Issues of organizing vessels pilotage through the drawbridges spans in St. Petersburg

Abstract

The topic of the work is an overview study of the current problem associated with the complexity of navigation of river vessels and river-sea-going vessels during their passage along the Neva River in the raised spans of St. Petersburg bridges. It is noted that when passing through the raised spans of St. Petersburg bridges in the induced state, such factor as the “surface dimension” is one of the main ones. It is emphasized that large-tonnage river and river-sea-going vessels cannot pass all the bridges of St. Petersburg when they are in the induced state, but since the bridges are drawn at night during navigation period, the height restriction is no longer so strict. Unfortunately, all bridges of St. Petersburg have only one draw span, so reverse navigation is organized through their raised spans in order, firstly, to avoid divergences of vessels in the sections between the bridges and, secondly, to enable the skipper to minimize manoeuvring when choosing the optimal path of entry into the raised span of the bridge. In addition, the attention is drawn to the fact that when entering the drawbridge span, the skipper must take into account many additional factors, including, for example, local navigation features, the actual hydro-meteorological situation and the current hydrological regime of the Neva River. It is noted in the study that the boatmaster should take into account such an important circumstance as the presence of a large number of pleasure craft used for sightseeing viewing of the process of vessel movement through the raised spans of bridges. Due to the fact that boatmasters of large-tonnage river vessels and river-sea-going vessels may experience significant difficulties in the process of organizing navigation safety when moving into the raised bridge spans on the Neva River section within the boundaries of St. Petersburg; mandatory pilotage, some features of the organization of which are considered in this work, has been established. Examples of accidents related to the procedure of bridges drawing that occurred within the boundaries of St. Petersburg and had serious consequences are analyzed. The amendments proposed to be made to the “Rules of movement and mooring of vessels in the Volga-Baltic basin of the inland waterways of the Russian Federation” in relation to the issue under consideration are considered.