The forcing of road construction in the northern districts of Western Siberia (1980s - early 1990s)

The article analyzes the forcing of road construction in the northern districts of Western Siberia in the 1980s - early 1990s. The work is written on the basis of archival materials found in the State Archive of Tyumen Oblast, State Archive of Socio-Political History of Tyumen Oblast, State Archive of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and in the municipal archives. The author aims to identify the distinctive features and methods of increasing the length of road network year-round in the Khanty-Mansi and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs of Tyumen Oblast, which was of the major priorities for the development of the West Siberian oil and gas complex. In the early 1980s, Tyumen Oblast was not a single transport area with a developed network of roads. Mainly the southern districts of Tyumen Oblast were strongly connected by roads with the regional center. The barest necessity of the oil and gas complex was the intense transport development of oil and gas fields. The author draws attention to the fateful resolution of the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers dated March 20, 1980 No. 241. According to the resolution, in Nizhnevartovsk, a production construction and assembly association Zapsibdorstroi within the USSR Ministry of Transport Engineering was established, with the aim of improving the management of the construction of roads in the northern districts of Western Siberia and coordinating activities of construction organizations of the Union republics of the Soviet Union, which were additionally involved in the construction of roads. The main field of activities of the association and the union republics was the construction of main and infield roads with hard surface, including airfields for civil aviation. In absolute terms, Zapsibdorstroi increased road construction by 6.9 times during the eleventh five-year plan (1981-1985). In 1985 the association first opened over more than 900 km of roads. According to the author, the introduction of new technologies contributed to the acceleration of construction: an almost four-time increase in the construction of embankments of roads using culverts of corrugated steel; a two-time increase in the use of geofabric on oilfield roads. Road construction actively used a two-step method of construction of roads. In the 1980s-1990s, the association Zapsibdorstroi established six road trusts. The author comes to a conclusion that the construction of transport facilities for oil and gas industry accelerated in the northern districts of Western Siberia. Road builders effectively solved the problems of the transport development of oil and gas fields, which allowed to start forming a supporting network of roads. A major achievement of road construction of the oil and gas complex was overcoming the transportation isolation in the autonomous districts of Tyumen Oblast and their subsequent inclusion in the road network of the RSFSR.

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