Kiev resident Pyotr Vasyukov, after graduating from the Dnepropetrovsk Institute of Railway Engineers in 1952, came to Moscow. Participated in the construction and launch of several lines of the capital's metro. For his services in 1976 he received the USSR State Prize, and four years later he was awarded the high title of Hero of Socialist Labor. The honored veteran of Metrostroy told a correspondent of our newspaper about the labor exploits of those years.
The engineering journey of Pyotr Vasyukov began at the excavation of running tunnels on the Circle Line - between the Belorusskaya and Krasnopresnenskaya stations. Later he took part in the construction of the Smolenskaya and Kievskaya - ring roads. And again the haul, but in very difficult hydrogeological conditions. Heading from the Lenin Mountains to the University station, the tunnelers of Tunnel Squad No. 6 had to make their way through quicksand. And for this purpose, a caisson was installed in the faces - chambers with increased air pressure. This technique prevented the flow of water into the work area, but the unnatural level of pressure had a bad effect on health. Reducing the time spent in the caisson reduced the likelihood of serious illness, but slowed down the excavation. Therefore, experts thought about using the technology of a safe method. Among them were the chief engineer of TO-6, Yuri Koshelev, and the one who happened to hold the same post later - at the turn of the 60s-70s - Pyotr Vasyukov.
“I was very young when I came to Mosmetrostroy,” says Pyotr Alexandrovich. – For us, the construction of the subway was a very significant project, but also ordinary everyday life, work that feeds the family.
In 1971, Pyotr Vasyukov was appointed chief engineer of Mosmetrostroy. He participated in the development and implementation of a technology for sinking mine shafts that was more advanced than that then adopted at Mosmetrostroy. Together with Ezar Sandukovsky, who then held the position of deputy head of the organization, Pyotr A. developed a method for using submersible support in the so-called thixotropic jacket. The technology was highly praised, and the co-authors became laureates of the USSR State Prize in 1976. At the same time, Vasyukov was appointed head of Metrostroy; he held this position until 1983.
“During this period, we carried out work on the extension of the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya and Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya lines,” said Pyotr Aleksandrovich. “At the same time, the Kalininsky radius was started and expanded to six stations. Each station, each line is complex in its own way, had its own characteristics and difficulties. But everyone was built with soul, loved by me with all my heart. Now it is difficult to say which station was remembered more than others. I love everything I built as if it were my own children.
The launch of the Kalinin radius in 1979, along with other merits, was named in the text of the Decree of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on awarding the head of Mosmetrostroy the Golden Star of the Hero of Socialist Labor and the Order of Lenin. It also talked about another station of the long-existing Zamoskvoretskaya line - “Gorkovskaya” (now “Tverskaya”).
The project provided for the construction of Gorkovskaya on the stretch between Revolution Square and Mayakovskaya, which has been in operation since the late 1930s. The station has been in the plans since 1932. Then the construction was canceled, although space was left for the future island platform between the haulage tunnels just in case. It came in handy forty years later to solve a unique problem - to build a station between the tunnels of an existing metro line without interrupting passenger traffic.
“It was as if we were stringing a bead onto a necklace without breaking the thread,” shared Pyotr Alexandrovich.
The method common during the construction of the metro, when temporary bypasses are made on the side of the existing tunnels, to which traffic is diverted, was not suitable for this section of the Zamoskvoretskaya Line. The Metro construction workers took a different route - from the mine through which Pushkinskaya was being built nearby, they approached the place previously left for the station. There they began to build the middle hall, decorate the pylons, concrete the platform, mine the rock above the distillation tunnels in order to mount the station ones.
To facilitate the dismantling of excess tunnel lining, a special device was developed that can operate in extremely tight conditions - a full-rotary hydraulic lifting mechanism. It allowed us to avoid problems with waste removal and delivery of large pieces of equipment for the new station. For this purpose, the Zamoskvoretskaya line was used at night.
A significant result of the implementation of the daring plan was four thousand tons of cast iron tubing, saved due to the abandonment of the construction of bypass tunnels.
The long-standing dream of performing work without the use of a caisson was realized during the extension of the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya line to the north. There, the very first stage behind the VDNKh station was designed with a passage under the Yauza. The river itself is not wide, but already hundreds of meters from it, geologists discovered quicksand in the depths.
It seemed that the caisson was inevitable after all. Tunnel Detachment No. 6 began to prepare for a new test. It was calculated that 350 people would be required to work non-stop with inevitably shortened shifts in the two tunnels. But a strict medical commission was able to select only one quarter of this amount.
So we had to urgently search for another technical solution to the problem that would spare the health of the miners. The “brainstorming” - with the direct participation of the head of Mosmetrostroy, Peter Vasyukov - was led by leading specialists from Tunnel Detachment No. 6 and the relevant departments of Metrogiprotrans. The idea of contour dewatering of unstable soils quickly received technical and organizational design. The problematic section of the route was divided into ten sections. Each of them was fenced around the perimeter with ice-soil walls for subsequent operations. Under the Yauza itself, freezing wells were drilled using a movable bridge. In the end, without using a caisson, the tunnellers brought the line to the Botanical Garden.
The leader's talent is transferred to the team. Mosmetrostory has always been famous for its people, workers dedicated to the construction of the metro for the benefit of Muscovites.
The Hero of Socialist Labor, the distinguished metro builder Pyotr Aleksandrovich Vasyukov, will turn 88 years old on November 4, 2018. Let us wish him good health and good news about the business to which he devoted the main years of his life.
Direct speech: Efim Barsky, veteran of Metrogiprotrans, vice-president of GIP
I am only three years younger than the Moscow Metrostroy. Of the thirty stations built with my participation as a structural designer, the most complex and therefore the most interesting is Tverskaya. At that time, in the mid-70s, I led a group of designers. We had to figure out how to build a structure in the center of Moscow, under Pushkinskaya Square, at a depth of more than forty meters, covering the existing distillation tunnels. The intermediate result of our work was almost two hundred folders of working drawings. Having studied them, the Metro Tunnel Services gave Metrostroy the go-ahead to begin unprecedented work.
The task required unrelenting design supervision from us. The construction of a unique station on the Zamoskvoretskaya line constantly remained the focus of attention of the head of Mosmetrostroy, Pyotr Vasyukov. I had the opportunity to communicate with him at all stages of construction. I remember, for example, the moment associated with the transfer to Pushkinskaya. I finally determined the height of her walkers on the spot, focusing there - with a small margin - on the impressive height of Pyotr Alexandrovich. And with the chief engineer of SMU-7 Nikolai Zaidullin, we had a common obligation to the metro traffic service - after each night shift, to sign a guarantee document that trains could be launched on the stretch between the Ploshchad Revolyutsii and Mayakovskaya stations in the morning. And this happened for several months.