UST: News

On behalf of the SkyWay group of companies, we express our gratitude to all participants for their active voting (more than a thousand people) on the "Zero kilometer". Thanks for your critical comments, constructive suggestions and preferences that you have expressed.

This feedback helped to create a collective image of the sign, which we offer to your attention. This sign should carry significantly more symbols and analogies than those previously proposed. It should bear the year of sign laying and the cardinal directions. There has to be seen in what place, in what country and on what continent the sign "Zero kilometer" is laid. The Zero kilometer must be tamper-proof, otherwise it will not stand for not only a hundred years, but one year, given the fact that the sign is laid out now in an unguarded field. It must also symbolize the fact that the SkyWay transport-infrastructure complex grew up not on an empty ground, but lies on the foundation of the past.

Thus, some collective image of the Zero kilometer appeared, suggested by the creator of the SkyWay group of companies Anatoly Yunitsky. It was visualized by our designers Ivan Lukin and Sergei Kaplya, and it will be manufactured by the famous Belarusian sculptor, member of the Union of artists Alexander Surkov.

The Zero kilometer, cast in bronze, is placed on a white granite, - the symbol of purity and eternity (granite is more durable than, for example, marble). The sign is mounted into a 1,000 ton reinforced concrete slab in the shape of Belarus, which is oriented on the cardinal points, alike the sign itself. And the sign is positioned in the place of Belarus, where EcoTechnoPark is situated - at Mariyna Gorka.

The reinforced concrete slab in the shape of Belarus is not just a slab - it is part of an anchor tower foundation elevated above the ground and combined with the first SkyWay passenger station on the planet. Moreover, it is not just a station, but the Museum of history of the creation of SkyWay tracks. It will also contain the list of all those who became co-investors of the project and thanks to whom the project will be implemented. Actually it will be, in stone and bronze, for centuries, an extract from the shareholders register of the group of companies (i.e., those who became the direct investor) at the laying moment of the Zero kilometer. The foundation plate should be powerful and durable, because the top of the station will bear a horizontal force from the strings of nearly a thousand tons. And Belarus here will not let us down.

In the center of the sign there is the Globe and a view of Europe with Belarus in the very center, from where SkyWay tracks will start to walk on the planet. Belarus stands a few millimeters over Europe. You can rub your finger on it for happiness and it will always shine in the sun. This is very symbolic, because Belarus is the home to SkyWay tracks; right here the Zero kilometer and the EcoTechnoPark will be laid.

Any visitor approaching the Zero kilometer will feel with his feet all of the previous history of the SkyWay tracks. Since in the beginning the roads were cobbled and paved with natural stone. Then they began to lay out the processed stone pavers. Only after that came the asphalt and railroad tracks, including those fixed into asphalt (city tram). Although asphalt is known since ancient times and is translated from the Greek like "mountain tar", it has been used on the roads only since the 19th century.

A historical path on the green Belarus to the Zero kilometer is symbolic, too - about the same amount of soil, in percentage terms, conventional roads have buried beneath them. Nothing grows under them, the earth is dead. It does not provide harvest and green plants that do not grow on it, it does not produce oxygen, which is necessary for all of us to breath. Therefore, there are no roads on the green Belarus behind the sign on the surface.

The first real track of SkyWay, its test section starts from the Zero kilometer. First, an urban section, and then, in continuation, a high-speed section of 15 km length. The route will run over Belarus, not taking away a single square meter of soil, as even under the supports soil will be saved, enriched with humus and placed on flat roofs of the SkyWay infrastructure - stations, terminals, depots, buildings and facilities.