There is nothing more exciting than a long journey on own car across our vast country. This is a long but exciting adventure that will definitely leave some impressions. The M29 highway is one of the most picturesque Russian roads, because it passes through wonderful places. Unfortunately, many drivers are biased towards the Caucasian region and spread false information about the quality of the federal highway and safety when driving on it.
Track features
The whole of Russia is intertwined with a network of automobile significance, but nowhere are there such features as on the M29 highway. Since the road runs through the Caucasian region, which has long been famous for its wayward local population, it will not work very quickly to go along it.
First of all, because there you can meet a huge number of tuned cars and lowered "Prior", the drivers of which perceive any overtaking as a challenge and an invitation to the race. However, it's still not worth organizing races. Especially when you take into account the different quality of the road surface on different sections of the route. Oddly enough, the most comfortable section of the road runs through Chechnya. Besides, in summer time the track cannot cope with the flow of cars. Basically, this is facilitated by fruit trucks and cars of travelers who go to the sea.
Another and most significant feature is the reinforced traffic police posts and the most real paramilitary checkpoints. It will not be possible to pass these sections quickly, since the flow of cars is divided into 2: those who want to pass in the usual way and those who are in a hurry. The queue is formed in any case, so it will hardly be possible to bypass it.
Entry to Chechnya is possible with any license plate, the presence of Chechen license plates is not required. However, Moscow numbers are really rare there for obvious reasons.
Toning - no!
If there is a need to visit the city of Grozny, go along the Chechen section of the M29 highway, you must follow the main rule, namely, remove the tint. The region is not famous for its tranquility, and toning is an excellent excuse for a traffic police patrol to stop a car. Also, tinting can cause a lot of questions for local residents... Which of these is better and which is worse, no one will say.
Be careful with gas stations!
In general, the M29 highway is calm and quite comfortable. However, in some parts of it there is a problem with gas stations. Most of all this concerns Kabardino-Balkaria, Ingushetia, North Ossetia and Dagestan. There are gas stations there, but the quality of the fuel is very low. Traveling around Chechnya or simply visiting any of the named regions, it is undesirable to refuel at local gas stations. It is recommended that you always have a supply of quality fuel and a spare fuel filter with you if you still need to refuel in the region. It is best to have enough fuel and two filters, just in case. If there is a need for practical advice, it is best to ask around truckers and drivers tourist buses, they have unpleasant stories of breakdowns due to local fuel. Their advice will be very useful, because they can recommend good car services and more or less reliable gas stations.
Road surface quality
Roads in Russia are not famous for their excellent quality, but quite the opposite, they are famous for permanent holes. Nevertheless, the M29 has a satisfactory asphalt surface. This is especially true for the approaches to the highway, its beginning and exits from it. The first 100 km of the track pass along the road, which drivers in the jargon call "killed". However, the further the journey, the better the road.
Striped threat
When driving along the M29 Kavkaz highway, you need to be as attentive as possible to oncoming traffic. Drivers of oncoming vehicles constantly warn about the so-called "striped threat". Traffic police officers or security cameras are everywhere. On the territory of the Stavropol Territory, the traffic police situation is improving. Their concentration decreases, and stops occur only with a recorded offense. However, drivers become less polite and often forget to warn about the "danger".
Driving rules
The M29 highway is an amazing place today. The first half of the road is subject to normal traffic rules. However, in Kabardino-Balkaria, Ingushetia, North Ossetia or Dagestan, the rules are slightly different. Drivers often completely ignore road markings and signs. There you should either drive as slowly as possible or overspeed strongly. The habit of looking in mirrors will be equally significant. Local drivers overtake anywhere and at random, often do not use turn signals and make maneuvers at the very last moment, and to all this, you can safely add a significant excess of the permissible speed limit.
Federal highway M-29 "Caucasus" (the number is valid until December 31, 2017), new number highway R-217 "Caucasus". The road runs through the territories of Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia, Ingushetia, Chechnya, Dagestan. The public highway M-29 joins the federal highway M-4 and starts from the village of Pavlovskaya Krasnodar Territory and ends in Magaramkent of Dagestan, on the border with Azerbaijan.The total length of the M-29 highway is 1118 kilometers. The section of the road "Pavlovskaya - Makhachkala" is an integral part of european route E 50. The section of the Makhachkala - Azerbaijan border highway is part of the European route E 119 and the Asian route AH8.
At the 229th kilometer of the highway near the village of Kochubeevsky, the A-155 road departs to Cherkessk, the capital of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic. At the 233 kilometer of the Kavkaz highway, there is a turn onto the A-154 road, which goes to Stavropol. At the 559th kilometer near the city of Beslan, the third largest city in North Ossetia, there is a turn to the A-301 highway in the direction of Vladikavkaz. The route has entrances to the cities of Armavir, Grozny, as well as bypasses of the cities of Pyatigorsk and Makhachkala. The federal highway M-29 ends at the state border Russian Federation and Azerbaijan. The last settlement here is the village of Gaptsakh, which is located 6 km north of the regional center - the village of Magaramkent.
The road, with a carriageway width of 8 meters, passes in mountainous terrain, and has an asphalt concrete surface along its entire length. There are sections on the road that require special attention from drivers, this is indicated on the signs. At kilometer 1164, the road enters a 1.8 km long tunnel.
The route crosses several rivers, the most significant of which are: near the city of Kropotkin, the Kuban river; the Terek river near the village of Elkhotovo; the Argun river near the city of the same name. Lifting capacity of bridges from 60 tons.
M-29 "Kavkaz" is the main highway of the North Caucasus.
I have traveled very little by car in Russia. Almost all trips outside the Belgorod region were limited to the M-4 highway (from Moscow to Krasnodar). I am one of those who believe in stereotypes about "bad roads" in our country, and therefore I try to avoid traveling on them. But we firmly decided to go to Chechnya by car. Half of the way (to Rostov-on-Don) promised to be expectedly good, but I did not find any definite reviews on the network about the road along the "Caucasus". Therefore, morally tuned in to a bad road, we hit the road.
1
... A few kilometers after the exit from the M-4, the track began to live up to my expectations, narrowing to two lanes with a very heterogeneous surface. The navigator showed more than 700 kilometers to the destination, and I was a little depressed. However, at some point we were lucky - a cortege of seven police cars rushed by with the flashing lights on, pushed a line of endless heavy trucks to the side of the road and we were able to slip through them.
2 ... However, the joy was short-lived - soon they began to come across areas with repair work, and then I was completely depressed. Somewhere near Tikhoretsk, the flow rate generally dropped to 20 kilometers per hour, and then all traffic moved to the side of the road. "If it goes on like this, then I will turn around and take you to Crimea!"- I said to Natasha. But, fortunately, my patience turned out to be longer than the narrow lane M-29, and already at the entrance to the Novokubansky district, an asphalt sea opened up in front of us - a wide strip of fresh asphalt with separated traffic flows. In total, only the first 90 kilometers of the Kavkaz federal highway turned out to be “bad”.
4 ... The mood improved along with the quality of coverage, and the stereotype of “bad russian roads"Stayed behind. At some point, we even began to admire the scale of road construction. Fresh cards Navitela, loaded two days before the trip, could not always indicate the route correctly. Sometimes the navigator showed that we were driving across the field, although in practice this field was already good site highways. Somewhere after Minvod, we got to the first of the sections with a permitted maximum speed of 110 km / h. There are several more on our way.
The chagrin was caused by the M-29 section, about a hundred kilometers long, running through the territory of Kabardino-Balkaria. And he upset not so much with the quality of the road surface, as with the werewolves in uniform grazing behind each bush. In Kabardino-Balkaria, the Kavkaz highway consists of three lanes (obviously, it was decided to save money on a full fourth). They alternate - now two stripes for our side, then two for the opposite. That is, the middle lane is such pockets for overtaking, the ability to slip through the string of trucks that have accumulated in front of you. On one of these segments I got caught - seeing, out of habit, an extension ahead, I went out to overtake, but already completing the maneuver, I realized that it was a lane for turning left. Having dived from it into the right lane, after a couple of hundred meters, I was stopped by happy men with a striped stick, who gathered on the sidelines an impressive column of the same "flyers" like me.
Here, for the first time in my Russian practice, I had to bribe. In all seriousness - for almost five years of driving experience, no one demanded a bribe from me, I thought that in our country they no longer traded for this. Aha, how! The local gayts taught me all the basics of extortion, and I, not wanting to waste time, paid off.
By the way, on the way back home we were also caught in Kabardino-Balkaria! Moreover, realizing that I am savvy in knowledge of the laws, and it will not work to hit the jackpot for the alleged "violation", the local cop (he doesn’t dare to call these scammers "police") got to the bottom of my outstanding fines and offered to go to the impoundment parking lot. As a result, having knocked down its original price tag three times, I paid and left.
In general, I don't know anything about Kabardino-Balkaria, but now there are persistently unpleasant associations with it. Therefore, no pictures. We uncovered the camera only at the entrance to North Ossetia.
6 ... In Ossetia, roads are also being reconstructed very actively. There are many fresh plots, many under construction.
7 ... True, after the bridge over the Terek there is a section of thirty kilometers (by eye), which consists of only two lanes. There accumulates such a good faith of trucks. For some reason, we practically do not have photographs from bad sections; only new sections of the highway caused the desire to take pictures.
8 ... For example, such. Somewhere near the entrances to Beslan, so many new interchanges were built that even Navitel did not know about them.
9 ... I also liked the fact that in many parts of the "Kavkaz" concrete barriers are used for dividing lines. This is very correct, it is a pity that such an experience is not practiced in our area.
10 ... A large checkpoint is located about ten kilometers from Beslan along the M-29 highway. Having passed it, we gradually began to notice that something had changed in the surrounding landscape, but for a long time we could not understand what exactly ... It turned out that between North Ossetia and Ingushetia does not have a clearly defined border, and there are no noticeable signs announcing this. But the contrast between Orthodox Ossetia and Muslim Ingushetia is noticeable in many ways - in the architecture of buildings, in clothes and appearance local residents.
11 ... Along Nazran, the road stretches in a narrow strip, where you can often meet cows "impenetrable" in their peace of mind. Another interesting local characteristics - roadside posts, all along the way, painted in the colors of the Ingush and Russian flags.
12 ... Over time, we leave for a new section of the road. "Oh, probably we are already in Chechnya" - joking with Natasha. However, this is still the Ingush Republic. A clear border between Chechnya and Ingushetia has not been noticed either.
13 ... When there is no doubt that we have entered Chechnya, the road becomes ideal. A good autobahn with a permitted 110 kilometers per hour pleases us for a long time.
14. At the approaches to Grozny, however, the road narrows again to a two-lane road. Here, by the way, the overwhelming majority is trying to comply with the speed limit, and at the intersections, traffic policemen met several times. But we have almost arrived and are in no hurry.
15 ... We are approaching Grozny. Here M-29 continues to go straight, towards Dagestan. We will soon turn left.
16 ... The last few kilometers to the city limits.
17 ... Work on unreconstructed areas is in full swing.
18 ... Here we are in Grozny. 770 kilometers along M-29, of which most are good and very good road... My fears about “one of the main Russian troubles” on the “Caucasus” highway were in vain. I am sure that in the next few years, the problem areas will also be expanded, new asphalt will be laid where necessary, and this federal highway will be no worse than M-4. Bribery in some areas still needs to be dealt with ...
Well, I will tell you about Grozny and Chechnya, local roads and customs next time. By the way, you can ask your questions about the Chechen Republic in the comments, I will try to tell you based on my personal experience.
