The Kerch Bridge connecting Crimea with Taman Peninsula of Russia has been built applying the latest technologies and can operate “for centuries, if maintained properly”, President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with the TV program ‘Moscow. Kremlin. Putin’ on the Rossiya-1 TV Channel.

On December 23, Putin took part in the ceremony of opening the railway service on the Crimean Bridge across the Kerch Strait that connects Crimea with mainland Russia.
Commenting on event he said that he experienced “a feeling of joy and satisfaction for the work done with a good result,” when crossing the Bridge.
“Judging by what experts opinion, it will serve for many decades and maybe centuries to come. It is only necessary to provide timely maintenance and repairs and it may operate for centuries”, Putin said, underlining that the construction has been conducted based on the most advanced technologies.

In the past there had been three attempts to build a bridge across the Kerch Strait but “all of them had been unsuccessful and all the structures had been swept away,” Putin recalled.
That is why, there were speculations that Russia would fail again in creating such a transport pass, he continued.

“Such technologies did not exist before but we developed them. After that, all worked well and qualitatively and actually everything was done using domestic technologies,” Putin explained.

The Crimean or Kerch Bridge is the largest structure in Russia and Europe that connects the Kerch Peninsula in Crimea with the Krasnodar Region in the Taman Peninsula.

The transport link consists of two parallel motor and railway sections. The bridge’s motorway section was put into operation in May 2018 and traffic across it started to pass in the fall of the same year.
On December 23, 2019, Putin took part in the ceremony to open railway between Kerch and Taman. Cargo train traffic is set to start on the Crimean Bridge in July 2020.