Construction of the federal highway "Tavrida", leading to the Kerch bridge, began in May. According to the conclusion of the designers, the road costs 168 billion rubles, Deputy Minister of Economic Development Sergey Nazarov (quoted by TASS), but taking into account the expertise that unjustified spending always excludes, will cost 166 billion rubles.

Previously, officials more modestly assessed the costs: the head of the Crimea, Sergei Aksenov in March 2016 - 85 billion rubles., Former Deputy Prime Minister of Crimea Oleg Kazurin (detained on suspicion of taking bribes) in July 2016 - 139 billion, and then while Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev promised that this is the maximum price of a road and can not be recounted. But in May 2017 the Minister of Transport of Russia Maxim Sokolov said already about 140 billion rubles. The only contractor of the construction without a tender appointed ZAO "WAD", contact his representative failed.

 The road will connect Kerch, Feodosia, Belogorsk, Simferopol, Bakhchisaray and Sevastopol, its total length will be 277 km. The construction of the highway is mostly going on, but President Vladimir Putin refused to name the reconstruction project: "First two completely new roads will be built, and then the road that is now, will almost be rebuilt. It will actually be a new road in the same corridor. "

It was assumed that Tavrida would be put into operation together with the Kerch bridge in December 2018, but it was already lagging behind: the head of the highway service of the Crimea, Alexander Mokhna, said that the construction would be completed only in 2020.

The most problematic part of the route is Sevastopol 13 km long: the designers warned that construction could triple in price, said Andrey Nikitchenko, General Director of the Directorate for Management of the Federal Target Program for Development of the Crimea and Sevastopol, in January, from 5 billion to 15 billion rubles, which could inflate the whole estimate to 150 billion rubles. - there is heavy geology and high cost of materials. The rise in price of the whole site is 3 times - a very rare case, serious customers do not allow this, but on the periphery is found, commented the director of the Transport Institute of the Higher School of Economics Mikhail Blinkin. However, the forecast came true: now the site is estimated at 14.4 billion rubles. This is the marginal cost, it was established by the technical and price audit of Glavgosexpertiza, a representative of one of the federal agencies knows.

 Conclusion Glavgosexpertiza is at the final stage of preparation, indicates its representative. Indeed, it is possible to reduce the cost, confirms the representative of the Ministry of Economic Development: the contract for the construction of the road will be based on the cost obtained from the examination.

The cost of road projects usually grows due to the fact that there is no ready project documentation, there are no geological surveys, other parameters - the road category, the number of bridges and overpasses, often change in the course of projects, says Dentons adviser Ilya Skripnikov. Builders of infrastructure facilities in the Crimea are faced with a lack of basic data that were collected according to the standards of Ukraine, and not Russia, because of this, mistakes are not excluded, Alexey Efanov, Partner of Practice Engineering at the NEO Center consulting group, said. Another problem is the shortage of building materials in the region, he continues: local quarries, crushed stone and sand are loaded for 2-4 years ahead, cement and bitumen do not exist at all, it is brought by sea, and if the estimate takes into account rail transportation, it may be inaccurate: in the Crimea, contrary to practice, shipments by the sea are more expensive. Nevertheless, the estimate changed too rapidly - with the most condescending attitude to other people's mistakes in the draft, they were a bit too much, Blinkin said.

The construction of the road should not be assessed only from the standpoint of costs, argues the director of the expert-analytical center of the Academy of Public Service Nikolai Kalmykov: economic efficiency is achieved through the flow of goods, social impact is important - support for various types of business and tourism.