In the spring of 2011, the administration of the capital put forward a proposal to replace asphalt with tiles on all sidewalks in Moscow. The project was taken as a basis fourteen years ago, which at one time was curtailed due to poor quality material and lack of funding.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in 2011 that asphalt sidewalks melt in summer and quickly deteriorate. The mayor proposed to solve this problem by replacing asphalt with stone tiles and even planned for this about 8 billion rubles from the capital's budget for 2012.
In total, 4.5 million square meters of asphalt will have to be replaced with tiles. This is equal to twenty-five percent of the total area of pedestrian zones in Moscow. The project is planned to be completed within five years; in total, it is planned to replace about 22 thousand square kilometers of asphalt.
The project of replacing asphalt with tiles was reviewed and adjusted by the Department of Housing and Public Utilities and Improvement of the Capital in the fall of 2011. According to him, the implementation of the project will be carried out by the Moskomarkhitektura, which has developed a tile design: the edges of the sidewalk will be paved with beige tiles, and the central part will be gray.
Employees of the Department of Housing and Public Utilities and Improvement say that in this way the city will switch from asphalt, which lasts for a couple of years, to tiles, which are much more environmentally friendly, since at high temperatures they do not emit substances harmful to the human body. Asphalt in the capital, according to experts, should remain only as a road surface.
According to the mayor Sobyanin, the tiled surface will save the city a considerable part of the budget, which includes the maintenance of footpaths and sidewalks. In addition, with a tiled sidewalk, there will be no special problems when repairing communications lying underground. According to the mayor's plan, by 2016, with sufficient funding, all sidewalks in Moscow should be paved with tiles. According to rough estimates, the total cost of the project will be about 25-30 billion rubles.
