How the Zhigulevskaya hydroelectric power station was built (41 photos)

The project to build a hydroelectric station on the Volga was first considered at the beginning of the last century. In 1910, the talented Samara engineer G.M. Krzhizhanovsky (later chairman of the GOELRO commission) approached the tsarist government with a proposal to build a hydroelectric station on the Volga near Zhiguli. But only in 1919, at the suggestion of Lenin, Gleb Maximilianovich was given instructions to choose a location for the waterworks.

Having examined the area, Krzhizhanovsky proposed three options for the location of the future hydroelectric power station: in the area of ​​the village of Perevoloki, on Krasnaya Glinka near Samara and near the village of Otvazhnoe below the city of Stavropol.

In 1940, the Upravlencheskiy settlement was founded on Krasnaya Glinka, which was to house the headquarters for the construction of a hydroelectric power station. But the Great Patriotic War began and all work was suspended. Additional hydro-geological studies carried out in the post-war years suggested the feasibility of building a hydroelectric power station on soft soils near the village of Otvazhnoe. Here, in 1950, a gigantic construction project took place, during which the largest dam in the country, a huge turbine hall and powerful shipping locks were built.

01. Bank of the Volga, before the start of construction of a hydroelectric power station, 1950.

02. Beginning of development of the construction site territory. Major General Ivan Vasilyevich Komzin was appointed head of the construction of the Kuibyshev hydroelectric power station.

03. It’s no secret that thousands of prisoners worked at the counter. Basically, they were kept in the Kuneevsky camp, on the site of the future Komsomolsky district of Togliatti. At the peak of construction, in 1955, the number of prisoners reached 46,000!

04. But photographers of those years were only allowed to photograph civilian workers.

05. Preparation of the station pit

06. Although, it is worth paying tribute to the management, the most modern equipment at that time was used during construction - dredgers, excavators, dump trucks.

07. Preparation of a floating bridge at the site of the future spillway dam.

08. Construction of a spillway dam

09. In total, 7 million cubic meters of concrete were laid during the construction of the station.

10. Spillway dam

11. The concrete spillway dam is located on the left bank floodplain. The length of the dam is 1 km. It has 38 spillway spans. The dam's water body has devices for extinguishing water energy. To maneuver the gates, 3 gantry cranes with a lifting capacity of 250 tons were installed on the dam.

12. Fragment of a construction site next to the turbine room.

13. Government delegations and commissions often came to the construction site.

14. Concrete plant.

15. Dredger operation. Dredgers were used to fill the earthen dam.

16. Installation of the hydraulic turbine impeller.

17. The earthen dam is made of local fine-grained sand and is located between the hydroelectric power station building and the spillway dam. The length of the dam is 2800 m, the width at the base is 600 m. The highest height in the channel part is 50 m.

18. Construction of the turbine hall

19. Divers were involved in the construction. One of the diving suits is kept in the museum of the Zhigulevskaya Hydroelectric Power Station.

20. At the same time, on the left bank of the Volga, two-line shipping locks were built.

21. Gateway fragment

22. Lower locks

23

24. Upper locks

25. Checking the fastening of high-voltage power lines

26. Cement plant in Yablonevy ravine

27. Construction of a pontoon bridge between the hydroelectric power station building and the earthen dam.

28. On October 30, 1955, the most important part of the work began - blocking the river.

29. To block the natural channel, 1,765 ten-ton reinforced concrete pyramids were dropped to the bottom of the Volga in less than a day.

thirty.

31. The Volga was blocked for a record 19 hours and 35 minutes.

32. Water flowed through the bottom spillways of the station

33. Filling of the Kuibyshev reservoir has begun.

34. A ceremonial meeting on the occasion of the successful blocking of the Volga.

35. A reservoir with a length of more than 600 km spilled up from the hydroelectric power station. The reservoir is at its greatest width – 40 km – at the confluence of the Volga and Kama. The maximum depth in the dam part is 40 m. The reservoir's capacity is 58 billion cubic meters, it is the largest artificial reservoir in the world.

36. The flood zone included 270 settlements (17 cities and regional centers), 19 collective farms, two machine and tractor stations (MTS), 175 buildings of various institutions and organizations located outside Stavropol. Settlements that were not part of the flood zone, but located in the zone of land acquisition for the construction of a dam and other waterworks structures, were also subject to transfer. In total, in 1953, more than 1,600 yards were moved, as well as schools, hospitals, and industrial enterprises.

37. On August 10, 1958, the ceremonial launch ceremony of the hydroelectric power station took place. The leaders of the CPSU and the Soviet government, headed by N.S., arrived in Stavropol for the celebrations. Khrushchev.

38. In honor of the successful completion of construction, many prisoners received an amnesty, and many had their sentences reduced.

39. Ceremonial passage on a boat through the locks.

40. On December 29, 1955, the first unit of the KuHPP was connected to the network at 18:18; on December 31, 1955, the HPP generated the first million kWh of electricity. On October 14, 1957, the hydroelectric power station reached its design capacity of 2 million 100 thousand kilowatts.

41. And finally, a construction diagram from an old magazine of those years.

A little help:
The hydroelectric power station building is located on the right bank of the Volga. It consists of 10 two-unit sections with bottom spillways. The turbine hall contains 20 hydraulic units with a capacity of 115 MW each with rotary-blade turbines (impeller diameter - 9.3 m) and umbrella-type generators (rotor diameter - 14.3 m, stator diameter - 17.1 m).

The total length of the hydroelectric power station building together with the installation site is 730 m, width – 100 m, height from the base to the roof – 80 m. The construction volume of the building is 4500 thousand cubic meters. The hydroelectric power station building has an extension on the downstream side, which was made to equalize the voltage difference under the building and the reservoir, and prevent plastic uplift of soil from under the base of the structure. A separate debris-containing structure, located 33 m from the hydroelectric power station building, was introduced for the first time in the practice of hydraulic engineering construction.

Now the electricity from the hydroelectric power station is transmitted through two power lines to the unified energy system of the center of the country and through two lines to the Urals and the Middle Volga region. The level of automation made it possible to reduce the number of duty personnel to 10 people per shift.