The opening of the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow was postponed until 2025 – RBC

The opening of the Polytechnic Museum in the capital after the reconstruction was postponed until 2025

The opening of the reconstructed Polytechnic Museum in Moscow, which was supposed to take place at the end of 2021, may be delayed until 2025. The museum has been closed for nine years, and the cost of works during this time has increased by 2.5 times

The contract for the restoration and reconstruction of the Polytechnic Museum in the center of Moscow has been extended until July 1, 2022, follows from the documentation on the public procurement website, which RBC has read. At the same time, the Federal Targeted Investment Program (FAIP; contains information about projects that are being built at the expense of the federal budget) now states that the museum will be opened only in 2025.

The press service of the RBC Polytechnic Museum reported that 2025 is indicated in the FAIP as the maximum opening date for the museum. “We are setting the task of approaching the commissioning date of the facility,” the press service noted, adding that the building will definitely not be opened in 2022. The “extensive exhibition program” in honor of the museum’s 150th anniversary, which is celebrated this year, will be held at other venues, they explained.

With the increase in the period of reconstruction, its cost also increased. The initial contract with Politekhstroy (at that time the company was called Euro Home Building) for contract work, concluded in the fall of 2013, amounted to 7.3 billion rubles. The cost of the current contract has grown to 10.7 billion rubles, of which the contractor completed work for 5.4 billion rubles, according to the documentation on the public procurement website. And the total cost of the work increased to 18.2 billion rubles after the project documentation was changed at the end of 2020, follows from the explanations to the FAIP.

The volume of work on the reconstruction of the building of the Polytechnic Museum turned out to be significantly more than expected, the press service of the museum explains. For example, after changing the documentation in 2020, solutions were added to the project that were not originally intended – new underground floors and a translucent roof over the courtyards appeared. In addition, the museum indicates that due to the pandemic and related restrictions, the pace of work has slowed down, the cost of materials and the wages of workers have increased.