Department of Highways and Bridges history

In November 1817 the Real School was opened in Lviv, which in 1846 was reorganized into the Technical Academy with four faculties: Engineering, Architectural, Automobile Construction and Chemistry. By 1873 the Faculty of Engineering was divided into Construction and Engineering Departments. On August 29, 1873, the Department of Road and Waterway Construction was established on the basis of the Engineering Department. Austro-Hungarian government decided to introduce the course of Road and Waterway Management on July 30, 1874. Engineer Joseph Richter (1842-1917) began to hold it.

In October 1877 the government of Austria-Hungary issued the decree, according to which the Polytechnic School was opened on the ground of the Technical Academy. The main attention in the school curriculum was focused on the construction specialities. In 1880, engineer J. Richter earned the title of the Full Professor of Waterway Construction and Engineering. He had given lectures of his course by 1887; from 1880 to 1888 he was the Dean of the Engineering Faculty. In 1892 and in 1899 J. Richter was the Rector of the School.

In 1887 Ludwik Rehets, the Head of the Engineering Department, invited the experienced railway engineer and associate professor Karol Skibinskyy to be a professor; since 1881 he had worked at the Descriptive Geometry Department. Later the Engineering Department was renamed into the Construction of Roads, Railways and Tunnels Department. K. Skibinskyy started to hold a course in Roads Building. On January 9, 1887 he earned the titled of the Full Professor, and in 1889 he headed the Department. It became the beginning of the Highways Department of the Lviv Polytechnic National University history. Karol Skibinskyy had held it until 1909, then he was appointed an adviser on construction issues at the court of Emperor (Kaiser), Joseph I. In 1991 he earned the title of the Honorary Professor. In 1909 the Head of the Department was Karol Vantorek (1875-1944), the Associate Professor and Chief Inspector of construction, who has worked as an assistant at the Bridges Construction Department since 1898. In 1912, he was entitled the Full Professor of the Construction of Roads and Railways Department. K. Vantorek lectured the Construction of Roads course until 1921. After the First World War, the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and when Poland reaffirmed its independence in 1920, Polytechnic School was renamed into Lviv Polytechnic.

In 1919 the Full Professor of the Earthworks, Roads, Streets and Tunnels Construction Department was Anthony Kyubel (1874-1925), who became the Head of the Department instead of Professor K. Vantorek. The next Head of this Department during the next 19 years was Emil Bratko (1878-1944), the Chief of Public Works Road section, the graduate of the Lviv Polytechnic School (1901).

In the post-war period Thaddeus Schubert (1899-1972), the assistant of State Railway Board was appointed the Head of the Department for the next 28 years. He was the first Ph.D. and associate professor of Road Construction Department in the Institute. His follower was Victor Astafiev (1923-1992), who graduated with honors from the Lviv Polytechnic Institute, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War and the transport routes engineer. During six years he was working in different construction organizations, including the Far East. In 1956 he returned to Lviv and began to work as a teacher in Automobile College, and later at the Highways Department. Since July 1971 he was the Head of this Department more than once and he was the Deputy Dean of the Construction Engineering Faculty.

In 1982 the graduate student and the associate professor Bronislaw Usov began to head the Department. After the graduation from the Lviv Polytechnic Institute (1960) he worked on road construction facilities in Rostov and Lviv regions. In 1966 and 1967 he was on internship in Paris at the first European School of Bridges and Roads Construction, where under the direction of Professor Dantiu defended master’s thesis in 1968. In 1968 B. Usov was the professor in the Guinea Polytechnic Institute (Conakry), from 1972 to 1975 — professor, head of the Department, dean of the Higher School of Engineering in Tunis, from 1975 to 1992 — dean of the Construction Engineering Department in Lviv Polytechnic Institute.
Since April 1998 the Department was headed by Roman Livsha, a graduate of Construction Engineering Faculty in Lviv Polytechnic Institute (1967). After graduation he was working in Stryi, and then in 1971 — at the Highways Department. Roman Livsha is a famous expert in the field of deformation of concrete foreseeing and providing the stability of concrete surfacing.

From May 2007 to June 2011 the Department was headed by Sc. D. Miroslav Sanitskyy, who also is Professor and Laureate of the State Prize of Ukraine in Science and Technology. M. Sanitskyy is a well-known specialist in Ukraine and abroad in the chemistry and technology of cement and concrete. He is the author of more than 300 research works, including 6 monographs and more than 25 patents and copyright certificates.

From August 2011 the Department is headed by Professor Serhiy Solodkyy, who in 1980 graduated with honor from the Highways Department in Lviv Polytechnic National University. From 1986 to 1989 he was postgraduate student in the Kiev Construction Engineering Institute; in 1991 he defended his master’s thesis, and in 2009 gained the degree of Sc. D. Serhiy Solodkyy is the author of more than 100 publications, monograph “Stability of concrete on modified cements”, textbook “Modelling and optimization of building composites”, expert in the field of mechanics of concrete breaking and modern technologies of construction and repair of roads.