MOSCOW, March 13 (Itar-Tass) – A heavy snowfall, which began on Wednesday morning, had a quite negative impact on the traffic situation in the Russian capital. “The traffic is hampered in the city,” the press service of the Moscow department of transport and development of the road transport infrastructure told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.
“The largest traffic jams were reported on the Ryazansky, Leninsky and Volgogradsky Avenues, the Entuziastov Highway and in the northern part of the Moscow garden ring road,” the press service said. Meanwhile, traffic jams were reported on the Dmitrovskoye and Leningradskoye Highways.
The level of traffic jams is estimated by the specific internet systems, which are monitoring the traffic, at seven points from ten possible points. In particular, the traffic slowed down on the outer lane of the Third Ring Road at the interchange ramp to the Kutuzovsky Avenue. The average speed at this section of the highway is 20 kilometres per hour. Major traffic jams are reported in downtown Moscow, particularly the speed on Novy Arbat also makes about 20 kilometres per hour. The similar hard traffic situation has emerged on the Moskvoretskaya, Sofiiskaya Embankments and Bolshaya Yakimanka Street. On the highways leading to the city the traffic is relatively free now. For instance, the speed on the Kashirskoye and Simferopolskoye Highways is about 50–60 kilometres per hour.
About 15,000 units of special machinery are removing the snow from the Moscow streets, a source in the Moscow authorities told Itar-Tass on Wednesday. The road services will have removed the snow from all the roads by the evening rush hour, when the drivers will be driving home, the source said. Then an active snow cleanup will continue in the nighttime.
According to the weather forecasts of the Russian weather forecasting service, the conditions of slippery roads, snow and icicles on the roofs will remain in the Russian capital and in the Moscow Region. The highest air temperature will make minus 4–6 degrees Celsius in the megapolis and up to minus nine degrees Celsius in the Moscow Region. South-eastern winds will prevail with the speed of 5–10 metres per second. The weathermen forecast the heaviest snowfall on Friday and Saturday. The aggregate growth in the snow level will make 25 centimetres before the end of the week. Such snowfalls take place once in 50 years in March in the Russian capital.
On Tuesday, Deputy Mayor Pyotr Biryukov noted that the machinery, people, permanent and mobile snow melting stations are involved in the cleanup of the snowfall. The public utilities are put on round-the-clock duty back on Tuesday.