Last year JSC Donaerodorstroy celebrated its 65th anniversary.
The long working activity of the enterprise began back in 1956 with the order of the Ministry of Transport Construction of the USSR to create the Construction Department No. 15 of Glavdorstroy (General Directorate of Road Construction) or simply SU (Construction Directorate) -15.
“Roads are the nerves of the country” – very few people remember that these words belonged to N.S. Khrushchev the then country leader. We refreshed our memory of these words to illustrate the great importance that the government of the Soviet Union attached to the transport routes construction. At that time, the country’s leadership understood very well where to get responsible and qualified personnel for successful and efficient roads construction work in our vast Motherland. Therefore, the SU-15 almost completely included the team of engineers and workers from the 8th Road Construction Division. In those years, many military men of this division had road building experience in the most difficult military conditions – under artillery fire and under attacks by the enemy aircraft.
The roads building conditions for the SU-15 turned out to be uneasy as well. It was necessary to lay roads through vineyards and orchards with fruit trees, through potato fields and other farmlands of the vast Rostov region in the gentlest mode for the crop that grew on this territory and constituted one of the main food supply base of our country.
In the 1960s and 1970s, large-scale construction of the state highways Moscow-Volgograd and Moscow-Kharkov-Simferopol began. During this period, the SU-15 was transformed into the Dondorstroy (Don Road Construction) Trust. The trust built the Rostov-Ordzhonikidze, Rostov-Novocherkassk, Rostov-Olginskaya-Volgodonsk, Debaltsevo-Lugansk, Moscow-Volgograd, Moscow-Kharkov-Simferopol, Novocherkassk highways, the 3rd Longitudinal Highway of Volgograd, the western and eastern bypasses of Rostov, transport interchanges and network of intra-regional roads of the Rostov and Volgograd Regions, streets and squares of Rostov-on-Don, Bataysk, Semikarakorsk, Volgograd and other settlements of our vast country.
The Soviet Union collapsed, new social and economic relations appeared within the country. In 1992, the Dondorstroy Trust was reincorporated as a Joint Stock Company and it appeared the enterprise JSC Donaerodorstroy.
It is understood, this enterprise was engaged in the airfields landing strips construction, which, accordingly, is reflected in its name. Over the years of work, it has been built the airports in Rostov-on-Don, Volgograd, Taganrog, Volgodonsk, as well as in other cities and villages. Not all the airfields built by Donaerodorstroy can be talked about on the pages of the public media. Unfortunately, the situation on our planet makes it necessary for the time being the presence of secret objects on our Motherland territory.
Through joint efforts, over several years, these “Three Comrades,” as their employees respectfully call them, accumulated other road construction assets of the Rostov region as well, which eventually allowed them to create the Group of Construction Companies Don. This Group unites several companies. JSC Donaerodorstroy is engaged in the roads construction and maintenance, SMU-Donaerodorstroy is involved in the industrial facilities construction, and LLC Svyazinform is installing automation, telemechanics and communication systems. Ultimately, the power supply system construction is the responsibility of LLC Signal-Stroy.
Alexey Knyshov considers the starting point for the Group of Construction Companies “Don” establishment as a company of federal significance – the Group participation in the M4 “Don” Highway certain sections construction in the Rostov region. Construction began in 2005. The M4 Highway is one of the main arterial roads that connect the north and the south of Russia. During the summer holidays the traffic flows precisely along this route, which previously invariably led to many kilometers of traffic jams until the Group of Construction Companies “Don” got down to business. The highway was expanded, multi-level interchanges were built, oncoming traffic lanes were separated by protective fences, and the road sections where Donaerodorstroy performed its work became indistinguishable from the best European autobahns.
Then, it was appeared the new major contracts, to which Donaerodorstroy attracted the regional budget. This, for example, is construction of a new Rostov-Azov Highway (7.5 billion rubles), new road to the Platov Airport (3.6 billion rubles), six-lane section of the Aksai Transport Bypass (8.9 billion rubles) and others.
In August 2019, the shareholders of JSC Donaerodorstroy decided to transfer the Company to Moscow. Growth of the federal status obliged to be closer to the decision-making center. “This step will make it possible to conduct even more effective interaction with the customers and partners on our contracts portfolio qualitative performance of obligations, on creation of new jobs in absolutely different parts of Russia, on introduction of innovations and advanced technologies,” – Donaerodorstroy’s statement said.
A year ago, the Group of Construction Companies Don managed to win a tender for the Volgograd Bypass Construction Contract for almost 19 billion rubles, as well as the Leningradskaya Stanitsa Bypass in the Krasnodar Territory for the amount of 9.8 billion rubles. Currently, according to the Rostender website, the Donaerodorstroy’s portfolio (excluding the Krasnodar Bypass) contains construction contracts worth more than 59 billion rubles.
These facts indicate that the Ministry of Transport of Russia actually officially recognized the Company as one of the best companies in Russia in the field of road construction.
Nowadays, Knyshov, Imedashvili and Kirsanov are the co-founders of many organizations, including LLC PO Dondorstroy. The Company regularly wins various road tenders in different cities of Russia – from Voronezh to Novgorod.
One of the last contracts of the Group of Construction Companies “Don” – the western bypass of the city of Krasnodar construction contract was signed in September 2020.
The long-distance bypass of Krasnodar will become part of the M4 “Don” Highway – the route from which, sometime in 2005, as we remember, it has started the Company’s glorious career path. Currently, hundreds of thousands of tourists who travel by car to the Black Sea in summer get stuck in the many kilometers traffic jams.
It is assumed that the route will be operated on the fee basis. It was noted in the procurement materials that the contractor’s investment would exceed four billion rubles. Thus, a long-term investment agreement is planned for construction, maintenance, repair and operation of the toll road. In 2021, 3 billion rubles were spent for these purposes; in 2022 they plan to spend 8 billion, in 2023 – 20 billion rubles.
The length of the highway will be more than 50 km. Three interchanges, four bridges, ten overpasses will be built on the four-lane highway. The road will relieve the city of Krasnodar and the entrances to it from transit flows going to the south. It is fundamentally important at the federal level that the M4 Don Highway will connect with the A289 Highway (Krasnodar – Slavyansk-on-Kuban).
There were two applications for the tender. As follows from the final protocol of the commission, at the end of August 2020 JSC Donaerodorstroy was recognized as the tender winner, whose strategic partners are JSC SMU-Dondorstroy, LLC SU (Construction Directorate) – 873 and JSC DEP No. 33. The first two companies are included in Group of Construction Companies “Don”. The decisive circumstance was that the winner was able to document the work experience worth 34.6 billion rubles.
So far, Donaerodorstroy is not included in the top ten rating of the largest road construction companies in Russia, however, let’s hope that this is not for long.
