Baku rolls sleeves up for new large road project

By AzerNews

Works on the restoration project of the Boyukshor Lake, located near the new Olympic stadium, are still underway, Azerbaijan's Economy and Industry Ministry said.

The ecological project will be implemented in two phases, the ministry reported. The first phase, which covers the period of 2013-2015, provides restoration of some part of lake amounting to 300 hectares.

In this phase, a dam, which will block oil-contaminated water, will be built in the northern part of the reservoir. Then, using pumping stations this water will be supplied to the Hovsan aeration treatment plant. The length of the dam amounts to 1850 meters, width - to 5.5 meters.

Another dam, which will be built in the western part of the lake, will also serve as a six-lane trunk road connecting Ziya Bunyadov avenue and Balakhani-Binagadi highway. The length of the road will amount to 1570 meters, width - to 34 meters, and the height above the lake - 1.5 meters.

In the southern part of the lake, an area with 11 hectares, one more barrier for wastewater will be constructed. Moreover, some works on the demolition of buildings, gardening and landscaping in the coastal zone will be carried out.

In the eastern part of the lake the construction process of a sewage collector in order to prevent water pollution would be carried out. The coastline construction of the boulevard as well as transition to the stadium will be accomplished later. The length of the boulevard will be 900 meters and its width 12 meters.

Moreover, in the first phase of the lake restoration, bottom of the reservoir will be cleaned from various wastes.

All these works will be completed in 2015.

Being the second largest lake of Azerbaijan and largest on Absheron Peninsula, Boyukshor is located in the center of the peninsula, on the boundaries of Binagadi, Sabunchu and Narimanov districts of the city of Baku.

The average depth of the water in the lake is about 3.40-3.95 meters, while the maximum depth is 4.20 meters. The shoreline depth ranges from 0.50 to 1.70 meters. The lake is in oval shape and its length from the northwestern to southeastern bank is about 10 km whilst the maximum width is 1.5-2.0 km. It feeds from the underground waters and completely contained from any rivers.

The ecological situation of the lake is in a bad state, as it is polluted with waste from surrounding businesses. Country's Ecology Ministry said about 18 thousand cubic meters of industrial and communal waste is disposed to the lake. One of the main sources of pollution is the oil waste waters from oil exploration and production boom of 1930s.

The first oil storage reservoir was built near the lake in 1866. In 2004, the ecological state of the lake was placed in extremely poor category. Additionally, the construction works which started with drying out of the lake caused more pollution for the residents of the area. The strong winds of Baku create dust from the sand transported to the lake location to dry the lake. Expert have also alleged that while dehydrating the lake, sediments spread by the wind will cause more ecological problems.