From Lenta.ru:
Moscow’s residents to be protected from exhaust fumes by hanging gardens
The Moscow authorities have decided to create a protective strip of plants along the city’s main roads. M24.ru reports this, quoting a source in the capital’s renovation department.
Work on the vertical plantings is planned for the main trunk roads out of Moscow: Varshavskiy, Yaroslavskiy, Kashirskiy, Leningradskiy, and Rublevskiy Chaussée, as well as Prospekt Mira. It is reported that the first “green shields” could appear on the capital’s roads in August 2013.
On separate parts of the roads, civil servants say that vertical plantings will be organised, and grass and flowers will be planted. The coordinators of the initiative say that the plants should be resistant to city conditions as well as being decorative.
These “vertical plantings”, as the CEO of the “Iskusstvo Zemli” publication Vladislav Potapov explained, will be hanging gardens. Containers of soil of varying sizes will be connected to the main irrigation system.
Potapov identified the most suitable plants as petunias, begonias, marigolds, nasturtiums and yellow acacia. He also stressed that the hanging gardens can only be organised during the warmer months. “Using perennials would make no sense, because the shield construction in the winter will freeze over, and the plants won’t survive,” the expert said.
Approximately 1.5 million roubles will be allocated from the city budget to make the motorways green.
Comments from Lenta.ru:
Марсель Странник:
1.5 million roubles for adding greenery to all of the motorways??? Once you consider the cut [Note: embezzlement], the best case scenario is that 1 million will be left, and tell me, will they be able to do much gardening with this 1 million? )))
Перламутр И-Пырей:
Isn’t it time to start fining the petrol-monkeys for not using electric cars or bikes?
Chelya: (responding to above)
Let them walk. It’s good for the heart.
Mikas Tokas:
Everyone should get a catalytic converter and then the problems would be less
Heinz Guderian:
Russian citizens are being protected from Muscovites’ exhaust fumes!
Игорь Огий:
Cool and not expensive. I’ll drive down Varshavskiy, it could be nice. There’s no green there at all. Asphalt ghetto.
Округ Инфо:
What a great idea for embezzling money every year. Every year they’ll ask for loads more money, but nothing will come of it. The idiocy of the Moscow mayorship is astonishing.
Andrey Neshatayko: (responding to above)
Why is this stupid? You said yourself it’s a great excuse for ritual annual embezzlement. Just like road repair.
Noname Nosurname:
Respect!
Jerzy:
Massive shields, covered with moss or mould. Budget – 15 billion
Andrew P:
Given the rate of destruction of the forests around Moscow, no gardens are going to help. We’ll have to learn to breathe CO2 and other abundant gasses.