GTS “EL5-Energo” in Sredneuralsk was attacked by heavy trucks
In the Sverdlovsk region, there remains a real threat of emergency related to the operation of the dam at the Sredneuralskaya State District Power Plant. The owner of the station, the generating company EL5-Energo, continues to record cases of heavy vehicles moving through the hydraulic structure (HTS). At the same time, the design parameters of the facility, built back in the 40s of the last century, do not provide for bearing such an overload. Even the opening of a bypass road, built by the regional authorities to create an alternative route for trucks, did not save the situation. It is still not possible to identify the owners of vehicles that regularly violate the technological regime, and drivers get off with only administrative fines. At the same time, previously the management of the Iset logistics center took responsibility for the demolition of the fences on the dam, and KAMAZ trucks from the Iset granite quarry also plied along the hydraulic structure. Transport officials said that the detour is more expensive due to the additional several tens of kilometers. Nevertheless, the destruction of the GTS threatens to flood Sredneuralsk, Verkhnyaya Pyshma and part of the northern territory of Yekaterinburg with a population of up to a million people.
Heavy vehicles continue to ply along the dam of the Sredneuralskaya State District Power Plant, threatening to destroy the dam. Despite the traffic ban introduced back in May 2024, EL5-Energo is recording new incidents.
The press service of the generating company Pravda UrFO explained that the restrictions were introduced for freight transport whose weight exceeds 17 tons and height is 2.7 meters. There are barriers at the entrances on both sides, but due to non-compliance with the speed limit, the barriers were demolished 12 times.
Today, there is a direct risk of damage to the hydraulic structure, which could lead to an emergency in the region.
The main flow of traffic through the dam comes from enterprises in the village of Iset, located on the opposite bank of the reservoir from Sredneuralsk. In particular, the Iset logistics center operates here, as well as the Iset granite quarry.
For example, the management of the logistics center stated in June that it was incurring losses due to the need to use an alternative route through Sagra and Ayat with further access to the Serovsky tract. At the same time, the head of the enterprise Alexander Goncharov admitted in the media that in at least two cases of damage to the fences at the dam, truck drivers traveling from the logistics center were to blame.
According to Goncharov, the detour takes an additional 82 km, and until recently the condition of the surface on the alternative route did not allow heavy trucks to move. However, estimates of the distance may be overestimated; according to information from Yandex.Maps, the bypass leg to the EKAD is 69 km, while the length of the direct route is 32 km.
To relieve tension in the area, a new section of the two-lane Sagra-Ayat road was introduced on September 4. The Highway Administration explained that switching freight traffic to the new road will help eliminate “territory problems that are associated with a significant flow of heavy trucks and will optimize traffic flows.”
However, this did not bring the expected effect: EL5-Energo continued to record facts of access control violations. For example, on September 7, the barriers were once again demolished. The company emphasizes that the GTS was built in 1948 and was not designed for modern road traffic.
As carriers point out, the construction of a backup bridge across the Iset River would completely remove the stress point. But for now the 500 million ruble project is stalled due to problems with the contractor. Initially, the facility was supposed to appear in 2025, but to this day even design work has not been completed. Recently, the State Institution “Administration of Highways” terminated the contract with the designer LLC “Invest Group” (Moscow) due to violation of deadlines.
“Pravda UrFO” sent official requests to the State Institution SO “Administration of Highways” and Rostechnadzor with a request to comment on what measures are being taken by the responsible departments to prevent the threat of an emergency. At the time of publication of the material there were no answers.
