Gleb Nikitin took part in the opening of the Shukhov Tower and the "Quantorium" in Vyksa.

      The Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region, Gleb Nikitin, took part in the ceremonial opening of the Shukhov Tower to the general public, which, at the initiative of OMK, was moved from the Vyksa plant grounds to the city center. The event was attended by Anatoly Sedykh, CEO of the United Metallurgical Company, the head of the local administration Vladimir Kochetkov, experts who worked on the project, employees of OMK’s Vyksa plant, and residents of the town.

      The Shukhov hyperboloid tower in Vyksa is one of the few towers built during the lifetime of the brilliant Russian engineer Vladimir Shukhov that have survived to the present day. The tower was assembled in 1933–1934, was part of the water supply system for one of the open-hearth shops of the Vyksa plant, and lost its industrial purpose in the 1970s.

      Gleb Nikitin noted that the issue of moving the Shukhov Tower from the plant grounds to a publicly accessible site had been discussed with Anatoly Sedykh seven years ago in the context of plans for Vyksa’s further development.

      “Shukhov Park is a space that combines both the heritage of all stages of industrial development — from the Batashov brothers to the modern OMK plant — and the most advanced landscaping practices. All of this gives Vyksa a uniqueness not only within Nizhny Novgorod Region but in the country as a whole. People already come here to attend the Vyksa Festival, which showcases contemporary art of an industrial city. But the Shukhov Tower in the park is the cherry on top. Undoubtedly, the project to relocate it from the plant grounds, where it was completely inaccessible, is unique in recent history. The project was very difficult because this is, after all, a cultural heritage object, work on which required approvals from the relevant authorities and the search for technologists and technologies that, unfortunately, had been lost. I am very grateful to our friends and partners for daring to undertake this project, and that it has been completed as such a masterpiece. What we now have overall in Vyksa, I hope, will become a true gem of the tourist sector of Nizhny Novgorod Region,” said Gleb Nikitin.

      At the initiative of Anatoly Sedykh and Irina Sedykh, chair of the board of trustees of the OMK-Participation charitable foundation, the tower was restored and moved from the closed industrial site to the territory of the industrial-tourist center “Shukhov Park,” being created by OMK on the site of the Batashov brothers’ first 18th-century plant. The authentic structural solutions were preserved.

      Preparations for relocating the monument took seven years. Engineers from OMK’s Vyksa plant and the Central Research Institute of Industrial Buildings developed the technology from scratch; the design and estimate documentation received a favorable opinion from the Glavgosexpertiza and approval from the Russian Ministry of Culture.

      “The first idea to move the tower arose 20 years ago, and many experts familiar with the subject were not confident of success. Nevertheless, we took responsibility and set to work. The implementation took seven years, during which we solved a huge number of technical tasks,” Anatoly Sedykh said. “The most important thing is that we unlocked a very simple, yet at the same time very complex, secret of assembling the tower. Today the project has been brilliantly completed: Shukhov’s tower has received a second life, and our experience and developments open the way for moving other similar objects. I am confident our cities and our country will greatly benefit from this.”

      The restoration took 15 months: six months of dismantling, six months of assembly, and eight months of restoration work, with some processes occurring in parallel. The relocation was carried out while preserving the original structural solutions. Engineers used 3D scanning and created a digital model of the object, which ensured high accuracy of assembly: the tower was carefully disassembled into more than 500 elements, these were restored, missing parts were rebuilt by laser cladding of metal, anti-corrosion coating and painting were applied. About 95% of the original metal was preserved.

      After restoration and relocation, the Shukhov Tower retained its status as a cultural heritage object. According to experts, the restoration and relocation of the Vyksa Shukhov Tower is an unprecedented project in modern history and a unique example of preserving Russia’s engineering heritage.

      Along with the appearance of the Shukhov Tower on the territory of the industrial-tourist center “Shukhov Park,” a new Kvantorium opened. Its creation is one of the points of a cooperation agreement on the development of Vyksa, which was signed on June 16, 2023, within the framework of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum by the Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region Gleb Nikitin, Anatoly Sedykh and the head of Vyksa’s local administration Vladimir Kochetkov. The agreement runs for five years and envisages the implementation by 2027 of more than 10 large-scale infrastructure projects, including part of “Shukhov Park” with a museum, the children’s educational center “Kvantorium” and a hotel.

      “Vyksa is a city with healthy ambitions and a desire to develop. And if you want to move forward, the main thing to invest in is, of course, children. In recent years, thanks to Gleb Sergeyevich Nikitin and the United Metallurgical Company, we have invested about five billion rubles in the construction of a number of educational facilities in the municipality, including two schools and six kindergartens. But the key and long-awaited facility for all of us is the Kvantorium. We are consistently building a vertical education system, starting with early career guidance for children already in schools by creating specialized classes, then in the secondary vocational education system, and then at the National University of Science and Technology MISIS. And we were missing exactly a Kvantorium with a metallurgical focus in the system of extracurricular education. The Kvantorium not only inspires admiration, we understand that serious training will be organized there, which will ensure reliable professional preparation of future generations of metallurgists,” said Vladimir Kochetkov.

      The educational center in Vyksa is the first Kvantorium in Russia with a metallurgical focus. The investment volume in its construction amounted to about 850 million rubles, of which 120 million rubles were provided by the government of Nizhny Novgorod Region. Annually, 800 schoolchildren aged 7 to 18 from Vyksa and neighboring districts will be able to study at the Kvantorium for free. “Kvant OMK” offers eight educational directions: six “quantums” (robotics, nanotechnologies, biotechnology, energy, mechanical engineering, fundamentals of metallurgy), a high-tech workshop for project creativity and a chess studio. Initially after opening, classes at the Kvantorium will be held in the format of master classes. Full-scale education will begin in January 2026. Enrollment in educational programs is already underway and will continue until November 2025; more than 600 applications have already been received.

      Recall that the project to build “Shukhov Park” has been implemented in the municipality since 2018. The park is located in the historic center of Vyksa, on the site of the Batashov brothers’ first 18th-century plant. The park has no analogues in the Russian Federation; it will become the main regional center for the preservation of industrial heritage and a center of industrial tourism in the European part of the country for Nizhny Novgorod Region. OMK is implementing the “Shukhov Park” project in partnership with municipal, regional and federal executive authorities. The landscaping has been partially implemented with funds from federal grant programs of the Ministry of Construction and Rostourism. Completion of the construction of “Shukhov Park” is planned for 2029.

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