Time schedules and budgets crushed, but still no icebreaking for Russia’s new Arctic vessel

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Russia is in the process of building a series of new icebreaking vessels, but not everything is proceeding as planned. One of the most prestigious projects, the 25 MW icebreaker «Viktor Chernomyrdin», is more than four years behind its original time schedule and costs are far beyond the price laid down in the construction contract signed in 2011.

According to newspaper Vedomosti, the vessel will be handed over to operator Rosmorport only in December 2019 and undergo ice-testing only in spring 2020. And the price will be more than 50 percent higher than the original budget.

The ship was supposed to cost 7.95 billion rubles (€113 million). But sources in the shipbuilding industry maintain that the price ultimately will be higher than 12 billion (€170)

The «Viktor Chernomyrdin» will be the most powerful conventional icebreaker in the world capable of breaking through up to 3 meter thick ice. It is 29 meters wide and 147 meters long. The powerful diesel-engined machinery enables it to stay autonomously at sea for up to 60 days.

The construction of the icebreaker started in 2012 at the Baltic Yard in St.Petersburg but was in 2017 transferred to the nearby Admiralty Yard. The yards have reportedly not yet requested compensation from government for the inflated construction costs and it is believed that they could face major deficits from the job.

The «Viktor Chernomyrdin» is Russia’s first vessel of project 22600 (LK-25).