The unfinished TV tower is one of the main symbols of Yekaterinburg and at the same time the tallest abandoned building in the world. On March 24, by the sole decision of Kuyvashev and Kozitsyn, an object that could have been turned into a unique world-class attraction was blown up despite the protests of the townspeople...

History of the construction of the television tower

Construction of a new TV tower near the circus building in Sverdlovsk began at the end of 1983. Perhaps this was the most ambitious project Soviet power in this city. In addition to the tower, there should have been a park, a museum, a planetarium, and a house of pioneers.

Active construction continued until 1989, then problems with financing began. However, construction continued until 1991, then it was frozen. The construction was carried out by the Spetszhelezobetonstroy trust, which previously erected the Ostankino TV tower. Left without funding, the builders simply left without mothballing the tower and leaving it exposed to unfavorable external conditions.

Construction stopped at 219.25 meters (according to other sources, 220.4 meters). And if we take into account the metal structures rising above, the height of the tower is 231.7 meters.

A metal antenna with a height of 141 meters was to be installed above. The design height of the structure was 361 meters. For comparison, the height of the tall skyscraper city ​​- Iset tower - is 209 meters. If the TV tower had been completed, it would have become the second tallest in Russia - after the Ostankino Tower in Moscow.

At an altitude of 188 meters, a restaurant was to be located on a rotating platform (analogous to “Seventh Heaven” in Ostankino).

After the completion of the construction of the new television tower, the 192-meter tower in the park named after Pavlik Morozov was to be demolished. New tower would significantly expand signal coverage - right up to Nizhny Tagil.

The prototype of the television tower was an ordinary reinforced concrete chimney, only higher and more voluminous, with appropriate rooms for equipment. The tower is a monolithic structure made of reinforced concrete with a wall thickness of 50 centimeters at the base to 30 centimeters at the top. High-strength concrete grade M400 was used (in modern classification B30). This type of concrete is used in the construction of bunkers, weapons depots, and protective structures.

The thickness of the protective layer of concrete on the outer surface of the trunk is 40-70 millimeters, according to inner surface– 30-50 millimeters. The design volume of shaft concrete is 3066 m3.

Concrete was brought from the concrete factory, lifted upstairs and poured onto reinforcement welded for strength. The work platform was ascended by a shaft lift inside the tower.

Inside the tower trunk there is a hollow cylinder with a diameter of 15 meters at the bottom and 7 meters at the top. There are numerous window openings along the entire height of the trunk. various shapes and sizes.

At levels from 199.6 to 208.9 meters, an installation opening measuring 9.3 x 5.72 meters was left in the tower trunk on the southwestern side. Through it (using a beam crane installed inside the television tower) it was planned to install the elevator shaft, elevator equipment and the elevators themselves. After this, the hole would be concreted.

At the level of 231.7 meters, a platform with a diameter of 12 meters was built on the trunk, with a fence.

The metal structures of the mine hoist are mounted along the entire height of the reinforced concrete shaft of the tower. When the tower was abandoned, extreme sports enthusiasts who were eager to conquer the tower climbed up them. The mine hoist was installed to the level of 239.7 meters.

A walking staircase was installed outside along the entire height of the tower. Over time, it rusted and in some places moved away from the trunk. After the accident that happened there bottom part the stairs were cut off.

After graduation construction work appearance The tower did not change, except that, at the request of the prosecutor's office, red altitude lights were installed for flight safety and, over time, the huge inscription “Kisa” that appeared at the top was erased for the sake of the Russian tricolor.

Unfinished for extreme sports enthusiasts

The huge abandoned area near the circus soon began to attract extreme sports enthusiasts and simply informal people. Risking their lives, they climbed to the very top along internal structures and external stairs. Some even spent the night on the tower with tents. There were many who climbed the tower dozens and hundreds of times. Sometimes paratroopers jumped from here.

TV tower restoration projects

The construction of the tower at that time was carried out according to a new standard design. In addition to Sverdlovsk in Russia, similar towers were supposed to appear in Perm and Vladivostok, but the crisis prevented them. But towers according to this project were built in Tallinn (Estonia) and Vilnius (Lithuania), only the platform at the top was different. Looking at them, you can understand what the TV tower in Sverdlovsk-Ekaterinburg would be like.

TV tower in Tallinn. Photo from Bookingcar.su

TV tower in Vilnius. Photo from the site votpusk.ru

Even in the form of unfinished construction, according to many Yekaterinburg residents, the tower adorned the city. This is the dominant thing that the eye clings to. The tower was also visible in the outskirts of the city, for example from the Devil’s Settlement (long before high-rise buildings and skyscrapers began to appear in the city).

Thanks to the tower, the view from Plotinka downstream of the Iset River was reminiscent of the panorama in the city of Washington (USA) with the monument to George Washington. At one time, this photo comparison was widespread on the Internet.

From time to time, regional authorities announced plans to restore the site. In 2007, an investor was found who expressed his readiness to invest about 500 million rubles in the completion of the tower, and to build business centers nearby to recoup the costs, but the financial crisis of 2008 prevented it.

The unfinished tower was listed on the balance sheet of the federal state unitary enterprise RTRS. In 2012, by decision of Governor Kuyvashev, the Sverdlovsk region bought unfinished TV tower, paying 500 million rubles from the regional budget.

The following year, 2013, the regional authorities held a competition for best project reconstruction of an unfinished television tower. The winner was the company "NAI BEKAR Ural" with the project "Green Hill Park". According to the project, it was planned to build a registry office and an observation deck on the tower, and hotels, shops and entertainment centers in the lower part.

Second place in the competition went to the Global Lighthouse project, which proposed turning the tower into a scientific and educational center. And the third is the “Star of the Urals” with floating rings using the principle of magnetic levitation.

In total, more than 70 projects were submitted to the competition. Some suggested installing a statue of St. Catherine on top (for example, instead of a temple on a pond). There was also a proposal to turn the tower into a “dandelion” - to create a huge art object. According to the idea of ​​the project authors from the TigerTiger agency, there should be an observation deck at the top of the tower, and at the bottom there could be exhibition or office space. At night, the stem of the “dandelion” would be illuminated green, and the top is white.

In 2017, it became known that the Tengo Interactive studio had created a VR project about the Yekaterinburg TV tower. The project was called " The Tower VR". Wearing a helmet virtual reality, you can play the game by visiting the famous TV tower and climbing to the top. A video with renderings of the project has been posted on the studio’s YouTube channel. It can be seen that the tower is reproduced in great detail. To do this, company employees carried out careful photography inside and outside the tower. You can read more about this project on the website vc.ru.

Demolition of the Yekaterinburg TV tower

On February 22, 2017, the authorities put the tower and the land around it up for auction. Starting price determined in the amount of 652.8 million rubles. The Atomstroykompleks company, which planned to build 120 thousand square meters, showed interest in the auction. m. of housing and commercial real estate. The tower was planned to be reconstructed by installing a long spire, due to which its height would increase to 361 meters. They wanted to build an observation deck on the tower. However, after deliberation, Atomstroykompleks refused to acquire the unfinished property. The auction did not take place.

At the same time, the owner of UMMC, billionaire Andrei Kozitsyn, showed interest in the site. As a result, in 2017, the Sverdlovsk authorities freely transferred the unfinished television tower, purchased from the federal authorities for half a billion budget rubles, to the UMMC company - in exchange for a promise to demolish the television tower and build another ice arena in its place (literally a few blocks from here is Ice Palace sports "Uralets" and Datsyuk Arena). The new ice arena will have a capacity of 15 thousand people. However, the corresponding infrastructure (in particular, extensive parking) is not provided. According to experts, on the days of major events there will be a traffic collapse in this part of the city.

Photo by Nadezhda Shimalina

In November 2017, the Sverdlovsk organization of the Union of Architects of Russia sent a letter to the head of UMMC Andrei Kozitsyn asking him to reconsider the decision to demolish the TV tower and build an ice arena in this place.

Some townspeople compare the demolition of the TV tower with the destruction of Ipatiev's house, believing that in the future descendants will remember Kuyvashev and Kozitsyn with unkind words for the destruction of one of the symbols of the city.

Photo by Nadezhda Shimalina

The former governor also spoke out against the demolition of the TV tower. Sverdlovsk region Eduard Rossel:

“There are 165 meters of metal structures left to complete. This needs to be done, paint the TV tower, install the equipment. You can do good there Cultural Center - new item attraction for city residents, for youth", he told reporters.

But the current governor Kuyvashev, who came to the Urals from Tyumen region, welcomed the demolition of one of the symbols of a city alien to him.

“The tower is definitely not a monument. And not a symbol of some kind historical event. This is a symbol of mismanagement. We searched different shapes use of a television tower. And I must state that there are no investors to implement any idea. This is a purely economic issue. It's funny to call it some kind of symbol. It’s bad that we can’t bring this territory into circulation. That is why the decision was made to demolish it. And even during the discussion on my Instagram, the majority supported", - Kuyvashev said at his press conference.

It is worth noting that under the leadership of Kuyvashev, who talks about the tower as a symbol of mismanagement, the debts of the Sverdlovsk region have grown to stratospheric heights. Thus, according to data at the beginning of 2018, the region’s debt amounts to more than 75 billion rubles. This is twice as much as the entire annual budget of the capital of the Urals.

Started in January 2018 active work for the demolition of the tower. They were in a hurry to finish it in time for the FIFA World Cup, four matches of which will be held in Yekaterinburg. By order of UMMC, the demolition was carried out by a company with the simple name “Special Explosive Works” from Magnitogorsk ( Chelyabinsk region). The same company demolished an elevator near the Makarovsky Bridge for Kozitsyn. The cost of demolishing the TV tower has not been disclosed.

This is how the demolition process was described in the project documentation. At the first stage, the lower structure at the base of the tower is dismantled. At the same time, it is preparing Earthworks, which should become a kind of “cushion” when the structure falls.

The dismantling of the tower barrel will take place in two stages. Holes will be drilled and cuts will be made at 70 and 10 meters. The blastholes will contain an Enamat impulsive gas generator. It was planned to put a net on top of the TV tower - a kind of “mourning stocking”. However, a few days before the demolition, this rag, which was supposed to protect against flying concrete fragments, was torn to shreds by the wind.

Scheme of drilling holes for the Enamata backfill at an altitude of 70 meters.

The unfinished TV tower is expected to be demolished in April this year. An earthen cushion has already been poured on the site, where the concrete trunk will fall, and metal petals have been cut off from the stylobate; Below, workers are drilling holes in the wall so that the tower will fall in the right direction when it explodes.

A grandiose unfinished building and one of the informal symbols of Yekaterinburg, the tallest abandoned building in the world, the TV tower could have become one of the most attractive tourist sites in the Urals, or even throughout Russia, but the city authorities and the current owners of the tower decided that it would be demolished and an ice arena built. better. Construction of the television tower began in 1983 and stopped after the collapse of the USSR. The tower began to live its own life. It was a popular hangout spot where you could drink beer, meet new people, and spend the night with a girl. Experienced tower climbers climbed the internal structure in half an hour. Extreme sportsmen climbed the external stairs - in some places there were not enough rungs, or even the stairs lagged behind the wall at a negative angle. The Tower of Death claimed many lives.
In the early 2000s, the entrances were welded shut and guards were posted below. They still climbed, but not as often, and did not crash as before. The question arose, what to do with this gigantic unfinished project?

Let's make it...

"Eurasian Lighthouse" and the symbol of EXPO2025

Column with a 20-meter tall Saint Catherine at the top

Guess whose project this is.

The chapel, to which you need to climb spiral staircase

Christmas tree

Dandelion

Offer from TigerTiger agency.

Temple

Siphon

Stone Flower, torch, mirror, glowing art object

Options by designer Pavel Omelyokhin.

Attraction for the brave

Icicle

Tent

and so on...

The TV tower was tattooed on the body

Painted on the walls

Filmed reports from the top

They wrote poems about the tower

I watched the dawn on the tower.
I was at the tower on my birthday
I was at the tower on December 31 (see above)
I was on the tower at -27 degrees (see above)
I spent the night on the tower
I walked on a tower in the clouds and above the clouds
I was on the tower shouting “Freedom!”
I left my name on the tower
At its highest point
I climbed the tower in 13 minutes
And I went down for 18
I conquered all my fears on the tower.
Forever!
==================================
My soul is high...
During the day among the clouds,
And at night between the stars.

In the summer heat it cools with a salty rain of pain, sadness, and sometimes joy...
In the frosty winter it glows with the heat of former passion or rage, wraps itself in the warmth of a ghostly love caress...
In drizzling autumn, it envelops you in an impenetrable dense blanket of loneliness...
Thawed spring, blinding with the awakening sun, more than fills the lungs with a mixture of bitter sighs of powerlessness and the cloying breath of boundless freedom...

But only in a dream, when I have not yet fallen into the abyss of absolute emptiness, but I no longer touch reality with my fingers,
I rise to her in the clouds, to the stars...
I hug her...
I merge with her...
And then I’m finally able to experience it all myself...
Then I Myself... Feel...

Alexander Mamaev
On the edge of night and light
On the edge of peace and darkness
On the verge of frost and summer
We face death
Yes, we are the ones who fly
Yes, we are one of those who do not sleep
Yes, we are one of those who want
One day choose suicide
We are always our own judges
We are our own executioners
We are our own godmen
Doctors of wounded destinies.

Or maybe it’s not logic that rules the whole world?
Absurdity and chaos married the dream
And the thought of a rope covered in soap
It pops up on its own, but I don’t understand.

Will you tell me what's coming soon?
my time will come
and sharpened
Show me the blade
The hilt is in your hands
I'll put it in gently
Through the ridiculous sounds
I'm leaving for you!

With them in the battle for the snow
I'm a joined man
We knife each other
We cut with stakes and scrape
Nothing awaits ahead
Someone will die and someone will die.

City of poor and rich
Prostitutes gypsies whips
There are hurrying but dead people everywhere
In general, it’s common, which means no one’s!!!

These are poems by Sasha Palyanov. He was the most desperate conqueror of the tower. Crashed October 27, 1998.
We saw the sky today.
We looked at the city from above.
We touched the wind with our hands.
It turned out that he was very gentle.
It turned out that he doesn't love
Just like us, if they get into your soul.
He even cried out of resentment
And he left, overtaking the cloud.
We saw the sky today.
We searched for God above the sky.
He probably went out on business,
When we got so close.
We saw the sky today.
We looked at the old city.
Maybe in two hundred years we will remember
How close we were from the flight.

Elena Soroka, 1996, August-September, Ekaterinburg

They remembered how they climbed it

More stories and photos - using the hashtag #mytower on social networks. The atmosphere of the nineties in all its glory.
Greetings from past life, thank you, Rzhavoy, for getting up on August 21, 2001, I just turned sixteen. This is our generation of streets without comment... At that time the tower was already guarded, but you can always find loopholes. I conquered it once and remembered it forever. Climbing was scarier than climbing, but we climbed on internal reinforcement. I think I'll sleep better if it's demolished... It's cool that there's still a photo left.
Natalya Bykova, instagram.com

One winter in high school a classmate, having acquired his mother's gold, took us instead of lessons to Weiner, where we successfully sold as much as 3.5 grams of gold to Uncle Zhenya at Brilliant, for money incredible for schoolchildren. Since we weren’t screwed, we realized that we were incredibly lucky that day, and decided to add some adrenaline to it; and the wildest thing that came to mind was to climb the tower.

No one had climbing experience, but that didn’t stop anyone. We caught a taxi (we must have looked funny) and drove to the Tsarsky Bridge. What’s surprising now is that they didn’t even get drunk before this, although they already seemed to have started drinking a little. The tower was still completely open for climbing. No fence, no signs of any kind.

At the very bottom of the tower, a person has no choice - to climb the internal structure or the external ladder, so they climbed the internal one. Very inconvenient for schoolchildren in height, cold, rusty-polished design in the form of rectangles with a diagonal crossbar. I will forever remember the pipe through which I had to literally fly to the stylobate. It extended from the structure to the stylobate - so small in diameter and polished; and the concrete edges where it was necessary to fly over are snow-covered and look like a polished slope into the abyss. Of course, no fences or railings were installed for anyone. I don’t even understand how I didn’t immediately kill myself in those first half an hour in the tower, climbing onto the stylobate.

We walked along it, shook the external staircase - it went so far up in funny waves if you rocked it; We realized that we didn’t want to climb it. And more due to the fact that one of us will start joking - rocking it, or whatever else he thinks of. And returned to internal structure. I remember a terrible feeling herd feeling, which only happens at school - no one wants to interfere, but everyone teases and pushes each other, so it’s necessary.

Since everyone was straight from school, they climbed in trousers, school boots, with backpacks - everything was quite exhausting and looked pathetic. It seems that there were sections with stairs closer to the top along the way, or I wanted them to be, and I came up with them then out of overexertion). We climbed the tower for a long time and sadly, we cursed everything along the way and no one got much of an impression from all this.

On the way back, it turned out that it was even more inconvenient to climb down; , whether))). Something very heavy that flew past with a cheerful whistle, scattered into dust somewhere nearby and greatly accelerated the fall from the tower. We wanted to stay and deal with them when they got down, but either we realized that we didn’t have enough strength, or it was simply too late and our parents wouldn’t understand us, and we all went home. I never wanted to repeat this extreme again).
The author wishes to remain anonymous
Since childhood, I dreamed of climbing the TV tower. Firstly, I constantly saw her along the way - past her there was a road to both grandmothers and to the first kindergarten, then to school. Secondly, throughout my childhood Sheremet constantly talked about the tower. He talked about cool extreme guys and suicides, but for some reason only the first ones impressed me.

At the end of school, I came to the tower several times to see how everything worked there. I was not aware that they closed something there and specially made guarded parking areas. I thought that everyone kept getting in there, so I was left somewhat bewildered when I didn’t find any way to get inside. I remember that university friends from other cities made fun of me when I told them that I had wanted to climb a tower since childhood. They said: “You had a harsh childhood here in Yekaterinburg.”

In the end, I met a man who had visited the tower dozens of times. And it so happened that just at that moment there were temporarily no parking areas around the tower. In general, in 2009 I finally realized my childhood dream. I climbed there only once, I didn’t need more. This, of course, was a very cool experience. Precisely because before it seemed completely impossible. Almost like flying into space. In general, I’m certainly glad that I managed to get there.
Marina Miritskevich, facebook.com
I don't remember my first time...
I climbed the tower a lot and often.
Sometimes every day.
Sometimes with friends, sometimes alone.
Then there were no Vysotskys and Anteevs, and such an awesome view was only from one point. From the Tower.
Was alone interesting case. One day we decided to climb on it in the evening, watch the sunset and sunrise and hang the flag. We arrived, and some men were welding the entrance, despite the fact that there were people inside. They were motivated by the fact that water bottles were falling from the tower and interfering with their lives. Then they called “Night News” and other news like 4 or 41. The most interesting thing was that there were grown-up young ladies inside who came to see where their children were climbing every day. They were saved by the whole crowd of caring people; when the men left, they all broke down the entrance and saved the children and parents. It would be interesting to find this video. Maybe someone remembers or witnessed it. The year is approximately 98-99. There were also poems inside at the level of the big failure, maybe someone has photographs of the inside?
***
The tower nail pierces the sky,
Those who have not been here lose a lot.
Anyone who has not been here does not understand himself
the smoky fog embraced the spire.
and then something about the heart of the city...
***
Geneva Nefedova, vk.com
One day in the cold August of 1999 we were carried up the tower. We got together essentially spontaneously, I only had time to take a sweatshirt and a camera with an unknown film “just in case.” As it turned out, it was not in vain.

We entered the tower easily, there was no security then, and climbed up the internal elevator frame. It was easy to climb, almost half of the way was on ladders, while we were climbing, excellent shots were revealed from the windows, especially when we crawled past a large opening :) A little before crawling to the top platform, we couldn’t resist and climbed out onto the “skirt”, which is located just below . You had to get out there through a small window, bending in half. And when I climbed out through it, I was so stunned by the view that I didn’t look at my feet at all, tripped over a concrete influx, and almost fell down. Luckily, I grabbed onto the remains of the railing, with which I’m posing in the third photo.

We climbed up safely. I used up the remaining film panoramic views and photos of us against the backdrop of the city. Unfortunately, only five photos were printed then, then I gave the film to the guys, and it didn’t come back to me. Perhaps since then I have never risen so high above the ground myself, and even in the center of a residential city, it was a very cool experience.

PS: when we were going downstairs, we came across a drunken group, either they threw a bottle, or there was a terrible crash from the brick below. And fortunately for me, I climbed into the adjacent shaft 20 seconds before this thing flew down, where I had just crawled. I decided not to wait for the third “warning” and didn’t feel much desire to climb the tower again. Now, if they made a cultural and safe observation deck, it would be a super attraction, world-class, seriously.
modzoku, instagram.com

And they regretted that they never climbed

But my dream remained a dream. Everything seems to be real, but unrealistic, alas: (I remember, I was about 7-9 years old, I looked at the photos, listened to the story about climbing the TV tower and to myself: “Now I, too, will grow up and will definitely climb it!”
And so I grew up. I came to the TV tower for the first time with friends at the age of 18, I even took my passport, in case they wouldn’t let me in. With desire and lack of fear, inspired and burning eyes looked at her. And now, here she is, and now everything will happen. But at the entrance a guard meets us and says that entry is prohibited, one of the students recently jumped out and now they are not allowed to climb. How angry I was with these suicides, there were no real words, just continuous piiiiii...
But I’m stubborn, there were other attempts where security also met us at the entrance.
And one day I went to a shoe store on March 8th, it’s just not far from the TV tower. And without fear, alone, I went to try my luck. I climbed through the fence. Nobody stopped me. The doors were open. I enter in anticipation of a dream coming true and.... The structure inside for lifting has been cut down. Now it is being demolished. My dream remained a dream. And yes, I am sitting here now and crying. So I remained in my dreams #mytower.
Olga Starodubtseva, instagram.com

Read us in

In Yekaterinburg on the morning of March 24, the city’s most recognizable long-term construction project, a 220-meter-high television tower, was blown up, reports FAN. During the demolition, residents of surrounding houses were evacuated.

“There were two explosions with an interval of several seconds, but for the observer they simply merged into one. “Everything was normal,” says URA.Ru words from a PR representative.

Photo report: An unfinished TV tower was blown up in Yekaterinburg

Is_photorep_included11694097: 1

“The top of the head fell neatly into the damper, and the tower collapsed in on itself. And in terms of seismicity and the level of dust and noise, everything went even smoother than planned in the project,” Pelevina pointed out.

She also pointed out that the demolition of the TV tower did not happen without provocations.

“At first, due to a false report of strangers entering the site, we had to delay the activation of the charges for several minutes. Then, at the moment of the collapse, one of the spectators, standing behind the guard and the Russian Guard soldiers, said with a smile that a stone the size of two fists had hit his leg and demonstrated it. At the same time, no one else saw or heard the scattering of fragments, and there was nothing on the ground,” she clarified.

Quite a lot of people gathered to watch the tower explode. local residents. After the demolition took place, people quickly dispersed.

General Director of the company "R.V.S." (special explosive work - the general contractor for dismantling the TV tower) Yuri Ovcharov also noted that there will be no second collapse of the TV tower.

“If we talk about what worried the public, seismicity is completely absent. On the remaining base of the tower - 25-30 meters high - dismantling work will be carried out as usual within the time frame set by the customer,” he said.

“I thought it would be more dangerous, scarier. I didn’t believe it until recently, but it turned out that they were thoroughly prepared. As they say, hope dies last. In general, it collapsed,” Andrei Polzunov, who works in a nearby house, shared his impressions.

There was also information that after the explosion, a stone flew into the man’s head, and an ambulance was called to the scene.

In addition, seven citizens were detained by security while trying to enter the facility, and another managed to escape. Earlier, protesters demanded a referendum against the demolition of the TV tower.

“We appeal to everyone to demand a popular referendum on the preservation of the main symbol of Yekaterinburg. Citizens of the country and townspeople themselves must decide the future of their home,” they said.

The day before, several hundred people took part in the “Save the TV Tower” campaign. Residents of the city, holding hands, tried to “hug” the unfinished building in order to “protect” it from demolition.

Despite the heavy snowfall, young people, families with children, and older people came to the TV tower. Among the participants of the action were well-known personalities in the city.

Thus, the mayor of Yekaterinburg, political scientist, journalist Maxim Putintsev, lawyer, deputies of the Yekaterinburg City Duma, etc. came out to defend the TV tower.

“In fact, everyone is hurt by the absurdity of what is happening. The city had a brilliant chance to get a level object Eiffel Tower or the Sukhov towers, but they themselves lost. The residents were offended that they were not told anything, they were not even formally informed. This is a strange backroom deal.

I am monitoring the situation, activists are already coming down from there, if necessary, I will try, of course, to stand up for them. Yesterday, about 1,000 people came out to defend the tower. If it had been 10 thousand, they definitely wouldn’t have demolished it,” said NSN Roizman.

Members also came Public Chamber Ekaterinburg Alexey Bezzub and, social activist Dmitry Moskvin, journalists and who flew to the Ural capital.

The organizers asked all participants in advance not to take posters, banners or sharp objects with them. Only one woman took out the poster, but after speaking with the police she removed it.

The designers called it “Stone Flower”, and they planned to spend 11 million rubles on construction.

On December 10, 2016, the most famous long-term construction project in Yekaterinburg turned 30 years old. The construction of the television tower - actually a concrete pillar that towered over the Ural capital - began at the end of 1986, but was never completed. At the same time, every year the cost of completing the tower, on which about 2 million had already been spent, increased.

E1.RU has collected 10 interesting facts about this construction site for the thirty-year anniversary of the TV tower.

1. The TV tower was the most tall building Sverdlovsk-Ekaterinburg (before the appearance of “Vysotsky”) and the tallest abandoned building in the world.

2. The Sverdlovsk project was similar to the Vilnius TV tower, built in 1977. And the construction of the concrete pillar was carried out by the same organization that built the TV tower in Vilnius - “Spetszhelezobetonstroy”. Above the mark of 220 meters, where the concrete shaft ends, Uralstalkonstruktsiya was supposed to build, and it had to erect steel-concrete structures at the mark of 200 meters.

3. According to the project, at an altitude of 188 meters in the TV tower there was supposed to be a restaurant with a rotating floor, like in Ostankino. Now the height of the unfinished tower is 220 meters, so you can roughly estimate where the restaurant should have been. This part of the tower was to be assembled from 20 steel-concrete blocks weighing 32 tons each. They were even already installed. Some of these blocks lay at the foot of the tower until 2016.

4. The total height of the television tower was supposed to be 361 meters. Of these, 141 meters are a metal antenna. In the finished version, with an antenna raised to a height of 370 meters, with two inflorescences of the upper and lower buildings, the tower would very much resemble a flower. They say that this is what the designers called it - “Stone Flower”.

5. To enter the tower, they planned to build an underground tunnel - it would start from Dekabristov Street.

6. Concrete rings were poured right on site. Concrete was brought from the concrete factory, lifted by a mine hoist, and pre-welded reinforcement was poured. The height of the television tower rings was 2.5 meters. For the widest, lower rings of the television tower, 64 trucks with concrete were needed. Concrete was lifted onto the work site in a cage. The proletarians transported it to the formwork in wheelbarrows. One ring took about 10 hours of work.

7. The construction of the television tower was supposed to cost 11 million rubles. Of these, only 2 million were actually spent on construction.

8. In its unfinished state, the Yekaterinburg TV tower could have stood for hundreds of years: it was built from high-quality concrete, and the reinforcement inside the rings should not have rusted, because air did not get there.

“The tower is built rigidly, the maximum deviation of the top is no more than 20 centimeters, it will not collapse - the concrete is becoming stronger every year, the steel structures inside the tower do not have access to air,” said Chief Engineer project Vladimir Ignatov. - When completed, the tower will stand for hundreds of years. But it is not designed for decades of annual freezing (there must be a constant temperature inside); all embedded metal parts must be processed accordingly. And they are not even preserved. Year after year, the cost of completion increases. If now it can be built from the parts prepared and located below, then in a couple of years they will have to be made again, the condition of the trunk itself will deteriorate, the elevator trusses and embedded parts will rust. If the tower is not taken care of in the coming years, it will be impossible to restore it. And what will you have to do with it - blow it up?

9. According to the project, this television tower, called RTPS (radio television transmitting station), was supposed to increase the television broadcast range by 2.5 times and cover the entire Sverdlovsk region with a television and radio signal (the height of the current television tower on Lunacharsky 212 is only 194 meters).

10. The concrete pillar that towered over the city had 88 layers. The last finishing pancake was poured for more than a day and the barrel was completed on August 17, 1989 - a year later than planned. According to the project, the construction of the concrete shaft was to be completed on October 1, 1988. Inside the tower there are metal scaffoldings, some are equipped with stairs, total number steps - 1312. But the stairs were not installed throughout the entire tower: they were at the bottom of the tower, a little in the middle and a long staircase fragment at the finish. Extreme athletes managed to climb to the 220-meter mark in 30–40 minutes.

Flights of stairs, an elevator shaft and parts of the antenna were to be installed through the opening.

In Yekaterinburg, in the Ordzhonikidze district, it is located architectural monument, which dates back to the era of constructivism. This is a former water tower, built in 1928 - 1931 and abandoned in our time.

The need for a tower arose when construction of the Ural plant began in the north of Sverdlovsk. The architect of the structure was Reisher M.V. According to his plan, the structure had two observation decks at the very top. Two geometric bodies– the prismatic plate of the tank cylinder and the ladder had to intersect. The tower reached 29 meters in height, its tank was entirely made of iron. In 1931, the tower was ready, but an hour after it was filled with water, the bottom bent, broke, and all the water poured onto the street.

The bottom was redone by Prokhorov, and this time it turned out to be reliable and made of reinforced concrete. The tower was painted with white lime and people began to call it “ White Tower" Now she unofficial symbol Uralmash and a prototype for many other similar structures. In 2006, Red Cross activists planned to revive the monument, which was already included in the list of objects cultural heritage. They wanted to create a security zone around the structure.

Today, only piles of rubbish can be seen inside the tower; in 2012, the Red Cross abandoned custody of the monument and is now taking care of it public organization called "Architectural Initiatives Group".

Unfinished abandoned TV tower

The Yekaterinburg TV Tower is an unfinished telecommunications tower in the Sverdlovsk region, the city of Yekaterinburg.

Its construction began in 1983, when the regional government decided to move all television and radio communications to this site. According to the project, it was planned that the height of the tower would be 361 meters. There were also plans to create a high-rise restaurant, like the Seventh Heaven in the Ostankino TV tower.

The construction was undertaken by the Spetszhelezobetonstroy company, which already had experience in the construction of the Vilnius and Ostankino television towers. Construction continued until 1991, after which problems with financing began and the project was frozen.

A total of 11 million rubles were allocated for construction, but only 2 of them were spent.

Nowadays, the height of the tower is 220 meters, and it is highest point Yekaterinburg. Options for its restoration are being considered, but so far only in plans.

The tower has become a popular place for extreme sports enthusiasts, climbers and suicides; according to some reports, over 20 people have already committed suicide on this tower.