The new Angarsk bridge is nearly ready. In autumn, traffic is promised to open both ways, and the full project with interchanges is planned for 2010. Right bank access roads are being built, and streets rearranged. The new bridge should ease congestion on the dam and Old Bridge and shorten the route by 10 to 13 kilometers.

The commissioning of the new Angarsk Bridge is not far off. The builders promise that very soon traffic will be opened in both directions. Construction of the interchanges is also underway.
Fully, together with the interchanges, the builders promise to put the bridge into operation in 2010. However, by autumn traffic on it should open in both directions.
Right now, construction of access roads to Irkutsk’s fourth crossing over the Angara is proceeding at an accelerated pace. Large-scale work has unfolded on the right bank. After the widening of 3rd of July Street and the reconstruction of Kommunisticheskaya, traffic movement will be roughly as follows.
- 3rd of July Street may, as one option, serve as an entrance, yes, indeed. And the exit and an additional entrance may be organized through this network of streets from Kommunisticheskaya and 25th of October, said Associate Professor Alexey Levashov, an employee of the transport laboratory at IrGTU.
For this, the builders will have to lay a water main on Kommunisticheskaya and replace the asphalt. At the same time, a 900-meter section of the Upper Embankment is being reconstructed, where two pipelines will also be laid and a new asphalt surface will appear. If everything goes according to plan, it will be possible to enter the bridge just as it is now, while the main exit is planned onto Kommunisticheskaya. From there - toward the Barguzin cinema. After several more houses are resettled and the final stage of the bridge is put into operation, cars will head onto Partizanskaya via a two-level interchange on Sedova. But this will not happen before next year. As for the left bank, the interchanges are supposed to be completed in 2009.
There are no problems with these access roads. However, drivers may encounter difficulties when making a U-turn in the Akademicheskaya area. The road there has low capacity. The salvation from traffic jams is the construction of a roundabout, but it is not yet in the plans. That means congestion is unavoidable.
According to Alexey Levashov, public transport will only benefit from the bridge opening. In addition, the crossing will reduce traffic flows on the dam and the Old Bridge, and will shorten the distance cars travel from one bank of the Angara to the other by 10—13 kilometers.