Earthern Dams

Categories / City Topography/Geographical Objects
EARTHERN DAMS, zones within the territory of St. Petersburg with an artificially raised level. From the very first days of the city development bedding was used for the low spots to protect it from water, especially floods. Even during Peter the Great's reign, it was suggested to build a dam with an elevation not lower than 260-280 centimetres above the average shoreline of the Neva river (later this was revised to being no lower than 300-320 centimetres). For this purpose bedding was used, and was occasionally sluiced. By 2002, a larger part of the city protruding to the Neva River delta and Neva Bay rests on a bedded ground 2-4 millimetres thick, sometimes up to 6-8 millimetres. The late 19th - early 20th centuries saw major activities in building earth dams, carried out during the construction of Sea Channel and port installations around Gutuevsky and Kanonersky islands. From the late 1960s earth dams have been constructed in residential areas on Dekabristov Island, in Staraya Derevnya, the Commandants' Aerodrome and Dolgoe Lake in the north of St. Petersburg as well as in the south-west. Aggradation is preceded with the elimination of the soil and peat bed by laying sand on the loose stony deposits to enable a better bonding. After sluicing, the surface is consolidated with soil and vegetation and the adjacent territory is developed. For earthern dam construction around the Neva River, sand is excavated from the bottom of the Neva Bay and the Lakhtinsky Lake. Upon completion these areas accommodated new housing estates, in addition parks ware laid out (including the Park of the 300th Anniversary of St.Petersburg and Yuzhno-Primorsky Park). The maximum bed ground thickness is registered on Krestovsky Island in the vicinity of Kirov Stadium. As a result of earth dam construction activities in the estuary of the Neva Bay emerged Bely Island which accommodated the Central Airing Station. In the same manner the configuration of the western section of Vasilievsky Island and Dekabristov Island have been altered. Some of the earth dams provide premises for industrial objects and transport thrufares. The constructions play an important role in the cities flood protection network. The material used in the constructions consists of to as much as tens of millions of cubic meters of ground relocated from the bottom of the Gulf of Finland and Neva Bay.

Y. P. Seliverstov. Kirov (real name Kostrikov) Sergey Mironovich
Peter I, Emperor
Kirov Stadium