Ukraine plans to boost road repair by 50% in 2018 compared with 2017, to 3,000 km, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Kistion has said.
“At the beginning of April, it was ordered to start repair and construction work in order to complete the necessary tasks before the beginning of the next winter. If last year about 2,000 kilometers were repaired, in 2018 we should improve more than 3,000 kilometers of Ukrainian roads,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
He said that the government is waiting a road repair plan for 2018-2020 from the State Automobile Road Agency of Ukraine, also known as Ukravtodor, adding that this year the government provides a record-breaking UAH 45.7 billion for the last three years to update the country’s road infrastructure. In particular, UAH 19 billion is announced for repair of national roads, UAH 11.53 billion for local roads, which are now tackled by regional administrations, UAH 2.5 billion for safety on roads and UAH 3.4 billion for the operation of national roads – lighting, marking, cleaning and other things.
“Today, Volodymyr Groysman instructed Ukravtodor to carry out a large-scale audit of the state of Ukrainian roads, especially those that were repaired in 2017. The quality of repair is top priority for the government. The work must be carried out impeccably, and every hryvnia from the budget must be effectively invested,” the deputy prime minister said.
Groysman said earlier that the plan to finance the road sector for this year is UAH 45.7 billion. Works will be carried out at 218 facilities. Almost 60% of blueprints have been designed. The updated construction standard has been issued, and it must become a table book for road services.
Concession road projects are being prepared synchronously. One of them, according to plan, could be the Krakovets-Lviv road. There is investors’ interest in this project, Ukravtodor said.
The head of government drew attention to the fact that weather conditions do not allow large-scale road works to start, but when the weather becomes warm everything should starting working very quickly.
“This year we will start work in April. We need to deal with all the contractors, with all the services to have them ready,” Groysman said.
In 2017, Ukraine reconstructed and built more than 2,000 km of roads, which is twice as high as in 2016. Road works were conducted on the roads throughout Ukraine. The 2017 road budget exceeded UAH 30 billion.
