Highway M5: description, problems and dangers. Federal highway M5 "Ural

ABOUT May trip to Penza and Tambov, I will tell you step by step, although I originally planned to make one general report. I realized - there is no need to rush, because we will talk about new places for us. And it is not easy to write about something new - impressions have not subsided, feelings and attitudes have not formed. Even the initial assessment - liked / disliked - may turn out to be, if not erroneous, then not accurate, until all superficial things fly off. Did you have it like that?
Yes, I'm coming to the report for a long time. If with a review about the hotel where we lived in Penza, everything was unambiguous - an excellent hotel, then everything else ... How the choice of the direction of our small May expedition was protracted and dreary (initially we planned to go to Voronezh, then we reoriented to Penza and Tambov) , so the report is born slowly.
I'll start the report on the trip to Penza and Tambov from the road - impressions of the M5 highway, travel photos. I tried to photograph the most characteristic moments. I'll start with a story, then there will be a small photo essay.
So, we drove along the M5 "Ural". The very name of the track is so powerful! - talks about where you can get on it. The heart begins to beat faster when you read the names of cities - Samara, Chelyabinsk, Yekaterinburg... God willing, someday it will be so... But now Penza.

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Many of you asked me about the road to Penza - what is it like. Broken in places, new in others. Somewhere repairs, somewhere traffic jams. You can’t call it well-maintained - there are many two-lane sections that are not equipped with fenders, completely unlit, without toilets and chain cafes (after Ryazan). Brand gas stations, again, only to Ryazan, one - in Mordovia, and then closer to Penza. As usual, halfway through they recalled the M4 with nostalgia ...
On the way to Penza, we drove through the Moscow and Ryazan regions, a small piece of the Republic of Mordovia (about 40 km.) And Penza region.
In emotional and cognitive terms, the M5 has interesting scenic spots and attractions. Kolomna, Lukhovitsy, Ryazan, Konstantinovo are just on the way to Penza, but all the interesting things still remain aside. If you wish, you can build an amazing travel route and even rush off to visit the Mistress copper mountain. Take note.
But if you move in one jerk, as we do, then for the most part the road is long, tedious, and there is nothing to catch the eye.
It took exactly 12 hours to Penza. This time includes refueling, a sanitary stop and two stops for a snack. The first one is in Ryazan region in the chain cafe "Taste of Childhood" that we checked. The second - in the Republic of Mordovia in the famous village of Umet - in the most ordinary home cafe near the highway (I've never seen anything like this!). It took about an hour and a half to stop. But without it, nothing. Prose of life. Rest is needed.
And now the photo essay.

Let's take off. :) More precisely, we start. Here is such an aircraft Chkalovsky airfield. We live a few kilometers from here. and on the way to Moscow we always pass this place on the Shchelkovo highway.

I must say, we passed the MKAD, like the Shchelkovo highway, successfully, without any traffic jams. M5 appears on the signs, we are leaving the Moscow Ring Road.

In a little over an hour since the start from home, we "stand at the finish line" - M5. This is a very good start.

Where to eat on the M5 near Moscow is not a problem. Network "Pompom" we met a couple of times. But we immediately decided that we would stop at another chain establishment - the Taste of Childhood cafe near Ryazan.

The condition of the route to Ryazan is generally good. Although, in my opinion, in two places it is too jagged, given that it is federal highway. In places there are traffic jams due to stupid traffic lights and, again, excessive bending.

There is a funny inscription on the door: "To avoid misunderstandings. We are not a pom-pom. We are the Taste of Childhood."

The food was amazing again. Delicious pancakes, lots of sour cream. Awesome dried fruit compote! I recommend! We always buy a bottle right away.

Very tasty pasties.

The asking price is quite normal.

We ate, rested (it took all of 30 minutes) and drove on.

Stela "Ryazan region". Closer to Ryazan, the movement began to thicken.

And here is Ryazan itself and its wonderful original stele.

Well, for Ryazan it was like this,

So. Frankly speaking, the roads in the Ryazan region are bad.

And we all know about the huge number of once magnificent temples abandoned in the Ryazan region ...

Mordovia has begun.

Apart from a 40-minute stop at a cafe in the village of Umet. A few words about the village. I have never seen anything like this - a village along the highway and in every house there is a cafe! Now I read on Wikipedia that Umet is a very famous locality on the M5 highway. Along the road for 2 km. there are more than 500 cafes! Of course, at that time we knew nothing about the uniqueness of the place. But honestly, I was stunned by what I saw. The soul could not stand it, and already somewhere in the second half of the village we stopped at a cafe with speaking name"Stop" (to the right of the road). It is not in our rules to eat on the road in unknown establishments. In this regard, Kostya is categorical - no, no and no. This is a huge risk. But the way is not close, we were terribly hungry. In addition, it was clear that we would arrive in Penza after 22.00. Where will we go at this time (how could we know that you can eat at the Heliopark Residence until 5 am?!). Basically, never say never.
How did you choose the cafe? According to the numbers of Moscow cars. :) Then Muscovites also stopped by our numbers. You see, it's scary for everyone. But if they stand their own, then the institution is normal. In addition, the house looked nice, there was a convenient parking lot in front of it, and it smelled delicious of barbecue ...

The cafe itself can be called "cafe" conditionally. House; in the house in the usual kitchen, the hostess, who quickly takes orders, warms up food, serves it to visitors, and pays off with her. There are no checks, of course. Everything is simple. The food is ordinary, homemade. We took borscht, noodle soup, Olivier salad, coleslaw, dumplings, cutlets. The food was normal (not so very tasty, but you can eat). Portions are huge. They gained a lot from hunger, they could not eat everything. We are not accustomed to such portions. We were very afraid of the consequences of the food. There were no consequences. So everything was fresh and of high quality.

So, we slipped through Mordovia in half an hour (40 minutes in a cafe do not count). The roads immediately became different. Not like in Ryazan, but not like in Mordovia either. It quickly began to get dark, and after the stele "Penza Region" I put away the camera.

As I said, we arrived in Penza at 10 pm. We drove 662 km. Travel time - 12 hours (including stops). We drove at a pace that was comfortable for us. Yes, we left a little later than the desired time. But we did not plan to start very early. It was clear that this, the first day of the trip, was a road one.
The only thing I regret is that we didn’t stop by Narovchat, didn’t see the local sights (the only Kuprin Museum in Russia, the Prison Castle Museum, Travel Palace etc.) that did not get into the Trinity-Scans convent(coordinates: 53.865201, 43.752304) and Scans cave monastery(coordinates: 53.858615, 43.779094). If you leave the M5 highway in the direction of Narovchat - drive 75 km. Not very far. But this program did not fit into our itinerary in any way. Even if we had left a couple of hours earlier, it would have been impossible. Now, if you single out a separate day ... But think for yourself. We ticked ourselves off.

To be continued...

The length of the motorway is 1879 kilometers. The road is part of the E30 road of the European route network and the Asian route AH6. The entrance from Chelyabinsk to Yekaterinburg is included in the Asian route AH7.

Distances between cities on the M5 highway

Distance from Moscow to Penza: Track length: 640 km; Travel time: 9:52
Distance from Moscow to Samara: Path length: 1054 km; Travel time: 13:51
Distance from Samara to Ufa: Track length: 460 km; Travel time: 5:34
Distance from Ufa to Chelyabinsk: Track length: 418 km; Travel time: 4:58
Distance from Chelyabinsk to Yekaterinburg: Track length: 205 km; Travel time: 3:17

You can get directions on the map and find out the distance between any cities

The motorway starts at the intersection of the Moscow Ring Road and Volgogradsky Prospekt, then goes south eastbound on the territory of the Moscow region, passing along the southwestern outskirts of the city of Lyubertsy, then along the ring roads around Bronnitsy, Kolomna, through Lukhovitsy. Near the city of Kolomna, the Ural highway crosses the Oka River.

Further, the motorway goes through the territory of the Ryazan region in the southeast and east directions, passes near the town of Rybny (to the northeast of the highway), bypasses Ryazan along the bypass road along the western and southern outskirts, passes near the village of Shilovo (to the north of the highway ), through the city of Shatsk (also possible by bypass since 2007).

Then it passes through the territory of the Penza region in the east and southeast directions through the city of Spassk, bypasses the city of Nizhny Lomov along the northern and eastern outskirts, through the district settlement of Mokshan and the village of Ramsay, along the bypass road passes through the northern outskirts of the city of Penza, then - north of the city Zarechny, south of the city Kuznetsk.

The route continues in a northeasterly direction across the territory Orenburg region and the Republic of Tatarstan, in an easterly direction - through the territory of the Republic of Bashkortostan, passes along the southern outskirts of the city of Oktyabrsky and the city of Ufa.

Ural track photo from May 2015:

The trail then passes through Chelyabinsk region in east, northeast and southeast directions. At the turn to Kropachevo, many cars turn off towards Yekaterinburg (a convenient path made up of different routes), then there is a small section territorially assigned to Bashkortostan, then the route passes along the southern outskirts of the city of Ust-Katava, north of the city of Yuryuzan, to the south from the cities of Satka, Zlatoust, Miass, Chebarkul, ends in the city of Chelyabinsk.

Next it goes to highway M51- to Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk.

Road condition

The most dangerous part of the route is East End road passing through the territory of the Chelyabinsk region: more than 50 people die on this section every year, more than 200 people are injured. The width of the carriageway varies from one to three lanes in each direction, oncoming traffic is separated by a dividing lane or a fence. 84% of the total length of the section does not meet the regulatory requirements for strength. The intensity of traffic on the highway exceeds the calculated one by 5-7 times. In the regional and central press, the phrase “road of death” is often used to refer to this section of the road.

The condition of the road in the summer of 2015 on the section from Chebarkul to Ishim and further is described in this:
“Ishim is a different story. From all sides we were intimidated by the 20-kilometer section of the road between Berdyuzhye and Ishim, where there is simply no roadbed, which is more than compensated by huge holes in the ground, which can only be driven at a walking pace. And Uncle Vova, and the guys from the airfield, and some car tourists to the last assured that this site is still in its original unusable state. Our fears about this area were exacerbated by the fact that in this region for a long time there were heavy rains. And, as expected, the Berdyugier-Ishim section should also have been concretely washed away. And indeed, while driving along Kurganskaya, Tyumen regions along the road we saw a huge amount of stagnant water in ditches. It looked like one endless swamp. In places, young birch trees stood a third in the water. But last night we decided to use my favorite impromptu: to go towards Ishim and on the way to ask oncoming truckers about the state of the ill-fated site specifically for today. If they say that there is absolutely akhtung, then alternative option, albeit more sophisticated, is to go through Kazakhstan (Petropavlovsk), where, in principle, there was a string in the person of one pilot who would receive us. But, you understand, crossing the border twice, and not just, but with a plane on a trailer, could all lead to inspections with prejudice, unnecessary attention of the locals, and even to the absence of those. assistance on the roads, which would be provided if necessary by the RAMK in the territory of our country.

And now, at one of the truck stops in the opposite direction, we stop in order to get an answer to a burning question from a resting driver.

Hello! Did you happen to drive today from Ishim to Berdyugye?
- I drove.
- How is the condition of the road now?
- In terms of? the man asks in surprise. – Oh, are you talking about that 20-kilometer section?
- Yeah, about him. And then the nafik will tear off my trailer.
- Yes, it was rolled up a long time ago. The autobahn is there!

So the need to visit our Kazakh friends disappeared, and we boldly continued our journey in the direction of Ishim. Sometimes, first along the Kurgan and then in the Tyumen regions, the road no longer looked like a highway, but like a KAMAZ test site: frequent holes, pits, bumps, but as you turn from Berdyugye to Ishim, a real “autobahn” begins. The entire stretch of 80 km is a two-lane ideal quality. So I officially declare: the Berdyugye-Ishim problematic section no longer exists.”

Attractions

news from 03.10.2013

An overpass over the railway tracks was opened on the M5 Ural highway in the Republic of Mordovia near the Dubitel-1 railway station. Thus, two problematic railway crossings on the territory of Mordovia are now bridges over the railway. Huge traffic jams, which until recently collected as usual at crossings, are a thing of the past. Now the travel time in both directions to and from Moscow is significantly reduced.