Kiev prepares plans for metro expansion 26 Mar 2020

Two new lines are being prepared to expand the Kiev Metro system by 25km by 2025 and with all 23 planned stations aligned underground.

Fig 1. New lines and extensions planned to expand the Kiev Metro

According to representatives from the regional government of the capital, and largest, city of Ukraine, the new lines are the Podilsky-Vygurovskaya Line and a new Podolsk-Levoberezhnaya Line (Fig 1). According to Oleg Tokarev, a Chairman of Kyivmetrostroy, the major metro construction in Kiev, there are plans also to extend the existing Syretsk-Pecherskaya Line to the Vynohradar historical neighbourhood of the city.

Following a series of expansions of the Metro in the 2000s, a change of political power and a series of economic and political crises in 2013 and 2014 in Ukraine resulted in the suspension of further works. Construction was paused for almost four years, until implementation of the project resumed in Spring 2017 with the aim to extend the network to the Troeschina residential area, one of the largest districts in the city, situated on the left bank of the Dnepr River.

In November 2018 the Kiev Government received an official letter of interest from the China Railway International Group to construct the metro line to Troieschina. While a feasibility study was completed, construction works are as yet to begin. The reason for the delay was not disclosed by the Kiev regional authorities.

Vitaly Klichko, Mayor of Kiev

The new underground line with 14 underground stations is 7km long and will be constructed in two phases, each lasting three to four years. The cost of the project is estimated to be more than UAH30 billion (about US$1.2 billion). The majority of the funding for the project is expected to come from the Kiev regional budget and the Ukranian State budget. Some funding will be be provided also by private investors as well as international financial institutions that may include leading banks in the EU and Asian region.

A decision for construction of the Podolsk-Levoberezhnaya Line is expected to be taken by the Kiev authorities by summer this year (2020). The first stage of the line will include six underground stations with the overall underground alignment of 5km.

The Kiev Metro opened in 1960 and currently has three operating lines with an overall length of 68km. Of the 52 stations, 20 are deep underground, 26 are subsurface and the other six are at grade. The Arsenalnaya Station on the Svyatoshinsko-Brovarskaya Line is currently recognised as the deepest station in the world at 105.5m deep.

Arsenalnaya Station, the deepest metro station in the world at 105.5m deep

According to the Mayor of Kiev, Vitaly Klitschko, expansion of the Metro is part of the existing general plan for development of the city within the next decade. The overall length of the Metro will increase to 130km, while the number of stations will increase from 52 to 100. Each 41km of the network serves one million inhabitants of the city.

It is planned that Kyivmetrobud will remain as general contractor for Metro works in the city with the company likely to continue using its 6m diameter Herrenknecht TBM purchased in 2008. The new stations on the new lines will be built using the open cut method.

“The approach will help to accelerate the planned construction works,” said Natalia Makogon, adviser to the Head of the Metro. “The excavation technology suits the geological conditions beneath Kiev and the underground alignment overcomes the shortage of land in the city and its dense urban development.”

The Kiev regional government estimates the overall investment in the expansion of the metro will amount to UAH50 billion (about US$2 billion).