How the excavation of the National Center "Russia" is being built over the subway lines

A 15-meter-deep excavation right above the subway trains—how is that even possible?

Yes, it is possible to dig above active tunnels. But only if you’re willing to work at night, squeeze in the two-and-a-half-hour window between the last and first trains, and avoid making a single mistake. That’s exactly what’s happening at the site of the future “Russia” National Center—the former “Expocentre” on Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment. Six tunnels from three lines of the Moscow Metro run beneath the builders’ feet, and all of them are in operation. Above, machinery roars; below, people commute to work. It sounds like the plot of a thriller, but it’s just another Tuesday at this construction site.

Why they dig only at night (and what does surgery have to do with it)

There’s nothing romantic about night shifts—it’s pure necessity. The soil near the tunnels is unpredictable: excessive vibration, uneven pressure, or accidental displacement—and the consequences won’t hit the construction site, but the subway. That’s why the most delicate work—drilling and installing “ground walls”—is carried out strictly during the nighttime construction window.

How it works in practice:

• The last train has left—the crew enters the site

• About 150 minutes in total, scheduled down to the minute

• Once you’ve finished your section, you pack up—no “just five more minutes”

• In the morning, the tunnel returns to normal subway operations

An engineer working on a similar project once compared it to open-heart surgery: the patient is alive, the heart is beating, and you have to do your job carefully without causing harm. The analogy is a bit crude, of course—but it captures the essence perfectly.

The Moskva River, groundwater, and other “joys”

Having the metro right beneath your feet is only half the trouble. The site is practically on the riverbank, and the soil here is saturated with water, like a sponge. Dig a hole—water gushes out. This creates a whole cascade of problems:

• Pressurized groundwater—constantly pushing up from below and hindering normal excavation of the foundation pit

• The proximity of the Moskva River complicates drainage and increases the risk of flooding

• Complex geology—soil layers are unpredictable, requiring constant monitoring

• Restrictions from the metro—you can’t just start drilling whenever it’s convenient

The solution to all these challenges is a “ground wall” along the entire perimeter of the excavation. Roughly speaking, it’s a concrete wall poured directly into the ground. It simultaneously keeps water out, stabilizes the soil, and protects the entire structure from “spreading.” Without it, building here would be, frankly speaking, madness.

A digital twin of the construction site isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a lifesaver

A project of this complexity cannot be managed “on paper” or in the foreman’s head. That is why the entire construction site exists in parallel as a digital model (information modeling technology, or IMT).

What does this actually mean:

• Designers, engineers, and builders all look at the same model—no more “but I was sent an old drawing”

• Data is updated daily—everyone sees the current status of the project

• Inconsistencies between project sections can be caught in advance, before they turn into a disaster on-site

On a project where a single error in the sequence of work forces a complete overhaul of the schedule, this isn’t a luxury—it’s a matter of survival.

So what will ultimately be built here?

Construction began in late March 2026, and here’s what we know about the future building:

A landscaped park is promised around the complex—but we’ll have to wait and see. For now, the main character in this story isn’t the architecture of the future center, but that very excavation pit and the people who descend every night to work on the operational metro, fitting their work into a window shorter than the average movie.