RFS Kuznetsov's new dry dock

Pictures shared by Twitter user Rob Lee showed a lack of progress on the construction of the new dry dock for Russia's only aircraft carrier RFS Admiral Kuznetsov at the 35th ship repair plant. The shared photos showed the construction site on June 12, 2020 as well as how it looked at November 2019. The Google Earth picture of June 12 revealed that very little to almost no progress was made in the construction of the new dry dock during this period.

Construction progress during November 2019

Since the sinking of the PD-50 floating dry dock, Russia does not have the facilities large enough to dock its only aircraft carrier, RFS Admiral Kuznetsov. The solution put forward was to take two existing dry docks and tear down the concrete barrier that separated them. This would create a dry dock large enough in with to dock the RFS Admiral Kuznetsov whenever work and maintenance is needed on the ships hull located under the water line.

A contract was given to the IEC (Investments. Engineering. Construction) company for breaking down the concrete barrier. However, delays in payment forced the company to file a complaint at the Prosecutor General. This led in turn that the construction contract given to ICE was canceled in May 2020. It appears that since then, no new company was hired to continue the work.
At the same time it was revealed that the costs involved in joining the two dry docks increased further with the second stage of construction leading up to 33.6 billion rubles.

Looking from a practical perspective, the idea of joining up two existing dry docks by taking down the concrete barrier separating them seems like a fast and easy solution in order to create shore facilities large enough to dock the RFS Admiral Kuzentsov. The biggest challenge to the project however is the fact that the existing gates will not be able to close the new and larger opening. As such, new gates will need to be constructed that are capable to close the entire opening of the enlarged dry dock.

Construction on a new gate was still absent on June 12, 2020

Looking at the satellite picture provided by Rob Lee, the gate of the dry dock on the right extends less far in the water than that on the left side. It is therefor natural that a new gate will be installed on the right side. That way, no new quay has to be constructed at the dry dock on the right.
It is possible that the rising cost of the second construction phase are linked with manufacturing and installing this new gate. Compared to the simple construction work needed to break down the concrete barrier between both docks, the installation of a new gate is a much more complex work and possibly more time consuming.

Cancellation of the construction work might at first glance further delay the delivery of the enlarged dry dock and possibly impact the maintenance of the RFS Admiral Kuznetsov. However, given a more thorough look, the limiting factor in this whole project is the construction of the new gate. There are currently no indications that the installment of the new gate will happen in a short period. No construction equipment is in place near the existing gates and no preparations for the installment of a new gate is to be seen. Given the differences in length, is is most likely that an earthen dike would first be constructed to prevent water from entering the construction site once the existing gates are torn down. As long as we do not see the construction of such a dike, or other type of barrier to keep the water out, it is safe to assume that the completion of the new dry dock will not occur in the near future.

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