Near Irkutsk, the winner of the competition to prepare the investment case and master plan for the new airport was chosen. It was the Moscow institute Aeroproject. The project, worth about 50 billion rubles, calls for building Irkutsk New airport in the Pozdnyakovo area, with work planned to start in 2010. The article also explains what transport and utility lines will be brought to the future hub and why the decision to build it had long been overdue.
Yesterday, the winner of the competition to prepare the investment justification and master plan for the construction of a new airport near Irkutsk, which will be located near the settlement of Pozdnyakovo, 24 kilometers from the capital of the Angara region, became known. It was the Moscow institute "Aeroproekt".The memorandum on cooperation in implementing the project to build a new air transport hub, estimated to cost 50 billion rubles, was signed at the Baikal Economic Forum held in September last year by Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin and the region’s governor Igor Yesipovsky.
In 2008, 125 million rubles were planned to be allocated from the state budget for the development of the investment justification and master plan, and 365 million rubles in 2009. The development of the justification will last about a year, and in 2010 it is planned to begin construction of the Irkutsk-Novy airport.
A railway branch and two highways are planned to be built here, one of which will run from the city, and the other will connect the airport with the existing Yakutsk Highway. A high-voltage power line from the Irkutsk Hydroelectric Power Station and a kerosene pipeline from the Angarsk petrochemical plant will also be laid.
The decision to build a new airport had been long overdue, as emergency situations involving air transport in Irkutsk had occurred repeatedly. The last major accident, after which this decision was made, was the crash of an A-310 Airbus flying from Moscow. The airliner veered off the runway, which was just over 3 kilometers long, broke through the fence, and crashed into garages located beyond it. As a result, of the 203 people on board, 124 died and only 79 survived.