which will allow driving at least at a speed of 110 km/h," Vyacheslav Petushenko added.
“The drivers stuck in a jam for 6–7 hours at the Losevo and Pavlovsk bypass. I am sure that today, just in the midst of the holiday season, we will see that here will be comfortable traffic on this section, which will allow the drivers to safely get to the Black Sea coast," Chernikov said.
Site preparation began in May 2017. The bypass construction of 85.17 kilometers long started in August 2017 and was completed in June 2020.
The section crosses the territory of Bobrov, Pavlovsk and Verkhny Mamon Districts of the Voronezh Region. The road has 1B technical category and four lanes with separated counter-flows and interchanges at different levels. The permitted speed is 110 km/h.
There are five traffic intersections along the new bypass. The intersection at the 634th kilometer will allow drivers to safely and comfortably leave the highway towards Rossosh and Belgorod, as well as towards the regional road to Buturlinovka. Those who need to drive into Pavlovsk should turn on the 673rd kilometer. The transport interchange at the 708th kilometer provides communication with other roads to Lozovoe, Verkhny Mamon, and also with an alternative toll free section. Motorists driving to Russkaya Zhuravka or Verkhny Mamon villages will be able to leave the highway at the 712th kilometer, to Osetrovka — at the 716th kilometer. In addition, the drivers are provided with safe exits to the alternative toll free section at the 698th and 701th kilometers.
There are two toll collection points along the section. One toll collection point is located at the 636th kilometer of the highway. There are 16 lanes of toll payments, six of which can operate in reverse mode. All toll collection gates support contactless payment without stopping with the use of a transponder (at a speed of up to 30 km/h).
The second toll collection point is located at the 672nd kilometer of the road, at the entrance to Pavlovsk city. There are four gates, two in each direction.
The toll amount depends on the time of day, day of the week, vehicle category and the availability of a transponder. So, the travel along the entire section by car from Monday to Thursday (when paying in cash or with a transponder issued not by Avtodor–Toll Roads) will amount to 200 rubles. From Friday to Sunday it will be 220 rubles. And when traveling with the Avtodor-Toll Roads (ATR) transponder — 160 rubles. From Friday to Sunday — 176 rubles.
