Vystavochnoye Shosse (Exhibition Highway) is the historical name for a section of the present-day Chkalov Street in the Kanavinsky District of Nizhny Novgorod. The highway was laid in 1896 specifically to connect the city with the site of the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition, and it became the route of the city's first electric railway.[1]
History and Purpose
The strip of land along which the highway ran bordered the lands of the selos of Gordeevka and Molitovka and had previously been used for grazing livestock. For the 16th All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition of 1896, a paved, 900-metre Exhibition Highway was laid here, complete with a drainage system and landscaping, in order to link the city centre with the exhibition grounds.[2] Tram service was organized along the highway; the tracks on this section were thus among the first in Nizhny Novgorod — they appeared in the same year that tram service in the city began.[1][3]
After the exhibition closed, the city authorities laid out a park on its former territory, which subsequently became known as May Day Park. The Exhibition Highway itself was first renamed May 1st Street and then Chkalov Street: the pilot Valery Chkalov had worked in this district and knew the street well.[2]
Significance for Urban Transport
The tram tracks laid along Vystavochnoye Highway in 1896 had been in operation for more than 130 years. In September 2026, OOO Ekologicheskiye Proyekty — a subsidiary of the Corporation for the Development of the Nizhny Novgorod Region — began their complete reconstruction: the contractor is replacing 1.6 km of track (measured as single track) and upgrading the overhead contact network. The main construction and installation work is scheduled to be completed in 2027.[1][4][5] The work is being carried out under a concession agreement concluded by the government of Nizhny Novgorod Region with OOO Ekologicheskiye Proyekty in September 2022 and running until 2047.[3]
Sources
- Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — Reconstruction of tram tracks on Chkalov Street to begin on 12 September
- cgnn.ru — Chkalov Square (intersection of Chkalov Street and Oktyabrskoy Revolyutsii Street) — MBU "NIZHEGORODGRAZHDANPROYEKT" (archive)
- Nizhny Seychas RF — Routes of Nizhny Novgorod trams Nos. 27 and 417A to be shortened
- Zhivyom v Nizhnem — Two tram routes to be shortened due to track repairs in Nizhny Novgorod — Zhivyom v Nizhnem
- Biznes News. Vremya Zarabatyvat — Reconstruction of tram tracks on Chkalov Street in Nizhny Novgorod to begin on 12 September — Business News. Time to Earn
- sergach.life — Reconstruction of tram tracks on Chkalov Street to begin on 10 September