Dear colleagues!

Dear professors, lectors, employees, students of the Emperor Alexander I St. Petersburg State Transport University!

I sincerely congratulate you on your professional holiday — Construction Worker’s Day!

This holiday is especially important for St. Petersburg, created by the labor of many generations of outstanding architects and builders. A huge role in creating the Northern capital’s architecture known around the world as an «open-air museum» was played by the professors and graduates of PGUPS — our country’s first engineering and transport university.

The organizer and first rector of our University Agustín de Betancourt made an important contribution to solving urban planning problems in St. Petersburg. Thousands of buildings, bridges, piers, numerous highways, railways, airfields were built with the help of PGUPS scientists. Being at the very forefront of technological progress and transport construction has been, is and will be a daily task for us.

Our University was the birthplace of engineering education in Russia, and since the beginning of the 19^th century our scientists and graduates played a key role in the construction and reconstruction of important buildings and structures throughout the country. We stand by this glorious heritage to this day, as evidenced by the commemorative medal «For the construction of the Crimean Bridge», which the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin awarded the employees of PGUPS.

Dear colleagues! On this beautiful day, I wish you good health, continued success, bright achievements, happiness and prosperity.

Rector Alexander Panychev