Floating, pontoon bridges. Pontoon bridge park: how military pontoons work What is a floating bridge

To capture the bridge across the river safe and sound for the advancing troops is a great success. Rarely do sappers present such a fabulous gift to the enemy. And sometimes a water barrier has to be crossed where there are no bridges at all. How to arrange a crossing in the shortest possible time?

Yuri Veremeev

The military found a solution in ancient times. The legionnaires of Julius Caesar knew perfectly well how to quickly cross the river, the opposite bank of which is occupied by the enemy. A raft was assembled along the shore, equal in length to the width of the river. Along its edge, facing the enemy, a kind of fence was arranged, which protected both from the excessive curiosity of the enemy and from enemy arrows. Both ends of the raft were tied to a stake driven into the ground. At the hour of the assault, one of the ends was released from the leash, and the very course of the river turned the structure across the river. Warriors rushed at the enemy, and reinforcements were flowing along the same raft in a continuous stream. Thus, a floating (floating, in the terminology of military specialists) tape bridge was invented.

Reliance on boats

AT medieval Europe the floating ribbon bridge, like many other ancient achievements, was forgotten over time, especially with the advent and development of artillery. The reason is simple: the floating bridge of the raft structure has a very low carrying capacity. It is suitable for infantry, to some extent for cavalry, but not at all suitable for artillerymen with their heavy cannons. But it was they who needed the bridges the most. The second reason for abandoning the raft construction of bridges was that their construction requires a lot of dry logs, and it is necessary to prepare and bring them to the shore a large number of forests are far from always and not everywhere possible. And shooting down a long raft is too long.

wide river

In Russia, there are many rivers that are not just wide, but very wide: the Volga near Yaroslavl - 800 meters, the Zeya near Blagoveshchensk and even more - four kilometers. It is impossible to build a pontoon bridge of this length. In this case, the pontoons go to another scheme. They collect ferries. The smallest ferry is made of two links. Its carrying capacity is 40 tons and it is able to transport a tank. A ferry of four links will be able to transport two tanks at once. One fleet is capable of producing 12 40-ton ferries. The links would be enough for more, but there are only 12 boats in the fleet. The largest pontoon ferries are designed for 170 tons of cargo. There are only four of these from the park kit. However, such a design easily transports even the Topol-M rocket launcher with a pair of armored personnel carriers guarding it. The ferry across the river can move at speeds up to 10 km/h. Not particularly fast, but while the military bridge builders will throw a permanent bridge across the wide river, which will take more than one week, the ferries will fully ensure the crossing of military cargo.

Over time, a more interesting solution was found - to build floating bridges on the principle of conventional bridges on supports. The highlight here was that the supports in the form of piles, rags, bulls were replaced by boats or barges of sufficient carrying capacity. It is enough to install and anchor the required number of boats across the river, lay the spans between them - and the floating bridge is ready. Once the structure had served its purpose, the bridge was dismantled fairly easily and quickly, and its elements could be transported to a new location to be reassembled.

As this idea developed, specialized boats were invented, called pontoons. Bridges built with their help were called pontoons. They really liked the troops, especially the artillerymen - now they could easily transport their guns. Pontoon teams appeared in the artillery regiments, which had sets of equipment that made it possible to build floating bridges. These kits became known as pontoon parks.

Classic pontoon bridge, consisting of floating supports and ceilings. As it is easy to understand from the famous silhouette of the cathedral visible in the background, the picture was taken in German city Cologne. The bridge had a civilian use and existed at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries.

Pontoon bridges have gained immense popularity and in civil life. Wherever it is impossible or impractical to build permanent bridges, pontoons were built. For example, in the capital Russian Empire Petersburg, the first bridge was just floating (1727). The first permanent bridge on wooden supports was built only in 1811 (Kamennoostrovsky). And the last floating bridge (Isaakievsky) existed until 1916. With the onset of winter, such bridges were removed, and across the Neva they crossed over the ice.

Canvas and rubber

For several centuries, the design of military pontoon bridges has been improved. First of all, this concerned the pontoons themselves. There were wooden, steel, copper and even canvas pontoons (for example, a pontoon park made of canvas pontoons designed by the captain of the Silent sample in 1756). By any means, engineers tried to ensure the smallest weight and dimensions of the bridges, while increasing their carrying capacity. The structures of span structures were also improved. All innovations pursued the main goals: to reduce the time of the pontoon bridge, to reduce the number of personnel involved in the bridge, and to increase the carrying capacity of the bridge as military cargo became heavier.

With the introduction of rubber into everyday life, samples of bridges with rubber inflatable pontoons appeared (for example, the Soviet MPDA).

But in general, the principle of the pontoon bridge remained the same as centuries ago - floating supports on which the span structure was laid. Even the Second World War, which radically changed almost all military equipment, practically did not move anything in the pontoon business.

For example, the Soviet pontoon fleet of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which made it possible to build bridges 205 m long for loads weighing 70 tons, was transported by 116 vehicles, was built in two and a half hours and had a carriageway width of about 4 m.

The pontoon park PPS-84 allows you to stretch a real auto and tank road across the river. The links in it are modernized so that they can be connected not only in length, but also in width. This makes it possible to assemble a bridge with a carriageway width of almost 14 meters and a load capacity of 120 tons. On such a bridge, tanks can move in two columns and without speed limits.

Bridge "accordion"

And only in the early 1950s, a group of designers of the engineering troops of the Soviet Army (Yu. Glazunov, M. Mikhailov, V. Aseev, etc.) came up with a simple idea - to abandon the superstructures and turn the pontoon itself into the roadway of the bridge. True, in this case, the pontoons would have to be placed close to each other and a lot of them would be needed, but the pontoon would have to carry only a payload, the considerable weight of the span was excluded.

However, the roadway must ensure the movement of tanks, that is, have a width of at least 4 m (the width of the tank along the tracks is 3.2 m). A pontoon of this width does not fit into either the railway or even the usual road dimensions.

A car carrying a link from a set of modern pontoon park PP-2005. As you can see, despite the appearance of new modifications, the central idea remains the same. The basic block of the floating bridge is a link consisting of 4 hinged elements.

After sorting through many options, an unusually original solution was found - to make the pontoon collapsible: four separate smaller pontoons were connected by hinges. When folded, the pontoon received dimensions of 6.9 x 3.15 x 2.3 m and now easily fit on a heavy KrAZ-214 truck, that is, it fit into the required transport dimensions. Such a folding structure was called a "link".

Half an hour to the barrier

As soon as the link was thrown from the car into the water, a miraculous transformation took place with it - it unfolded itself, turning into a six-meter section of a 60-ton bridge with a carriageway width of 6.5 m.

Now two pontoon soldiers were set to work. They jumped on the opened link (attached to the car with a cable, it did not float far) and with several movements of the levers turned the articulated pontoons into a rigid single whole. With the help of hooks, the soldiers brought their link closer to the links of their neighbors and fastened them together with the help of special locks. Thus, the connection of the links took a matter of seconds.

And now a chain of links connected into a ribbon was stretched along the coast. Now it was time for the tugboats. They were brought on the same KrAZ vehicles and dumped into the water just downstream. While the pontoons were going about their business, the boatmen prepared the ships for work - they started and warmed up the engines, and took up their starting positions. Part of the boats went above the bridge line, part below. At the whistle of the battalion commander, the boats began to take the end of the bridge tape away from the shore. As the tape unfolded, more and more boats were connected to it. When the bridge was placed across the river, the shore crews secured its ends, and the boats held the tape so that it would not bend into an arc under the influence of the current. The boats, which were upstream from the bridge, approached the tape, received anchors from the pontooners and brought them upstream. The pontoons pulled the anchor cables with winches, leveling the line of the bridge. Then the boats disconnected and left. Thus ended the crossing.

From the moment when the column of cars starts moving from a distance of 500 m from the coast, and until the moment when the control load (one of the cars) passes over the bridge back and forth, only 30 minutes should pass. Those are the army standards. For the former pontoon parks, it took at least 2-3 hours to build a crossing. In 1979, the 1257th separate pontoon-bridge battalion of Lieutenant Colonel A.V. Skryagin built a bridge across the Laba (Elbe) River near the village of Gorni Pochapli in Czechoslovakia in 14 minutes.

Lessons for adversaries

And what about our "probable adversary"? In the sixties, NATO continued to use floating bridges from the designs of the Second World War. Then our army was "ahead of the rest" in terms of crossing facilities. In 1972, the military world gasped when they saw the miracle of advanced American technical thought - the Ribbon Bridge (RB) floating bridge. True, the Americans forgot to mention that the RB is just a degraded copy of the Soviet PMP park ten years ago. The carrying capacity seems to be the same, but the width of the roadway was only 4.6 m. Following in the image and likeness of the Soviet PMP, they created their own pontoon park in West Germany - Faltschwimmbrücken-System (Bw).

Tanks, trains and oil rigs

A complete set of machines and equipment for building bridges from folding links was named PMP (pontoon-bridge park) and was adopted by the Soviet army in 1962. The width of the roadway of the bridge from the PMP park is simply incredible for all previously existing pontoon bridges - 6.5 m. If earlier cars could drive along the pontoon bridge at walking speed, and tanks crawled like turtles, then the first ones can drive along the PMP like on a highway , without slowing down, and the second - reaching 30 km / h. The width of the bridge makes it possible to organize the movement of vehicles in two columns or simultaneously in both directions. The set of the park (32 river and 4 coastal links) allows you to build a bridge 227 m long and with a carrying capacity of 60 tons (which means that the bridge provides the movement of all the equipment that the troops can have). If the crossing of tanks is not expected, then by “halfing” part of the pontoons, it is possible to build a bridge 382 m long for loads up to 20 tons. However, the roadway will be narrower - only 3.3 m. For cars, this is quite enough. By the way, the unfolded link, weighing about 5 tons, has special mounts for moving by helicopter.

With time Soviet army acquired an improved version of the pontoon fleet - PMP-M, which was transported on more powerful KrAZ-255 vehicles. Now the bridge could be built at a river flow speed of 3 m/s instead of the previous 2 m/s. By 1984, the PPS-84 pontoon park entered service with the army. In this set, the links could be connected not only in length, but also in width, which made it possible to assemble a bridge with a carriageway width of almost 14 m with a carrying capacity of 120 tons. Tanks could already move along such a bridge in two columns and without speed limits. True, here our military went a little overboard. The complete set of the PPS-84 park turned out to be too cumbersome, although it made it possible to build a bridge with a load of 120 tons, 702 m long, and almost 1.5 km for the usual 60 tons. He was directed by six pontoon battalions.

But such a bridge with a width of 14 m and a length of 702 m could be used as a floating airfield for short takeoff and landing aircraft or as a floating railway bridge (MLZH-VT). There was also a plastic version of the same modernized PMP.

Today, various options and sets of PMP are willingly used by oil and gas workers. From the links delivered to the most inaccessible places in Western Siberia, floating platforms for drilling rigs or pumping stations are assembled. And in order not to have problems with buoyancy, the pontoons are filled with foam. Such a link is already absolutely unsinkable.

In Russia, you can order a floating automobile bridge only from a few manufacturing companies, and our Perfect Plus is one of the best among them. Despite the fact that floating bridges, which are a type of pontoon bridges, are mainly used for the needs of the military, they can be of great benefit to the national economy. On non-navigable rivers, the construction of floating bridges can be a worthy alternative to expensive structures on permanent supports. The broad possibilities of such structures are confirmed by the decision of the Minister of Defense S. Shoigu to build a floating railway bridge across the Volga near Yaroslavl. The total length of such structures being built in the regions by the railway troops will be more than 5.5 km. The low-water floating bridge can be used to significantly reduce the length of the route when exporting crops, as well as when reconstructing or repairing an existing river crossing.

Advantages and disadvantages of pontoon bridges

The main advantage that each pontoon bridge has is the ease of its transportation to any point in the country. Delivery to the installation site can be carried out by rail, road, water or air transport in a disassembled state. After receipt of all elements to the place of assembly, installation and commissioning of the crossing can be carried out in a short time. Besides:

• It is not required to conduct a study of the structure of the river bottom and install supports;
• If necessary, the structure can be moved a considerable distance without complete disassembly, which allows using one set to solve similar problems one by one;
• The design can be used to quickly solve transport problems in disaster areas;
• It is possible to install floating bridges during the construction of industrial facilities in sparsely populated areas, for operation before the construction of a permanent structure;
• Pontoon bridges can be designed and manufactured according to the wishes and specifications of the customer.

A significant disadvantage of floating bridges is the impossibility of their effective operation during spring floods or ice drift. Extra care is required when using them during strong winds. They also create big problems for navigation, so additional approval of their construction is required on navigable rivers. The problem can be solved by withdrawing several links of the crossing for the time of passing the caravan of ships.

Classification signs of floating bridges

1. By term of use:

• Permanent. They require increased attention during floods and ice drift, which does not allow them to be widely used throughout Russia, but are widely used in regions with a mild climate;
• Seasonal, differing from permanent ones in that they are dismantled at the time of flood waters and ice drift. The construction of floating bridges, even if they are regularly dismantled, is much cheaper than supporting ones;
• Temporary, used during the construction of capital bridges, as well as military operations and rescue or emergency recovery operations.

2. By appointment:

• Pedestrian;
• Road;
• Railway;
• Combined, as a rule, all low-water floating bridges can be used to move not only vehicles, but also pedestrians.

3. According to the design features of the river part:

• Split system - implies the use of high-capacity barges. Each span is covered by one beam. Flooding any of the barges (pontoons) disables it;
• The continuous system is much more tenacious, since the span is supported by several pontoons. A flooded pontoon can be replaced after traffic stops on the bridge;
• The hinge system is the most durable and reliable. A flooded pontoon can be replaced without stopping traffic.

The sale of a floating bridge, as a rule, is carried out only after finding out the many nuances of its use. The customer must know exactly the required load capacity, the width of the river and the structure of the bank at the installation site, as well as maximum value water level changes.

Despite the fact that the construction of pontoon bridges takes a short period of time, their operation requires constant supervision of specialists. Especially during floods or ice drift. The specialists of our company "Perfect Plus" conclude contracts for the maintenance of floating bridges of their own production and purchased from third-party organizations. Not only load-bearing structures and pontoons are subject to inspection and integrity control, but also anchoring systems invisible from the outside, experiencing significant loads. Timely maintenance of pontoon bridges by specialists significantly extends their service life. Special attention should pay attention to the integrity of the protective coatings of the underwater part of the pontoons and elements of hinged joints.

Structures of metal bridges

The bridge does not install itself. Requires shoreline equipment, power supply and housing for staff. All the necessary metal structures can be ordered from this company. Supply from one source is always preferable to searching for different suppliers.

The pontoon park is intended for the construction of ferry and bridge crossings over water barriers on the path of troop movement. The PP-91 pontoon park was developed at the 15th Central Research and Testing Institute of the Ministry of Defense named after D. M. Karbyshev. It was created on the basis of the PPS-84 pontoon park, which was reduced to a battalion. Instead of BMK-460 boats, BMK-225 towing and motor boats and MZ-235 motor links were included in its composition. From the material part of the new pontoon park, bridge crossings with a carrying capacity of 60, 90 and 120 tons, as well as ferry crossings with a carrying capacity of 90 to 360 tons, can be created.

The set of this park is in service with the pontoon-bridge battalion, consisting of two companies. In our army, the PP-91 park came to replace the PMP pontoon parks. The entire material part of this park is transported on trucks KrAZ-260G and Ural-53236. Since the production of KrAZ trucks remained on the territory of Ukraine, the pontoon fleet is supplied to the Russian army on Ural-53236 vehicles. Currently in service Russian army there is also a modernized version of the park - PP-2005 (PP-91M).

Enough attention has recently been paid to the Russian engineering troops. So in January 2015, Lieutenant General Yuri Stavitsky, head of the engineering troops of the RF Armed Forces, noted that this year a pontoon-bridge brigade, as well as two engineer-sapper regiments, would be formed in the engineering troops. According to Stavitsky, in 2014, 5 engineering teams were already formed in the Russian army. military units and organizations of central and district subordination.

“In order to fulfill the tasks of maintaining and equipping crossings at water bodies in Russia, the purchase of the PP-2005 pontoon fleet was planned and carried out, the existing PP-91 fleets were modernized, the floating transporter PTS-4 was accepted for supply to the RF Armed Forces, which ensures the transportation of non-floating vehicles , whose weight does not exceed 18 tons, as well as a new landing ferry PDP, whose carrying capacity is 43 tons. In addition, work is underway that is aimed at creating a promising towing and motor boat BMK-M,” said Lieutenant General Yuri Stavitsky.

Pontoon Park PP-91

The set of the PP-91 pontoon park includes: 32 river units, 8 M-235 motor units, 4 BMK-225 towing and motor boats, 4 coastal units, 2 lining, as well as 4 containers for various auxiliary equipment (equipment for reconnaissance of water obstacles, rigging equipment, anchors for strong currents, traffic control devices, spare equipment). This entire set is transported using 54 Ural-53236 trucks.

When building a pontoon bridge, each of its links “self-unloads”, simply rolling off the Ural platform directly into the water, after which it “self-opens” already on the water. At this time, the crew connects the links together. When the pontoon bridge is rolled up, the loading mechanisms that are on the platforms of the vehicles are used to load the links onto trucks. The minimum time for both guidance and collapse of the bridge through the water barrier is provided when each of the links is transported by its own vehicle. At the same time, the transportation of links in hard-to-reach areas and the guidance of the bridge itself can be carried out using helicopters (transported on an external sling). The PP-91 pontoon fleet allows sappers to assemble both floating bridges and transport ferries of increased and regular width.

This park is operated by a pontoon-bridge battalion of 225 people, including officers, as well as personnel of the support, maintenance and repair unit. The battalion consists of two pontoon companies, a repair platoon, an engineering platoon, a material support platoon, a reconnaissance-diving squad and a communications squad. Each of the pontoon companies of the battalion operates exactly half of the fleet. The pontoon park set can be divided into two half-sets. For example, as part of the engineer-sapper battalions of motorized rifle and tank divisions The Russian army had one pontoon company each, which possessed half of the PP-91 set.

Using the PP-91 pontoon fleet kit, it was possible to assemble the following ferries:

8 ferries with a carrying capacity of 90 tons, assembly time 15 minutes. The speed of the ferry is up to 14 km / h, the permissible excitement is up to 3 points, the speed of the current is up to 3 m / s (the characteristics of speed and the admissibility of use are similar for all ferries). The calculation of personnel for one ferry is 18 people (8 pontooners, 6 drivers, 4 minders).

4 ferries with a carrying capacity of 190 tons, assembly time 20 minutes. The calculation of personnel for one ferry is 33 people (18 pontooners, 11 drivers, 4 minders).

2 ferries with a carrying capacity of 380 tons, assembly time 25 minutes. The calculation of personnel for one ferry is 66 people (36 pontooners, 22 drivers, 8 minders).

With the help of one set of pontoon park PP-91, floating bridges with a carrying capacity of 60, 90 and 120 tons can be built:

Floating bridge with a carrying capacity of 60 tons. The length of the bridge is up to 268 meters; Permissible excitement - up to 2 points, current speed - up to 3 m / s (permissible characteristics are similar for all three bridges).

With such a width of the carriageway of the bridge, tanks can move along it at a speed of up to 30 km / h, wheeled vehicles without speed limits. For wheeled vehicles, this bridge is double-track, that is, it is allowed to organize traffic in two directions simultaneously. The length of the bridge of 268 meters is not only the maximum possible, but also the total, that is, several bridges can be built at the same time (at least two, since there are four coastal links in the park set). In addition, it is possible to build a bridge of two sets of park with a length of 572 meters. It could be longer, but it doesn't seem practical, as it becomes difficult to keep the bridge tape straight enough, putting a lot of stress on the docking points, which can eventually cause the bridge to break.

The floating bridge with a carrying capacity of 90 tons has a length of 165 tons and is built in 60 minutes, the width of the roadway of the bridge is 10 meters. This is a one and a half wide bridge. Such a bridge makes it possible to organize the movement of tanks along it in one direction and vehicles in the opposite direction at the same time, or to transfer mobile launchers of strategic nuclear missiles"Topol-M" and similar.

The floating bridge with a carrying capacity of 120 tons has a length of 141 meters and is built in 48 minutes, the width of the roadway is 13.8 meters. This is a double width bridge. Such a bridge allows you to organize the movement of tanks in two columns in one direction or in opposite directions. In fact, there is no army cargo that could not be thrown over this bridge.

The composition of the pontoon park PP-91

river link

The river link consists of 4 pontoons connected to each other by means of hinges, two of which (middle) have the shape of a parallelepiped, and the other two links (lateral) have one of the edges rounded. The pontoons are made of steel, while the upper deck is a hardened steel plate, which is able to withstand the movement of heavy tracked vehicles. One side pontoon is a composite of two parts. One of these parts can be retracted inside the second, so that the entire deck of the link becomes almost flat. This is done in order to be able to assemble bridges of the required double or one and a half width. One of the side pontoons has a fairing shield.

The dimensions of the river link in the unfolded form are as follows: length - 7.2 meters, width - 8 meters, width of the carriageway - 6.55 meters. The draft of the empty link is 0.2 meters, the maximum draft of the link under load is 0.65 meters. The mass of one link is 7 tons. The load capacity of the link is 22.5 tons. When folded, such a link is transported by a Ural-53236 vehicle.

Motor link MZ-235

The motor link is a metal box with dimensions (except for the length) and a profile similar to the profile of the river link and the same docking devices. All this makes it possible to embed such a link into the bridge tape on a par with ordinary river links. In this case, the link box is divided into 5 sealed compartments. In the aft part of the link there is a removable wheelhouse, it contains a control panel, and under it in the compartment there is a 3D20 diesel engine that develops a power of 235 hp. The engine is cooled by sea water through a heat exchanger.

The diesel engine is connected by means of a mechanical transmission to a water-borne propulsion unit fixed on the box, which is a tilt-and-turn column with a propeller in a POK-225 nozzle, the thrust of this propulsion unit on mooring lines is 2340 kgf. The change in the thrust vector is carried out by turning the lower head of the column with a screw, it is possible to turn 360 degrees horizontally in any direction. The mass of the motor link is 7 tons, the length is 2.95 meters. The maximum speed on the water is 15.7 km / h (the speed is given for a free link).

In the compartment adjacent to the engine, there is a fuel tank with a capacity of 1000 liters. This volume of fuel is sufficient to ensure continuous operation of the engine for 12-14 hours. Next to the fuel compartment there is a sump pump, which is responsible for pumping water out of the compartments of both the motor link and with the help of flexible hoses from several river links closest to it.

Motor links are included in the bridge tape directly during the assembly period in an amount that is determined depending on the flow rate and the length of the bridge being built. Motor links are used to move the tape of the bridge, turn the tape to the bridge alignment and back, hold the bridge in alignment, replace failed or damaged links, withdraw part of the links from the bridge tape to allow ships to pass. In addition, motor links can be used as towing equipment for ferries.

Towing and motor boat BMK-225 "Perchik"

The BMK-225 tugboat of the semi-catamaran type acts as a backup tool for keeping the tape in the alignment of the bridge and towing ferries in cases where there are not enough motor links or some of these links are out of order. It is also suitable for organizing upstream and downstream river outposts (fighting saboteurs, floating mines, foreign objects floating downstream that pose a danger to the floating bridge, reconnaissance of a water barrier, as well as organizing an emergency rescue service).

The hull of the boat BMK-225 consists of 3 sealed compartments. In the middle compartment there is a diesel engine SMD-601, which develops a power of 225 hp. The waterway propeller is represented on the boat by two propellers with nozzles in full-turn columns, which can be easily rotated horizontally 360 degrees in both directions, and this can be done independently of each other. Thanks to this solution, it was possible to ensure the absolute maneuverability of the boat on the water surface. The boat can turn on the spot almost around its own axis, quickly reverse and brake sharply. Traction on mooring lines reaches 2500 kgf. The maximum speed of the boat on the water can reach up to 20 km/h. A sufficiently powerful sump pump was also located in the engine compartment, with the help of which it was possible to pump out water from the holds of the boat and from the river links that make up the floating bridge.

Container with property

The PP-91 kit includes four containers with property, which are also transported on Ural-53236 vehicles. The park includes two sets of property container No. 1 and two sets of property container No. 2. Container No. 1 includes devices for reconnaissance of rivers (measuring cable, penetrometer, quantum rangefinders, hydraulic turntable, echo sounder), a set of entrenching tools, rubber inflatable boats, camouflage kits, a spare tool, cables, additional anchors and a set of bridge traffic control) . Container No. 2 includes equipment for the construction of a false floating bridge (inflatable models of links made of metallized rubber, thermal and radar traps, a compressor, outboard motors).

Lining

The lining consists of special metal plates, which are interconnected by rings and in general form a flexible metal tape 11.7 meters long and 3 meters wide. This tape is laid on a special vehicle Ural-53236, which provides mechanized laying of the tape on the ground and its return lifting. The pavement is necessary in order to allow the transported equipment to reach the ferry or bridge on marshy ground. According to the instructions, such a tape must withstand up to 1000 passes of tanks on it. However, in practice, it could be scrapped and scrapped after a company of tanks passed through it. Therefore, the use of pavements in peacetime was prohibited by order.

Information sources:
http://www.saper.etel.ru/texnica-2/pp-91.html
http://bastion-opk.ru/pantone-park-pp-91
http://function.mil.ru/news_page/country/ [email protected]

A pontoon bridge is a structure above water that has floating supports called pontoons. A variation is a floating bridge, which does not have separate pontoons, and span structures perform the function of "buoyancy". Such structures were used to organize temporary crossings in emergency conditions or during the repair of fixed bridges, in war time and when performing work to eliminate the consequences of hurricanes, but there are many examples when the pontoon bridge functions and is permanent (in Russia - Pavlovo, Biysk, Tarko-Sale, Urengoy).

Buildings on pontoons have many advantages. First of all, they are transportable. They are easy to move on water and disassembled on land. The second advantage is the speed of installation. However, there are also significant drawbacks. Pontoon bridges create problems for navigation, have a low bearing capacity, as their stability depends on the water level, wind, waves. They cannot be operated during the period of freezing and ice drift.

The pontoon crossing is the result of a complex engineering process that requires special technologies and knowledge. Plastic modules facilitate this process. The pontoon bridge is a prefabricated structure consisting of floating elements. Such prefabricated structures are used for both vehicles and pedestrians.

External "lightness" and simplicity of the whole structure do not reduce the carrying capacity, so these bridges are used for military purposes.

Advantages

The pontoon bridge is a modular structure that can be easily assembled in a relatively short time. At the same time, the assembly does not require any special technical skills and knowledge.

Such a structure is modular and expandable, and if necessary, you can easily change its width and shape.

Plastic modules are wear-resistant, not affected by acid, sea ​​water, low temperature. Pontoon bridges based on plastic modules are used on any surface of the water, are not harmful to environment, do not disturb aquatic fauna and flora, resist currents and waves.

Interesting Facts

• The pontoon system was personally developed by the Austrian engineer Carl von Birago, who commanded the first pontoon military corps in history. This system has become widespread in all major European armies.
• In Russia, the longest pontoon bridge has a length of almost 750 meters. It connects the suburbs of Khabarovsk with This bridge connects the island and the right bank of the Amur channel, it has been operating since 2002 from the end of May to October, agricultural machinery and vehicles move along it. Before the organization of the bridge, Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island connected with the city. In winter, people get to the island on ice, and during the period of freezing and ice drift, the island from " mainland' remains cut off. The bridge is raised once a day so as not to disrupt the work of Chinese and Russian courts.
• Interestingly, if improperly used, the pontoon bridge can "float away". This happened, for example, in 2005 in the city of Novokuznetsk, when the bridge over the river Kondoma was swept away by the current.