The financing of road maintenance in Ukraine is considerably smaller than in the European Union countries and even in neighboring Belarus; 97% of Ukrainian roads require overhaul, and the financing of road maintenance should be increase by several times to change the situation, Vice Premier Oleksandr Vilkul has said in the article published in the Dzerkalo Tyzhnia. Ukraine weekly on Saturday.
Commenting on the question why Ukraine has bad roads, Vilkul said
that “80% of Ukrainian roads were built in 1960s-1970s. The number of
cars on roads has grown by almost ten times compared to 1960s. Only 37%
of roads have asphaltic concrete or cement concrete surface. Only 1.6%
of Ukrainian roads are first category roads (with two and more traffic
lines in each direction and having the larger traffic capacity and
higher speed limits). Over the past ten years the road network expanded
only by 1% (1,600 kilometers).”
“The main thing that as of early 2013, 97% of roads require overhaul,
according to the current inter-repair periods,” the vice premier
stressed.
He also said that almost 90% of roads do not bear the burdens of modern trucks.
“We have to state the large ‘fatigue’ of Ukrainian roads. At most of
them, the over-project burden has resulted in the damage of not only
surface, but also the foundation,” Vilkul said.
He said that today, $4,800 per kilometer is allocated for financing
of the road economy, and this is a disastrous sum even compared with
Belarus (2.7 times bigger than in Ukraine) and Poland (3.6 times
bigger), not taking into account France and Germany, which earmark 9-10
times bigger sums per kilometer.
“At least UAH 40 billion is required every year to change the
situation and improve the quality of roads, including some UAH 26.5
billion for principal roads, UAH 3.5 billion for local road and around
UAH 10 billion for municipal roads,” he said.
Vilkul said that in 2013, the budget for road construction, reconstruction and maintenance was approved at UAH 16.9 billion.
