Penza, 21 November 2017. PenzaNews. The Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation Maxim Sokolov, the presidential plenipotentiary envoy in the Volga Federal District Mikhail Babich and the governor Ivan Belozertsev took part in the ceremony of opening the Sverdlovsky bridge of Penza after its reconstruction, which would increase the structure's capacity.

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As it was noted by Maxim Sokolov, the Sverdlovsky bridge gained the second life in the year of its 50th anniversary thanks to the system "Platon".

"The Penza region received money for the bridge reconstruction in the amount of about 400 million roubles. [...] The bridge will certainly provide a new life for Penza and connect its areas. It looks very modern now," the head of the Ministry of Transport said.

The Minister thanked the envoy's office, the government and the Penza administration for fruitful collaboration, which helped to implement the large project within a relatively short time.

"Today we have looked at the dynamics of the Penza street and road network in the very first year of the project ['Safe Roads of High Quality'] implementation. The number of roads maintained in a standard condition increased from 38% to 45%," Maxim Sokolov noted.

In turn, Mikhail Babich drew attention to the fact that the Penza region was the district's leader in solving a number of issues connected with infrastructure construction.

"63% of regional roads have been brought in a standard condition – this result is the best in the Volga Federal District. 72% of municipal roads have been brought in a standard condition, which is the second result in the district. According to the results of the project 'Safe Roads of High Quality' Penza showed one of the best results not only in the district but also in the country. Development of a comfortable urban environment is also very successful," the presidential plenipotentiary envoy explained.

According to him, the high results had been achieved by the governor Ivan Belozertsev and his colleagues.

Mikhail Babich expressed confidence that in the future all the tasks would be carried out the same successfully.

In turn, on behalf of the inhabitants of the Penza region the governor Ivan Belozertsev expressed gratitude to the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, the envoy's office and the Ministry of Transport for their support.

"The money for different projects that the Ministry will allocate to our region will be used to carry out major road repairs of high quality," he promised.

The governor also reported that he intended to propose to the Legislative Assembly of the region that the title of "Honorary citizen of the Penza region" should be awarded to Tatyana Nedopekina, director of the company "Avtodoroga", which carried out the bridge reconstruction.

During the opening ceremony, some workers of the organization received awards. These were Oleg Radyushkin, Vladimir Ushal, Evgeny Zabaturin, Irina Libarova, Alexander Nedopekin and Alexander Gridnev.

Then Maxim Sokolov, Mikhail Babich and Ivan Belozertsev opened the bridge nominally by turning the road sign.

After that, three retro cars, modern vehicles of the LLC "Avtodoroga", and trolleybus No.6 drove along the structure.