Krasnoyarsk Breaks Ground on 48-Meter-Deep Kopylova Street Metro Station

Work begins on the most striking station of Krasnoyarsk's future metro—Kopylova Street—with its complex underground hub buried 48 meters below ground, requiring a separate foundation pit for its vestibule.

December 17, 2025

Hundreds of Piles for Tens of Millions

Mospromproekt-3, the Moscow-based general contractor overseeing the design and construction of Krasnoyarsk's metro-tram system, announced a tender in early December for construction and installation work on the retaining structures for the vestibule's foundation pit.

The price tag is substantial: 171.6 million rubles ($1.9 million).

In comments to DELA, Mospromproekt-3 detailed the scope of work for this phase of construction.

A procurement procedure has been launched to install retaining structures made of secant piles for the escalator tunnel vestibule of Kopylova Street station.

The project requires drilling 301 boreholes, each 620 mm in diameter, and constructing secant piles ranging from 20 to 22 meters in length. Of these, 151 will be reinforced with steel frames, while the rest will be unreinforced.

To ensure precise placement of the piles around the future pit, workers will first create a guide shaft for alignment. The final step will involve installing a monolithic reinforced concrete tie beam, which will provide additional structural stability, the company explained.

According to procurement documents, the contractor must develop its own work execution plan and submit it to the client for approval. The entire project must be completed within 120 days of contract signing, with an expected finish in the summer of 2026. The tender results will be announced on January 16.

Why So Deep?

Krasnoyarsk's metro is designed in a "hub-and-spoke" layout, with frequent adjustments to the original plan. The second metro-tram station was selected from the first line based on its parameters, as the project incorporates 2.3 km of Soviet-era tunnels—built between the Vysotnaya and Kopylova stations—into the modern system.

While the first 2.3 km of the Krasnoyarsk Metro were constructed at a depth of 20–30 meters, the new station will be deep-level, buried at 48 meters.

Under the Soviet plan, tunnels were dug deep underground, whereas the modern metro-tram system is designed as a shallow subway. These two approaches converge precisely beneath Kopylova Street.

Currently, a tunnel boring machine (TBM) named Yevgenia, operated by the Chinese contractor Sino-Russian Construction Company (SRCC) 16th Division, is excavating a new parallel tunnel alongside the one built in the 1990s–2000s. The team must also adapt the old infrastructure to the new project's requirements.

Station Design: Already Finalized but Not Yet Revealed

According to the plans, the future station under Kopylov Street will occupy an area of 8.7 thousand square meters, with its passenger platform stretching roughly 80 meters long. With excavation work for the station's vestibule set to begin soon, a natural question arises: what will it look like?

The main vestibule of Kopylov Street station will be located over 20 meters underground, situated between Kopylov Street, Krasnaya Armiya Street, and the slip road from Nikolayevsky Prospect.

Judging by the latest updates, the wait for visuals won't be long—Krasnoyarsk residents are eager to see the design of their long-awaited metro. And even more so, they can't wait to ride its inaugural line.