Only one-third of public roads, road companies and organizations in Ukraine are ready for the autumn and winter period.
According to the press service of the State Agency of Automobile Roads of Ukraine (Ukravtodor), with reference to the head of the road operational maintenance and traffic safety Oleh Fedorenko, at present road companies and organizations have only 331,000 tonnes of sand and 40,000 tonnes of technical salt, which accounts for 37 percent and 30 percemt of demand respectively.
“We’ll have enough reserves for the first frost, but according to the norms the reserves should be at least three-fold higher,” he said.
The agency said that road workers only have one month to prepare roads for winter, however the current funding prevents then from accumulating enough salt, friction and lubricant materials on time.
“The shortfall of funds is simply explained: from Hr 2.6 billion foreseen in the national budget for this year the lion’s share (Hr 1.8 billion) was used to eliminating the defects of roads surface,” Ukravtodor said.
According to Fedorenko, since the start of the year road organizations eliminated potholes and cracks on a total area of 4.8 million square meters, which is slightly more than half of the total area affected and costs more than half of funding for the road sector.
