The federal highway "Russia", called Leningradka by Muscovites, the road connecting the two capitals and of strategic importance - all this is the M10 highway.
What happened before and what awaits motorists in the future
The history of the highway began even before the construction of St. Petersburg. Its segment connected Moscow and Novgorod with a stop at Tver. Today, such distances can be covered by car or bus in just a few hours, and in the distant sixteenth century it took several days. Of course, it was impossible to make such a trip without stopping for the night, so settlements (post stations) appeared along the road. One of them is Valdai.
The M10 highway connected Moscow and St. Petersburg in the second half of the eighteenth century, construction was carried out by decree of Peter I. Partially, it repeated the route of an artificially created waterway laid from the Tver region to the B altic Sea, providing the needs of the actively developing northern capital with food and other necessary goods.
Of course, the newly opened M10 highway, although at that time itdid not have such a name, was a breakthrough in domestic road construction. It is not surprising that it has become one of the main transport routes connecting central Russia with its northwestern part. It has not lost this status even today, despite the fact that there are many questions about its technical condition.
It is noteworthy that the length of the road has since been reduced by seventy-two kilometers and today is 706 kilometers. The highway, in addition to the two regions where the final destinations are located, passes through the territory of the Novgorod and Tver provinces.
In Soviet times, the M10 highway received an asph alt surface, which is periodically repaired, but, alas, this is not enough, as it needs urgent reconstruction. The authorities promise that by 2018 the situation will change dramatically, although this is not the first date designated as the completion date for the road upgrade.
Nevertheless, work is underway, and there is hope that in the not too distant future, travelers will see a new highway, corresponding in its level to the title of a federal highway.
M10 - difficulty track
If you look at the map of the road, you can see that it passes through the plain, but despite this, there are several sections along its length with dangerous turns, steep descents and ascents.
Everything would be fine, but when similar, unpleasant sections of the road are complemented by the terrible quality of the roadway, the lack of overtaking lanes and the dividing strip, conditions are created when you need to move along itvery carefully, otherwise it is fraught with serious consequences.
As described above, historically, the road passes through a large number of settlements. In ancient times, this was a definite plus: the opportunity to find an overnight stay and a hot dinner during a multi-day trip. In modern conditions, this creates additional difficulties for motorists who have to lose a lot of time to overcome these sections. The round-the-clock flow of cars, including trucks, also brings little pleasure to local residents.
And, of course, the cities and villages on the way create additional difficulties during the design and reconstruction: the road needs to be widened, but this is impossible, since there are residential buildings around, located very close to the highway. The forced construction of bypasses significantly increases the construction time, its cost is growing.
Sufficiently long sections of the track have three lanes: one in each direction and one for two additional lanes for overtaking. The affiliation of the middle row changes quite quickly, sometimes you can not have time to make a maneuver and already be in the oncoming lane. This is one of the reasons for the numerous accidents on this route.
All the difficulties described above become critical in conditions of a solid load on the track. A huge flow of trucks and cars moves daily along this route.
Route M10 – reviews
Riding onthis highway is not a pleasure for the faint of heart, and it will be completely uncomfortable for inexperienced drivers to move along it.
When leaving Moscow for St. Petersburg, you need to be prepared for the fact that you can spend several hours driving outside the city, standing in a traffic jam on the Leningradskoye Highway near the Moscow Ring Road and further to Khimki. Numerous traffic lights of Solnechnogorsk will also take a decent amount of time. Therefore, going to the northern capital, if possible, you need to leave early in the morning.
When leaving St. Petersburg, as a rule, there are no traffic jams, but you need to try to calculate the time so that the entrance to Moscow does not coincide with peak hours, since the situation on the Leningradskoye highway towards the center of the capital is also quite tense.
