Welcome to this special issue of Civil Engineering, the general journal of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. It is the first about Russia and in particular a Russian city; not just any city but ‘The Venice of the North' – Saint Petersburg. Of the six papers presented, five are from Russian authors generally from the Saint Petersburg State University (the first Russian university, founded in the early nineteenth century) and the sixth is from two British engineers.
Saint Petersburg, founded in 1703 by Tsar Peter the Great, was the former capital of Russia. It is Russia's second largest city and is situated on the coast of the Gulf of Finland in the low-lying Neva delta region. It is a city built over 42 islands, thus it is surrounded by water and interlaced with a complex web of rivers, canals and channels that seem to bind the city together, while also marking the borders of its different districts and neighbourhoods. It is the most northern city in the world with a population of over 1 million (5 million in 2012) and occupies an area of 1400 km2.
Saint Petersburg's location has meant that it has always been at risk of flooding, and the first paper by Lavrov and Sementsov (2015) describes the city's 300 year battle with flood waters and the development that has taken place that has had to take account of this risk, but not always without ecological issues.
The city has a long history, starting in 1611 when Swedish colonists built a fortress called Nyanskans at the mouth of the Neva River. However, the attractive historic quarters were mostly built in the nineteenth century and designed to encourage trade and social interaction by introducing intimate networks of passages and squares. These confined layouts are unattractive for development by commercial developers and this has resulted in continuing decay, piecemeal reconstruction and an overall lack of planning strategy. Taking this history into account, the second paper by Linov (2015) proposes urban redevelopment strategies for five distinct types of historic urban area.
Saint Petersburg was built as ‘the Russian gate open to Europe' and has become a vital hub in the Eurasian transport system. Its 4300 ha Baltic ‘Big Port' is one of the busiest in the world, handling around 70 Mt of bulk and containerised cargo per year. Kotikov (2015), in the third paper, describes how geographic information systems are being used to model and improve the city's complex and continually developing road and rail network, which is needed to serve the fast-expanding port area.
Smirnov et al. (2015) look to Britain and elsewhere in the fourth paper to learn lessons for public–private partnerships (PPP) and then discuss the Russian experience. You will find this a very frank discussion about the current situation in Russia regarding PPP using the example of the Western High-Speed Diameter Highway (Saint Petersburg ring road).
The fifth paper is not strictly about Saint Petersburg, although two of the authors are from the Saint Petersburg State University. It discusses a new method for predicting frost heave on roads built with frost-susceptible materials. As most parts of Russia experience frozen ground for between two and nine months of the year, frost heave is a common cause of damage to roads. Avoiding the use of frost-susceptible materials adds cost to road construction so the adoption of this new method allows the use of such materials, resulting in significant cost savings.
Pulkovo International airport serves Saint Petersburg and is Russia's fourth largest airport. This airport is nearing completion of a substantial redevelopment and Mills and Hares (2015) discuss the airport's history and this redevelopment that began in 2008. This final paper is not only a discussion on aspects of the design of this redevelopment but also an insight to the trials and tribulations experienced by the authors working on this Russian project.
We hope you enjoy this special issue that, we think you will agree, is rather different from other issues. It provides a window into a country that has in its past been rather secretive and even now does not often feature in engineering journals.
On behalf of the editorial panel, I would like to thank everyone who has helped to produce this issue, especially the authors of the papers for sharing their experiences with us. I trust it will encourage you and your colleagues to consider writing about your own work in this and other ICE journals.
