Will Ukraine develop underground for security purposes?
A well-known construction expert, president of the National Expert Construction Alliance of Ukraine, Viktor Leshchynsky recently told the media whether it makes sense to rebuild existing schools, healthcare facilities, offices, and other facilities, or whether it is more logical to build everything new and underground.
These and other issues were covered in detail by Viktor Leshchynsky in the program “Personality”.
According to him, “rebuilding means demolishing existing facilities and building them anew. This is illogical. After all, it is not a fact that the building has a basement floor, a basement floor that meets the standards set out in the State Building Code. But, if possible, such re-equipment is still possible. For the most part, the relevant facilities require civil protection by implementing the project in the adjacent territory. And this will mainly be a buried structure with all the necessary standards.
Of course, there will be a problem with the territory. In the capital, for example, it is much more difficult to implement such a project than, for example, in regions, regional centers, which are not so densely built up (somewhere in the Kherson region, for example). However, the complexity of building a corresponding facility is the same in any territory, it’s just that, in particular, in Kyiv – the networks are too dense and there is really not enough free space.
There is a corresponding base, there is the state program “My Fortress”, where the customer of construction can also take two-story underground facilities as an example. Why the option – two-story? Because the territory is too cramped, and the civil defense facility needs to be attached to this territory, and it is narrow or small. In addition, the needs and size of such a facility will depend on the number, for example, of children and teachers of the school, on the number of patients and staff of the medical institution, on the number of employees of the administrative building, etc. ”
Viktor Leshchynsky also spoke about how dual-purpose shelters are being transformed into school classrooms or hospital wards. In his opinion, “first of all, dual-purpose shelters guarantee safety for people, and only then can they be adapted for other necessary functions of the second purpose.
There are many state programs aimed at safety measures at construction sites that are supposed to guarantee the civil protection of the population. Especially when it comes to anti-radiation shelters, dual-purpose facilities in regions located near the contact line. There are approximately 8 such regions in Ukraine.
This is not, for example, a school-shelter. That is, the primary purpose is not a school. This is, first of all, an anti-radiation shelter. First of all, protective properties are guaranteed there, and only then does the transition to the dual-purpose component occur, in order to adapt such facilities for the education of schoolchildren, kindergartens or healthcare facilities. If the shelter is adapted for a kindergarten or school, then, accordingly, a full-fledged educational process must be ensured there, and this is the normal operation of classes, special lighting, which will differ from what is traditionally present in the PRU, adequate ventilation is required, a restroom is needed and much, much more that will ensure the normal life of students and teachers.
Regarding hospitals, healthcare facilities. In addition to the fact that the safety of employees and patients of the institution is definitely guaranteed there, such a structure should also contain a room where emergency medical care will be provided. The dual purpose of such a radiation shelter should be an equipped place where surgical operations can be performed, patient care provided, and full and high-quality medical care provided, ensuring both ventilation and all the relevant standards and necessary conditions inherent in any full-fledged healthcare facility.
