Everyone is used to the fact that the Arabat Spit Spit is a magnificent sandy beach of the Azov Sea for vacationers stretching from Genichesk to the village of Strelkovoe
However, among other things, the Arabat arrow is a road connecting the eastern Crimea with the mainland.
The total length of the Arabat Spit is 113 kilometers and the width is from 300 meters to 8 kilometers.
From Genichesk, from where the spit begins, to the village of Strelkovy, a paved road was built in Ukraine.
The two-lane highway along the Arabat Spit was built from concrete slabs removed in the early 90s from the runway of the abandoned Genichesk military airfield.
The length of the road along the Arabat Spit from Genichesk to the village of Strelkovoe is about 30 kilometers.
The rest of the road beyond the village of Strelkovoe towards the Crimea, and this is about 70 kilometers, remained sandy. At least before the start of the war, that was the case.
The sandy part of the road along the Arabat spit is characterized by the fact that under the influence of wind and traffic, sand dunes several centimeters high are formed on its surface.
The road remains passable. However, all components and assemblies of the car during movement experience a load as on a vibration stand.
Perhaps military equipment during such trips is less susceptible to stress when driving along the “washboard” of the Arabat Spit
Due to martial law, the through passage of civilian vehicles along the Arabat Spit is prohibited and the state of the road along the Arabat Spit can only be checked using satellite images.
In any case, the Arabat arrow is a kind of «back door» to the Crimea and an alternative to the road through the Chongarsky bridge and along the isthmus in the Armyansk region.
The movement of vehicles along the Arabat Spit is vulnerable due to the presence of bridges across two straits separating the mainland and the spit
This is the Thin Strait, through which the so-called. the “first” bridge and the Promoina Strait with the “second” bridge. Both Genic Straits connect the Sea of Azov with the Sivash Bay
At the very beginning of the war, the bridge across the Promoina Strait was damaged by a Ukrainian sapper who blew it up with an overhead explosive charge in a car trailer.
The bridge was not completely destroyed, one lane was completely destroyed, on the other traffic with restrictions on carrying capacity continued until the fall of 2022.
In the fall of 2022, the bridge was completely restored.
