Dam Completed in St. Petersburg

St. Petesburg now protected from floods.

Russia recently completed an old Soviet-era dam complex near St. Petersburg to protect the city from floods. The project was originally started in 1979 but was abandoned and left to ruin after it proved too costly following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The newly completed dam protects the city from potentially devastating damage from flooding. A 4-meter rise in water levels would cost and average $5.29 billion in damage, according to government statistics, and threatens the city's historic center, a UNESCO-listed World Heritage site and home to the 18th-century Hermitage and Winter Palace.

The $3.85 billion steel and concrete dam streches 15.5 miles across the Gulf of Finland and was designed to hold at bay water leves rising up to 5 meters. 

Putin personally ordered the reconstruction of the dam site in 2005, after visiting the site in his home town. Now the completion comes just before parliamentary elections later this year and gives Putin and the leaders a strong achievement in a time when there have been concerns of safety.