The Odesa regional administration has approved the project documentation for construction of a bridge across Sukhyi Estuary (Sukhyi Liman), with a branch to the village of Malodolynske from the Odesa-Chornomorsk (formerly Illichivsk) highway, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reports.

The first deputy head of the Odesa regional administration, Volodymyr Zhmak, signed the corresponding directive (No. 85/A-2016). According to the document, the total cost of construction of the new bridge will be UAH 132.64 million.

The existing pontoon bridge has been in a precarious condition for several years.

As reported, the Odesa-Illichivsk highway was closed to traffic for almost one month in summer 2014 because of repair work on the pontoon bridge. As a result, a number of resorts in the Odesa region were virtually cut off from Odesa and on the Odesa-Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi-Monash bypass road was constantly congested.